Genre
Historical fiction
Setting and Context
In 1938 Germany following violence against Jewish people and in the modern day as the play's main character, Eva/Evelyn looks back on her life
Narrator and Point of View
The play is told from the perspective of an unnamed third-person narrator.
Tone and Mood
The play is reflective, solemn, distressing, alarming, judgemental, and violent.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Evelyn is the play's protagonist; the Nazis are the play's antagonists.
Major Conflict
Evelyn struggles to reconcile her past as a Jewish girl who lived through the Nazis and her life in the United Kingdom with her present life in which she has taken up a new name and started to live a new life.
Climax
When Evelyn reveals to the audience and to her daughter that she is, in fact, Eva.
Foreshadowing
Evelyn's true identity as Eva is foreshadowed by some of the loving and personal language she used to describe Eva's childhood.
Understatement
The extent of the betrayal that Evelyn's daughter feels when her mother reveals her true history is understated for the first three-quarters of the play.
Allusions
The play is full of allusions to the history of World War II, particularly the history of Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Holocaust. There are also allusions to the geography and culture of Europe and to popular culture.
Imagery
As Evelyn's struggle with her religion intensifies, Jewish-related religious imagery (like the Star of David) becomes more common.
Paradox
Evelyn had no say in her journey to and new life in the United Kingdom but blamed herself for her new life and for surviving the Holocaust when her family did not.
Parallelism
Not applicable.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
London is a metonym for the capital of the United Kingdom and the seat of the government of the U.K.
Personification
The kindertransport program is portrayed as a human-like, living thing.
