Noises Off Literary Elements

Play within a play

English

The action in the play takes place during present time, on a stage where a theater company is preparing to stage a new play entitled "Nothing On".

Because this is a play, there is no narrator and no point of view. Instead, every character recalls the events from the perspective of a first-person subjective point of view through their direct dialogue.

The tone and mood is an ironic one and at times violent.

There are not protagonists nor antagonists because every character is presented in an ironic and mocking manner. The main idea transmitted through the play is that there are no real heroes and that everyone is looking out only after themselves.

Because this is a play within a play, there are two major conflicts. The conflict in the play "Nothing On" is between reality and perception while in "Noise Off" is between betrayal and loyalty.

The romantic conflict in "Nothing On" foreshadows the affair described in the second act of the play.

The first act of the play describes a person walking through the audience and distributing pamphlets with information about a play called "Nothing On". This foreshadows the structure of a play within a play which will be present in "Noise Off".

We find an understatement in the preface where the reader and the viewer are told he will experience one play. This is an understatement because in reality, "Noise Off" is composed out of two plays.

One of the main allusions in the play is the idea that reality is subjective and that realty depends on the person who is interpreting it. Because of this, we have multiple points of view in the play to represent different ways of interpreting reality.

One of the most important images described in the play is that of the house where the actions in the play "Nothing On" take place. This image is the one with the most details in the play and it has the purpose of transmitting the idea of artifice.

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A parallel can be drawn between the characters in the two plays presented here. This parallelism has the purpose of transmitting the idea that literature can at times be more real than reality and that, because of this, literature has a great value which has to be explored.

We have a personification in the line "and the doors stood ajar on their own".

The main dramatic device used in the play is the stage directions. Through them, it is easier to pinpoint where "Noise Off" ends and where "Nothing On" begins.