A disaster
Almost no one was surprised to see the actors of the Laurel Players fail. To be honest, they all expected that. That was why it was a great relief to leave the hall. “Anxious, round-eyed, two by two, they looked and moved as if a calm and orderly escape from this place”. What was more, “they wouldn’t be able to begin to live at all until they were out beyond the rumbling pink billows of exhaust and the crunching gravel of this parking lot”. This imagery showed how much embarrassed and disappointed the audience was, how difficult it was for them to watch how their neighbors, friends or even relatives were making fools of themselves on the stage.
An expressive face
Frank Wheeler’s face was not extremely handsome. Although it lacked “structural distinction”, it “did have an unusual mobility”. It could “suggest wholly different personalities with each flickering change of expression”. When he smiled while watching the play, he was “a man who knew perfectly well that the failure of an amateur play was nothing to worry about, a kindly, witty man who would have exactly the right words of comfort for his wife backstage”. But, “in the interval between his smiles, when he shouldered ahead through the crowd”, one could see “the faint chronic fever of bewilderment in his eyes, it seemed more that he himself was in need of comforting”. This imagery helps a reader to understand what kind of a man Frank is. He could pretend that everything is fine and under his control but the truth is that he needs his wife’s support more that she needs his.
An unexpected turn of events
Back then, when Frank and April were not married, they were equally fond of each other. April was “a girl whose every glance and gesture could make his throat fill with longing”. So, one could easily imagine his initial shock when he found out that glamorous, beautiful and cheerful young woman could dissolve and change “into graceless, suffering creature whose existence he tried every day of his life to deny but whom he knew as well and as painfully as he knew himself”. This imagery creates an easy feeling of pity and illustrates transformation of a young and ambitious woman into a broken housewife.
