ARTS210 - Acting Out America
St. John Fisher College

Assignment 1 - Spoon River Anthology - Critical Monologue Analysis

For this assignment we are going to be focusing on Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. This is a collection of monologues or epitaths of dead citizens of Spoon River, a small rural community in central Illinois. They are characters who lived and died in the second half of the nineteenth century, and as they molder in their earthen tombs, they spill forth their secrets to the living. Their revelations are not quaint and antiquated: the Spoon River dead speak for all of us, and their secrets are the hidden things that prick at the hearts of each of us. From this collection, we will begin to look at the character: who these people were, who they related to, and what their lives were like in Spoon River.

Refer to the The Definitive Online Edition of the Spoon River Anthology. Or the Text Only Version.

For this assignment choose 10 monologues from the collection. Try to choose pick monologues from different parts of the book (i.e. don't choose just the first ten monologues). According to Masters: "the book was put together in its definitive order... the fools, the drunkards, and the failures came first, the people of one-birth minds got second place, and the heroes and the enlightened spirits came last, a sort of Divine Comedy." So pick some from the begining, some from the middle, some from the end.

Journaling:
After reading each monologue, write a paragraph in your journal about the monologue - impressions, facts, your opinions on the person. Things you can discuss: Did the monologue evoke any feelings in you? Did it anger you? Did it remind you of anyone in your life, or some facet of your own life? Were you bothered by the character's tone or what they spoke of? Did you feel the character had a strong connection to someone else in Spoon River?

For EACH monologue type up the following:

  1. The complete monologue (including the title - the name of the person)
  2. A brief character description. Who is this person? Who was he/she in the town? You may have to search through the other monologues to find out information. (HINT: use the Text Only Version and hit CTRL-F to find other references of that person's name in the rest of the monologues).
  3. Who did this person have an effect on in the town? Did they have any relationships with other citizens? Again, search other monologues for reference to this person. It is possible they had no effect on the rest of the citizens of Spoon River.
  4. Who effected this person? Who do they make reference to in their own monologue, either by name or not? What effect did they have on this person?
  5. What is the tone of this monologue? Is it bitter, sarcastic, angry? Is it reflective of a life well lived or wasted? Is it a revelation about their own life?
  6. Research any historical elements or persons alluded to in the poem and explain these references.

Also include a paragraph about what you can discern about life in Spoon River, just from reading those ten monologues.

From these ten monologues, you will be picking one to further analyze, memorize and perform for the class. This monologue will be chosen next week (making sure no two students are performing the same monologue).

Comments - jbarthelmes@sjfc.edu
Last Modified: 1/9/2009