Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
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Open Access Thesis
Abstract
The beginning of the social season in the summer of 1968 at the Hollisbrook mansion in Ridgeport, New York, was marked by a graduation party for Doyle Hollisbrook, youngest of the small, eastern American family. The action of the play centers on the preparation for the party. Doyle, feeling his graduation lacks personal significance, plans extra honors and exaltations. Eavesdropping on his mother and sister, he learns his achievements are minimized. His response is to carry out his plan to hire actors to support his view that he is prince of Wales. Through the innocent encouragement of his Aunt Abby, Doyle adopts the view that he is descended from royalty. Aunt Abby has only meant to build his flagging self-esteem. Amid bustling to get the party ready, Doyle's Mama eavesdrops herself, hearing Abby and Doyle plan to unveil Doyle's royal connections. Fearing that the party and the summer season will be marred by Doyle's indiscretion, Hollisbrook confronts Abby and threatens Doyle. Mama Throughout the first act Belle Wiggins, an adopted daughter, struggles with her own sense of importance. Doyle's cousin Chaz and his girlfriend Suzy raid the refrigerators of the stores of food for the party. They discuss historical events which place the party in June of1968. Belle, as social director, is called upon to replace the stolen food and to help quell Doyle's plans. Belle Wiggins is a foil to Doyle's grand plans, a contrast to Doyle's alleged royalty. When her parents were killed on the Hollisbrook estate, she was adopted by the Hollisbrook family. As a Black girl and woman in a white, upper-class family, she too searches for her roots. She wants Mama to buy her a nightclub in Chicago to help her to this. Belle and Mama and Abby discuss Doyle and agree that he should not spoil the party. Aunt Abby commissioned a painting of great Aunt Celia and in order to boost the royal image of Doyle, the painting looks surprisingly like Doyle. First she assures Mama the painting has not arrived, and when it does arrive, Belle and Chaz see through the ruse. Just when embarrassment seems improbable, Doyle enters in the Elizabethan costume of a prince. Aunt Abby sees him and rebukes him for being so extravagant. When she impresses him with the importance of more appropriate dress, he tells her there's something more hired actors. He tells her about the Feigning a stroke, Abby then tells Mama about the actors. While away changing, Doyle leaves the estate with the actors. Unable to cancel the party, Belle decides touse royalty as a theme. Chaz seeks to buy off the hired players, but fails. Facing imminent social ruin, Doyle arrives, heavily intoxicated. Belle manages to sober Doyle with coffee and a story about her royal roots. Before being brought to America by a slaver, Belle's ancestors were African royalty. The shipper who brought her here was Doyle's distant great-grand father, Conrad Hollisbrook. Doyle sobers with this realization and changes his plans for the party. By saving the party, Belle has earned her dream of a nightclub in Chicago from Mama. Amid toasts and jibes, Belle quotes Shakespeare's Richard II in a mock lament about, "sad stories of the death of kings." The play is about a prince and a slave, and also about a family in identity crisis. The connection of racism and royalty is pursued lightheartedly, though the reality that anyone, no matter how high, can fall, is an ancient dramatic theme. Rather than be a feudal monarch, Doyle is taught the pleasure of being The Crowning Fool.
Year of Submission
1991
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Department of English Language and Literature
First Advisor
Daniel Cahill
Second Advisor
George Glenn
Third Advisor
Barbara Lounsberry
Date Original
1991
Object Description
1 PDF file (11 leaves)
Copyright
©1991 Robert Henry Fuerste
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Fuerste, Robert Henry, "The Crowning Fool" (1991). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 2703.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/2703
Comments
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