Analysis of The Ending of Jacobs Wake Essay -- Papers

Analysis of The Ending of Jacob's Wake The ending of a play can be one of purpose, one that leaves you with a sense of completion and fulfillment. In the play â€Å"Jacob’s Wake† the ending was, to say the least, odd. I didn’t really get a sense that the ending belonged to the play. The whole time during the play I was waiting for things to turn around in the family, then all of a sudden the ghost came into play. Though I wasn’t much of a fan of the whole play, I did think the ending could have been done a little better. I thought the ending was trying to portray how things were going to be turned around and that the family was going to work together. Having said this, I think the ending that the director said he was going to leave the play at would have been worse. If the play ended where Rose threw the glass at Winston, I would have left the play completely disappointed. Throughout the whole play, it was the same redundant story line where basically family members would argue. I wouldn’t have felt that I had seen the ending if nothing seemed to change. I felt that even though the ending seemed to just come out of the blue, that it did put things together. All of the brothers and the father pulled together to save the ship, which seemed to symbolize how they actually did care about each other, and wanted to change their way of life. I also felt that until the ending the Skipper never really had a meaningful part, yet the play was supposed to revolve around him. The ending, when the S kipper’s ghost appeared, made me feel for the first time in the play that he had an important part. It made me see that he was the head of the family and that he would guide the family. I thought that the ending finally put some meaning... ... see that the only character that was trying to make things better, Brad, was so tormented that he committed suicide. I didn’t leave the play with a sense hat I learned something from it. The play for me just seemed to carry on into this long path of unhappiness. I would have felt better if something, such as the death of Brad, would have changed the characters’ attitudes. Little seemed to make these characters see that they lived in a destructive household. I did not particularly like the ending, but I do think that it was maybe trying to portray what I was hoping to see. At least the ending did have a change of pace for the play, but I thought that it was just too out of place. I think an ending that was a little more defined or true to life would have suited the play better, and left the audience with a better outlook on the play or even life in general.