Portrayal of Characters in ‘master Harold'...And the Boys

In the play ‘‘Master Harold'...and the boys", some of the characters are being portrayed by the fact that they are not heard, or even seen throughout the entire story. Portrayals aren't accurate assumptions on which these characters in reality are. Two of those characters are Hilda, and Hally's mother. Hilda is Willie's dance partner for the ballroom dancing championships, which for a few says has not came to practice with Willie. The way we come to know Hilda is through the portrayal of her through how the characters describe her throughout the play. The same with Hally's mother, she is not seen nor heard. We can only describe her through the brief acknowledgements of her actions throughout the play. An example is through the phone calls she makes to Hally; one can only listen to Hally's words, the way his tone changes within the conversation, and see where the conversation are headed towards, and on grounds of that, portraying her as someone which se probably is not is lightly to be possible. In this paper, the ways in which these characters are portrayed is compared and contrasted with each other.

Hilda, in many ways are portrayed as being afraid of Willie, Willie creates this portrayal through in a discussion with Sam. He admits at giving her frequent "hidings" and the way he almost turns angry when he says that displays their relationship. Early in the play we learn that she has not been coming to practice with Willie due to a "hiding" he gave her the past Sunday. All attitudes towards her from Willie in that context leads to the assumption that she is not coming to practice because she fears him, or that he takes the joy out of something that is suppose to be fun. The assumption, due to the lack of actual presence of Hilda, and not being able to witness that character's opinion and personality, is in reality not accurate but a portrayal of her. Later in the play, when Hally's mother phones him, the same kind of relationship