Throughout the play there were many events at which every main character came into question on their acts of doing is lacking moral. The question of who out of the four of them lacking the most morals is hard because they all commented acts making them seem no better than one another.
To agree as to how is at fault isn't so easy because the purpose behind Eve's action is different than of Adam's. By the end of the play I looked at my immoral act list and Eve was the one who encountered more immoral acts than anyone else. While she calms she has actually never committed any real wrong because she never forced him and therefore it was all Adam and not her responsibility. However she did act on by deceiving and setting up a relationship based on an illusion which is no better. She changed Adam at first harmless by making small healthier changes to later more permanent and dramatic life changes such as cosmetics and dropping his friends which is hard to undo. She said he had the opportunity to leave whenever but she showed more interest in Adam whenever he did what she wanted.
Looking back on Adam, he has done bad thing such as lie and cheat to his friends and furthermore to Eve. Regardless of what Eve's purpose was for being with Adam, at the time being of when these acts were committed Adam had no outside motives other than his own desire to cheat and lie. So Adam's actions was placed upon himself and was not manipulated to go and be unfaithful to Eve and drop his friends. His responsibility to be faithful and true was on him and he acted on it which makes him no better than Eve over all in the play.
The most reasonable conclusion to make of who out of the main four characters lack most moral would be Eve. Reason why Eve is more immoral is because her argument that her influence on Adam was as harmless as the influence our parents and tv commercials put on us. The difference between your family and tv commercials influencing you verse how Eve "only influenced" adam to do stuff is the change in the type of relationship you have between those people who try to influence you. Eve crossed the line for allowing a situation of trust to be created for Adam in becoming more inclined to her actions without a second thought. When in a relationship you are creating a non verbal agreement to treat each other fairly and with best intentions. While it she wasn't the one to start it she did have intentions of having a relationship happen for all the wrong reasons. And by not taking initiative to correct adam that she isn't in a relationship with him, by not saying nothing at all say something in itself.
YOu mention Eve creates "a situation of trust." I don't know how you can make someone trust you. Adam doesn't bother to get to know her--if he'd actually asked real questions and asked to meet her parents, etc., the game would have been up.
ReplyDeleteThe irony in all of this is Eve didn't try to get Adam to do drugs or rob a bank or quit school. She altered him to fit society's idea of beauty. The "damage" she did wasn't damage at all, unless you count the hurt feelings. But all relationships involve hurt feelings at some point.
But it is troubling that Eve could be so detached from hurting Adam so badly because she wanted to make great art and was uncompromising in trying to make it (not interested in the "Ethic of Caring").
Any way, I hope we can agree Labute's play is great art--it is uncomfortable, makes us think, and brings to light something that beneath the surface. I think the strong female character is an added bonus. I suspect if Eve was a guy and Adam was a girl, we'd take less issue with the manipulation that went on.