Alright, so, todays presentation will be done by me, and it is on Whos afraid of

the working class? Which was a collaborative work, written by four different
authors, however, today I will be focusing on the Money storyline, which is
written by Patricia Cornelius. This story follows the paths of an incredibly poor
family who have to go to certain extremes to try and obtain money, as before long
they realized they had run out of people to borrow from in order to pay for things
like mortgage, which is what the initial argument is about, but also they need the
money to pay for more simple things, like transport or choicy food. The family has
almost literally no income.
For claritys sake, in this presentation I have renamed some of the characters,
because I cant remember if they were named on stage, and the text labels them
as things like man woman grandmother man and it can get confusing. In this
first scene we have the man and father, Ive called Robert, the woman and
mother, I have named Lyanna, and their teenage son, the texts names Daniel.
Initially, they are pettily debating how they are going to deal with the fact that
they have no money, a few suggestions are made like whats hinted at
prostitution, (which comes up again at the end) but Daniel seems to strongly
dislike this idea, as she is his wife, and claims to deep down love her and want
her. Im trying. He says. I dont like it anymore than you do. Or the other idea to
move to a small flat they can rent, which in his mind half the money would come
from selling the house would be his. Legally anyway. Or technically, I dont know.
This idea, she does not like because the house is technically hers, and she would
be renting and not have it be hers. So they sit at a stale mate. Soon enough,
Daniel comes in and complains that he has no pocket money and wants some. But
Robert tells him that there isnt any and if he wants some he can go out
somewhere and find some himself. However, he responds by saying there isnt
any. Which is a very true fact. (Something Ill get to later) But he continues to
pester, until Lyanna cracks and goes to find her purse, which she assumes, has
roughly $700 in. Though, somehow the supposed seven hundred dollars is
missing. This is where we learn the true nature of our characters here. Robert
claims it couldnt have been him, as he didnt even know she had the money and
that it indeed wasnt him (uh more on this later) And that they should instead
look at Daniel, who had coincidentally stolen money before. However, he truly
and honestly shouts that it was not him, but his mother doesnt seem to really
believe him. This family is almost like the epitome of the never to be employed
underclass, as not one of the three characters has any sort of income, and not one
is too likely to be getting one either.
What this scene strongly shows is not only how truly important money is to
everyone that isnt a hermit living in the Alaskan mountains taking abandoned
busses as shelter people but also our characters attitudes about the matter.
Lyanna is just trying to figure out who took her money, and the only two people
could have been the two other men in the house. The blame, as I said, went to
Daniel however, as I also said he truthfully said it was not him. Not me mum, not
me. Believe me, I know, Ive taken it before but not this time, I didnt do it. Both
of these, honest acts. Robert on the other hand
Not only about this matter in particular but the nature of the characters in general
is set up to be further explained. See, the next scene is of Robert on a train on is
way to a job interview? (The text says hes on his way to a job, but that literally
goes against everything. That the character is) And he meets Girl who I have
named Linda, now, Linda is presumably from a wealthy family, or may do odd
jobs to earn her way. Either way, she does not have a job, but is quite content
about this fact. She dislikes the fact that Robert is looking at her, even though she
sat in front of him. He makes up this silly excuse and she comes up with silly
assumptions, but then he begins to attack her trying to act like the elegant polite
guy who will suffer no foul language, but instead of doing this chivalrously he calls
her stupid and cheap, and expands by stating how she looks so skimpy and will

never get a job like that. He continues attacking her in attempt to illicit some kind
of emotional reaction, to, as I see it make just put himself in some kind of higher
position of power or authority which he doesnt normally have, and soon discovers
she doesnt work, and mocks her for not pursing a job and says that she deep
down does have some hopes and dreams that someday she will be randomly
famous. He keeps pushing the matter and mocking her fantasy quite
unnecessarily until she does give a slight emotional response then he tries to say
that maybe dreams do come true and that maybe she will make it and be the girl
of her dreams. But when he says this, it seems really out of place, which makes
me think that hes actually talking to himself. In the sense of, saying the words to
her but actually trying to believe them for himself. That maybe HE will make it.
See, this whole time he is the poorer man who has literally nothing. *COUGH* but
Linda clearly has some money, which in the context of this play and well pretty
true to real life, gives her more class and by extension; power. This comes to light
mostly with her confidence and calm state, she does get annoyed, but beyond
that barely much. When she tries to move seat, she kicks Roberts empty
briefcase and makes the connection that he doesnt have a job either.
Immediately, Robert gets incredibly defensive and spits back that he does indeed
have a fucking job. Taking her position of power, Linda turns the whole
conversation around by mirroring what he said to her. Look at the way youre
dressed, look at your hair she mocks back Id never hire you for a job however,
Robert insists that he does have one. To prove this he pulls out a wad of seven
hundred dollars, explaining How would I have this, if I didnt have a job? but to
answer this question, as you may have inferred he would have it because he stole
it from his wife, Lyanna. See, this is what money has done to Robert, its made
him a dishonest man, or money is just a way of depicting this fact. He would lie,
blame his son and steal from his wife, just to keep up his image of not being poor
and having some class. This coincidentally parallels another story line Dream
Town, written by Melissa Reeves, where two girls Katina and Trisha steal school
uniforms to appear and act rich. Linda although has no formal job is content with
her life, and doesnt care about her image so much, well not her physical image.
But Robert would do anything to keep his up.
This shows the attitudes between someone who is presumably middle-working
class and fits those standards. Who is completely fine with who she is, to someone
who is literally below working class. Who is spiteful and ashamed.
The next scene follows Daniel, who is breaking into an elderly womans house
This elderly woman I have named Felicity, or Flick. When we last saw him, he was
honestly refuting his involvement with the missing money. Which means that he
still doesnt have any, and still want some. So in order to get some he breaks into
a house he thinks is completely empty, in hopes of getting some extra coin. But
lo, and behold, we meet Flick, the old woman of the house Daniel accidentally
stumbles upon. At first, the sweet little old lady thinks that Daniel is her son,
Jimmy. The grandma is clearly quite poor too, well in a monetary sense. She has
three dollars total, and it seems, and is implied that she has no power because
she cant pay her bills. After realizing someone is in her house, Felicity starts to
believe that its her grandson, who she offers such kindness to. At first offering
food then money, theres a part where she says Im your mother and youre my
son quite insistently, which makes me think shes sort of realized that Daniel isnt
Jimmy, but is trying to convince herself otherwise, possibly because shes quite
very lonely. Nonetheless, Daniel continues trying to steal from her until his
mother is mentioned. Grandma believing again that he is Jimmy.
At first, when Daniel states that he has a mum and she saw her, Felicity freaks
and thinks her grandson had figured out the truth, she cries and admits her
almost life long secret and lie to who she thinks is her grandson. This bothers
Daniel as hes actually a pretty honest guy. He admitted to having taken money

before, and even when he came here to rob this innocent old lady hes quite
upfront and honest about his intentions even though his a robber, she even says,
You need the money you said that theres no deceit, no greed. Felicity on the
other hand, who we see (and who probably is) quite a nice woman shows she has
a truly dishonest side. Which makes it quite funny when the two are discussing
the morals of the situation. Its clear that with making the lie, Felicity had good
intentions, claiming his mother was a single woman who could not be of much
help and that she felt that she would be better at raising Jimmy. Honest and good
intentions I suppose but done in quite a bad way. Fliks surface level honesty and
kindness begins to chip away at Daniel making him feel even worse about his
situation. She tries to justify his own unkindness, You need the money she says,
but not directly to Jimmy, which is incredibly true as there is no money. She goes
on to say how Daniel is a good and smart and lovely boy, which again Daniel
disagrees with, convinced that hes a loser. Something she disagrees with. She
fixes him with compliments, tries to be of more help and after awhile it becomes
clear that she realizes that he isnt her grandson, but that seems to not matter.
It seems, the grandma cares about being helpful to someone and making them
happy, because doing this makes her happy and thats whats important to her.
Has been all her life, which we find out in the Jimmy backstory she gives. Deep
down, Daniel cares too, he even offers her help and assistance before he leaves.
This scene goes to show again, a different perspective on the situation. Where
there is no money, the focus isnt money but instead happiness. But for Daniel
and his father, money and the image is more important than good relations and
company. This scene truly begs the question, who is morally right? Thats a
subjective opinion and could be taken many ways, I think and there are many
perspectives and angles to look at it from. But again, its funny. A thief having
better basic morals about lying than the person hes breaking into.
Finally we have the final monologue which is from Lyannas point of view. Back in
the first scene we are riddled with where she got the money and how. In this
scene, we find out. After helping a stranger, Haviland, home, who she initially
thinks is a drunk. She takes him into his bed and pays him $200. Not just for
helping him and assisting him, but for her company. She takes the money but
feels so guilty about it. She tries to justify it to herself, but he did offer it to her,
she did him a good turn. But she still feels so guilty, which is kind of strange. As
we can clearly see from the first scene that not only does she desperately need
the money, but also, that she seems to be somewhat honest. The guilt she feels
here shows that quite clearly. Another thing that she desires thats missing in her
heart is affection, which she craves and wants from Havilland. Which she fulfills by
sleeping with him, (but no in out in out, though she would if she could) Which is
an answer to the first scene where her and Robert discuss not having affection for
each other anymore. Havilland, who is a slightly richer man than the rest has a
similar perspective on money and such than Flick did in the scene earlier. He
prefers good times and smiles over simple monetary value. It seems he has
enough money, (which puts him in a higher class than Lyanna) but cares little for
it and prefers affection and company. Something Lyanna feels as well, as she does
hesitate and feel bad about accepting the money, even though it is the perfect
amount to pay her mortgage with. Even though, I thought it was seven hundred?
It seems what Lyannas character wants most is not just financial stability, but
also the opportunity to love.
And thus wraps up the play. From scene one we have taken these base characters
from a sub working class house hold and explored them fully through and saw
what the lack of money has done to them, how it has changed them. Robert is
and always has been a cunt about it trying to keep up his image and will do
anything for that, Daniel is kind of just trying to make his way, honestly breaking
into houses for his fix. Lyanna is somewhat honestly (although not faithfully) just
trying to keep her life going as securely as she can make it.

Living in the underclass you have limited choices, but some of the choices you
can make is what matters to you most, money or relationships. Coin or good
feelings. To be spiteful or caring. Often times it makes no difference, but
sometimes on the off chance it does and can. The contrast between the slightly
different social classes in, Robert and Linda, between Daniel and Flik and between
Lyanna and Havilland (and the characters perspective and opinion on it) are well
enough depicted to where we as the audience can see through the situations and
see the characters as people, not as sub working class scum. 1