The Dear Departed

By Stanley Houghton

About The Author Stanley Houghton

Born - February 22, 1881 England Died - December 10, 1913 Age - 32 Occupation - Playwright (William) Stanley Houghton (22 February 1881- 10 December 1913) was an English playwright.He was a prominent member, together with Allan Monkhouse and Harold Brighouse, of a group known as the Manchester School of dramatists. His best known play is Hindle Wakes.

Stanley Early Life

Stanley Houghton was born at 1 Amy Villas, Sdoveston Road, Ashton-upon-Mersey, Sale, which was then in Cheshire, the only son of John Hartley Houghton, a cotton merchant, and Lucy Mary nee Darbyshire. Houghton was educated at Bowdon College and at Manchester Grammar School. In 1905-06 he was an unpaid drama critic for the Manchrster City News and between 1905 and 1913 he contributed articles, thatrical notices and literary reviews to the Manchester Guardian. He also wrote a number of unpublished

Career Of The Author

Houghtons first productions were The Intrigues at the Athenaeum Society, Manchester on 19 October 1906, The Reckoning at the Queens Theatre, London on 22 July 1907, and The Dear Departed at the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester on 2 November 1908. Other plays to receive their premieres at the Gaiety were Independent Means on 30 August 1909, The Younger Genration on 21 November 1910, The Masters of the House on 26 September 1910, and Fancy-Free on 6 November 1911.a

Introduction

Characters Sister MRS. SLATER MRS. JORDAN Their HENRY SLATER BEN JORDAN A girl of ten VICTORIA SLATER Grandfather ABEL MERRYWEATHER

Mrs. Slaters Personality

Greedy Overpowering/dominating Blunt/ Straight Talking Impolite Insensitive

Theme Of The Poem

Today the most of the grandparents in India are not aware about their children .They dont know that they can reach that bounding which they never even dreamt of. In this story the two sisters are in a sense greedy sought of persons .The incident which highlights this scene is when their grandfather is died & these greedy persons try to own the property of their grandfather. Also they were jealous of each other which created a type of fight between them which made them enemies of each other. Some situations cause a person to leave their home and todays generation is like that but we should in any case never