God Of Carnage

In Yazmin Reza's God of Carnage we see Reza toy with themes of civility, creating a comedy of manners that completely lacks manners. Reza takes it a step further than just removing manners. She illustrates the deconstruction of manners and grapples with the pretenses under which we are polite within society. This play is the demolition of taught human behavior. It leaves us to our own devices. It reverts back to a child like state of immaturity with a group of characters that all want so desperately to be taken seriously as adults. In this way it almost harkens back to a modern, grown up version of William Goulding's Lord of the Flies, but on a smaller scale. They share a central dramatic conflict. In this essay I will argue that the central

They themselves know these to be guises, yet they insist on presenting this as their truest form of self. This comes with a level of pretension that is either put on or a result of social class. Veronica is displaying very ostentatious behavior in the beginning. The play is set in her home and thus she is given the opportunity to even the playing field through intimidation. The mask she is wearing is one of culture and a refined lifestyle. She boasts of her parenting style and paints her family as unique or high functioning, saying they are “eccentric enough to believe in the soothing powers of culture” (14). This display of feigned superiority in culture has the ironic effect of making Veronica seem distasteful when perhaps she does actually have an affinity for fine art. The childishness seeps through in that she cannot grasp that this comes across as a blatant grab at appearing civil. Even in her wording of this statement. She implies that a family's belief “in the soothing powers of culture” is something “eccentric.” Meaning she believes this to be unique and something that sets her apart. The average family is below her for not putting the same stress on culture as she does. This is because the average family is subject to the same education systems and this is something she thinks herself superior