Transparent Honesty In Patricia Burke Brogan's Requiem Of Love

The Power of transparent honesty in Dialogue The monologue “Requiem of love” by Patricia Burke Brogan indulges in various elements to make the story more impactful to the audience. The author uses music, props, setting and mimicry of other characters to make the monologue more animated. It begins at a slow repetitive pace, but then once the momentum picks up, it drives the story intentionally as one reads. It is a rainy night, the day before Good Friday, and John O’Kelly is seen talking to his wife’s grave. He sees flashes a car’s headlights and he immediately hides behind a monument. He had been so bold in mimicking and ridiculing the McAllisters, his wife’s family, but once a sense of life arises, he trembles in fear. Is he more comfortable

Unfortunately the road he had chosen could not lead him anywhere but eventually back to where it all began. He had been in a very tight situation with no one but a homeless man on his side. “Charlie Mahony remembered that I gave him cigarettes that night, when I walked on Tra Gheal. He was my alibi. But I knew that the police would never believe Charlie’s word against the word of that Duignan witch” (Brogan pg.20). Neighbors are supposed to be helpful and friendly to one another, but this was not the case in the O’Kelly’s neighborhood. This is a representation of how flawed some societal structures can be depending on the values and lifestyles of those included in it. Instead of helping him clear his name, his neighbors only amplified his misery by gossiping.

Using methods such as escapism or other means in order to remove ourselves from misery. John had chosen to use alcohol as one method of forgetting his sorrows, but it only dug him deeper underground. “At first whiskey helped me forget the nightmare, - Dulled the pain. Too much if that poison – I was a prisoner again, again and again – to whiskey” (Brogan pg.20). The very thing he had run to for help, had in return granted him more pain.

For a stage interpretation to this work, it would require a lot more than the actor just reciting the lines. The mimicking seems to be the main driving force for the play’s theme. So the actor would have to change his voice, tone and mannerisms to fully embody each character that he