What is the Meaning of `Sure Thing`? Essay Example

decorum and the socially facilitated barriers of formal discourse:It is important to note that Betty's line that she is "expecting somebody" reveal the first overt emotional reference of the play but that the emotion is still a function of personal defensiveness and serves to inhibit rather than encourage further interaction. The dual progression demonstrated by these two opening scenes: one a movement toward emotion and toward interpersonal communication, the other a simultaneous movement toward defensiveness and isolation exemplify the progression of dual themes that persist right through to the end of the play.By the time Bill and Betty have made a demonstrable connection -- one that the audience can at least belive may be genuine, there is still no change in the outer formality of the dialogue and its simultaneously evasive and self-protective function.

More than learning to truly reach one another or truly communicate, the characters can be understood to have reached a mutual understand of permissable superficiality. A sample of the closing dialogue shows that Ives intends the ambiguity of the perception of the charatcers' true connection and emotional response to function, in fact, as a way of expressing two themes simultaneously which contradict one another but are nevertheless apparent throughout actual human society:In conclusion, Ives intended "Sure Thing" to express a dual theme: that human both incapable of reaching a state of true connection and communication but they are equally incapable of escaping the constant drive to seek just such a connection and relationship. In this way, the device of scene-repetition in the play is able to express to seemingly contradictory themes simultaneously in order to more fully represent the actual state

of human relationships in the modern world.