A Semiotic Analysis of ?The Secret Rapture? A Play by David Hare

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Tadeusz Kowzan’s sign systems can assist to explain how theatre can develop meaning, as in ‘The Secret Rapture.’ In Act I, Scene I, in the opening stage directions the curtain comes up on nearly comprehensive darkness. This relates to the play’s dark and foreboding nature and the theme of death.

Marion’s silhouette seems at the doorway which is repeated later on in the play when Irwin visits Isobel in the last showdown when he murders her. Marion enters the scene and is described as wearing a enterprise suit, this makes her appear each and every inch the power shouldered Iron Lady. This provides a contrast with Isobel who is causally dressed in a shirt and blue jeans. Isobel’s clothes are primarily blue, which is a significant colour. Later on in the play when Isobel wears a blue coat it represents the Virgin Mary which hyperlinks in with Isobel as an allegory of Christ. There is one more binary opposition amongst Marion and Isobel, Marion is dark haired and Isobel is younger and blonder, so consequently Marion could be linked to evil compared to her sister who is noticed as purer and really innocent. The truth that Isobel is in the dark is significant it shows that she embraces and identifies with death. Even so, it also shows that the globe is dark right after her Father died.

The bedroom represents Robert’s influence on the property and 1960’s values ‘panelled, gloomy, dark, old fashioned. It is totally tidy…’ This emphasises the tips of tradition and order, tips that when Robert has died, turn into withdrawn due to the fact the complete household is positioned into chaos. Another sign technique that is substantial is voice inflection, in that there is a contrast among Marion’s screaming and shouting ‘My God!’ to Isobel’s softer, quieter tone, ‘I essential some peace.’ Marion is a lot more emotional and exclaims far more ‘For God’s sake.’ ‘Oh, this is awful,’ Which reveals her feelings towards the predicament she is nervous, she hesitates and pauses usually and even admits she finds it hard to ’strike the proper attitude.’ Whereas Isobel is very calm and employs straightforward words to express herself. She is really nostalgic and speaks about her Dad in his final moments, ’I’m confident Dad didn’t mind…’ 
Movement is considerable in ’The Secret Rapture’ for instance Marion moves really awkwardly and gingerly and she keeps her distance from both Robert’s body and Isobel, whereas Isobel is close to the physique of her Father revealing a powerful bond in between her and her Father and she is quite quiet and still. There is also lots of awkward silences in between the sisters.

An object of significance in the opening scene is the ring that Marion bought for her Father, Marion desires it back but she feels really awkward asking to take it. She desires it due to the fact it is important and she does not want Katherine to market it off. Nonetheless Marion is extremely greedy and concerned with materialism, but she is concerned with materialism, but she is concerned that Isobel will believe that she is selfish ‘I know when I took it just now, it should have looked bad.’ The ring symbolises the adore Marion had for her Father but now that he has died it doesn’t genuinely imply anything.

The two Marion and Isobel have distinct views on death, Marion finds it tough, Isobel talks about it in terms of spirit: ‘There’s in fact a second when you see the spirit depart from the physique.’ David Hare explains, “In ‘The Secret Rapture,’ I attempted to write a play in which death is present. I just was quite conscious that we do not proceed on a line towards death and that the image is that we reside our lives and then at the end death is waiting for us, whereas if you get into middle age, which I am, then you become conscious that death is in every little thing.” The play presents the consciousness of death as an choice to a non-spiritual, materialistic society.

Matt Wolf, a theatre critic declared that the play was ‘directly inspired by the decade old economic and moral climate of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain.’ The 1980’s in David Hare’s Britain is viewed as a period of greed, conservative politics and middle-class social policies. In the play, Marion French belongs to Britain’s conservative party, led by Margaret Thatcher who was a robust and sometimes controversial leader. Marion represents what Simon Jenkins describes as, ‘The familiar images of the 1980’s: the yuppie, black-suited, hair cropped quick, mobile phone clamped to his ear, loads of money…totem of a busy, transient, ruthlessly individualistic, go-obtaining age.’

The idea of expanding businesses was common in the 1980’s in which every person was joining the ‘gravy train’ making as considerably dollars as possible. This is evident in the play with the choice to let Tom’s firm to overtake Isobel’s firm. The play shows how the ‘economic base’ was altering in the 1980’s and the way this was affecting the good quality of people’s lives and their values. It exposes the thought of false ideology in the imaginary representation of the genuine circumstances of existence which is shown in Tom’s proof of the takeover, ‘our motives are great. We transpire to believe in you.’ The play does not deal with the widening gap among the rich middle class and the poor functioning class which was a important characteristic of the 1980’s.

In ‘The Secret Rapture’ there is a series of central thematic conflicts and issues. Isobel and Marion have opposing worth systems Marion represents the values of Thatcherism and Isobel represents the values of the 1960’s because of her intense relationship with her Father. She wants creativity not profit and this represents an ideological conflict linked to rivalry among the sisters, Marion’s materialism versus Isobel’s spirituality. As David Hare says, “I’ve found myself drawn a lot more and more to feeling that there is something which isn’t what we have been conditioned by. If a writer doesn’t have a sense of the other, by which I mean spirit or soul, I do not want to know.’

David Hare needed to show the predicament of goodness in a materialistic world, “I desired to display how goodness can bring out the worst in all of us.” Simply because of Isobel’s enjoy and loyalty for her father she allows Katherine and the other individuals in the play to take benefit of her, she is giving above energy to folks who are really manipulative and will destroy the world she has designed. In a sense she has a want for martyrdom, she has sacrificed herself to evil, as David Hare explains “It had struck me how less virtuous men and women frequently feel that the very good are criticising them for their failing when, in fact, all they are actually listening to is the stirrings of their very own troubled conscience.”

The play is essentially symbolic of the character, Isobel Glass. She has a literal identity as a grieving daughter and an abused caretaker for her stepmother Katherine. But she also has an abstract identity, via her words and actions she resembles a saint figure who lives a pure life. On the other hand, Tom and Marion are two deceptive individuals they represent the energy hungry and the self-righteous respectively. 
The play draws parallels between Isobel and the life of Christ. From the finish of scene two, her life parallels that of Christ. She knows that Katherine is out destroy her nonetheless she ought to do ’What Dad would have wished.’ Isobel’s thought of really like is quite Christian, whereas Irwin has a quite selfish concept of really like and his adore turns to sexual violence. Isobel’s response associates her with Christ ’Hold my heart in your hand.’

‘The Secret Rapture,’ has more powerful female characters than male characters. This emphasises the concept in the 1980’s of feminism and the changing part of ladies. It shows that the males are weak nonetheless Katherine represents a prostitute figure who has been saved by Robert which shows human values to be based on much more than 1980’s values of social and material accomplishment. There are various responses to the relationship amongst Katherine and Robert, Marion claims that ’An old man was taken for a ride,’ whereas Isobel has a more romanticised view, ’The great thing is to love.’

When asked about the play’s curious title, David Hare replied, “In Catholic theology, the secret rapture is the moment when the Nun will grow to be the bride of Christ: so it implies death, or adore of death.” Nuns a lot like saints, face their deaths soon after a lifetime of sacrifice.

To conclude, In ‘The Secret Rapture,’ David Hare presents a piece that by no means breaks down into melodrama, yet forces the reader and viewers alike to rethink suggestions of faith in goodness and in all religions, spiritual and material.