English & Literature

Who is "Open House" - Aretha, Blanca, Anglor, Charles, Miss Faith from The America Play, and Other Works and what is their importance?

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Aretha is a nanny/housekeeper sort of character, assigned the responsibility of taking care of Blanca and Anglor who, in the play's early scenes, are little children but then mature into financially and socially ambitious adults, eager to distance themselves from Aretha, who represents their past, undesirable in both personal and metaphoric terms. Charles, whose name suggests that he is part of the tradition that saw black slaves named after their white owners, is a dominating patriarchal figure, as controlling and dismissive of Aretha as his apparent children, Blanca and Anglor. The ironically named Miss Faith supports the hope and ambitions of Blanca and Anglor at the same time as she suppresses, and in some ways disables, the hope and/or faith in Aretha.