Poquette has a bachelor's degree in English and specializes in writing about literature. In the following essay, Poquette discusses how Lawrence and Lee use changes in dialogue and plot to slowly darken the tone of their play.

When The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail begins, the play is very lighthearted, and many of Henry's lines are designed to elicit laughs in other characters or the audience. By the end of the play, however, when Henry has his gritty nightmare, humor is replaced by a grim sense of purpose. This change is not abrupt. Rather, over the course of the story, Lawrence and Lee use shifts in Henry's dialogue and the events in his life to induce a gradually darker tone into the play.

In the beginning of the play, Henry is very sarcastic, expressing all sorts of witticisms on various topics. When his mother tells Henry he...