"The Sound of a Voice"

Hello, this is henry here.

I have been pondering the play "The Sound of a Voice" and I have come up with a few ideas.

The man is trying to forge an identity for himself.  He wants to be a strong, independent, manly character.  He doesn’t like it when the woman tries to take care of him because he can’t be independent.  In many areas the woman’s strength, skill or wisdom is superior to the man’s.  This contradicts the image that the man is trying to create for himself.  When the woman takes the man’s sword away because she is afraid he will hurt himself, the man finally feels that he has been defeated; the woman took away part of his independence and now the man feels he is in serious danger of being peacefully imprisoned.  He comes to overpower and defeat a witch, but finds himself powerless against the woman’s attempts to care for him. He ultimately feels he must “leave in shame” because he is neither able to defeat the woman, nor relinquish his strong, independent identity.

What the woman wants in the play is to have a human companion to be with and care for.  She wants “an escape” from the cycle of visitors coming, staying for a while, and then leaving forever.

What the man wants is to be strong and independent.  Later in the play this is complicated by the fact that he grows to care for the woman.  He has an internal struggle between his natural desire to shape his identity, and his desire to be with the woman.

At the end of the play, the man is put into the woman’s place.  Since the woman is now dead, he is alone.  He tries to play the Shakuhachi to relieve his loneliness.  I believe that he will take the woman’s place and become the one longing for the sound of a voice.  This cycle will continue indefinitely.