There are two mirrors in Topdog/Underdog: the Lincoln/Booth mirror and the
con-game mirror. The Lincoln and
Booth mirror is quite obvious. The
two main characters share names with two people from one of the most famous
American assassinations. The
audience should be able to catch onto this mirror easily. Parks even emphasizes the mirror by
making Lincoln’s job be an Abraham Lincoln impersonator. In the end, this mirror is the most
apparent because Booth kills Lincoln.
The
con-game mirror is a little harder to pinpoint. The game mirrors the fake President Lincoln assassination
that Lincoln acts out for his job.
Both the game and the performance are supposed to seem like honest
things, but they are both just tricks.
In Three-Card Monte, the dealer and his helper set up a strategy or a
type of performance that tricks the audience into believing what they are doing
is truthful. This mirrors
Lincoln’s job because he is tricking people into thinking they are actually
killing him. The customers know
they aren’t really killing him, but it does not make his job honest. These two things mirror each other
because they are coming off as honest, even though they are just tricks in
disguise.
I
think both of these mirrors are in the play to emphasize the idea of
honesty. Lincoln wants an honest
job, while Booth wants to stick with games of trickery to earn money. Parks is constantly drawing the
audience back to that theme of honesty.
The mirrors play a big part in presenting that theme.
I never thought about Lincoln's actual job also being a trick like the 3-card game. Interesting view point. I thought the job as being more of his attempt to live more of an honest life.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s interesting how you connect these two mirrors through the theme of honesty. At first, I didn’t think about the connection in those exact terms. As you point out, Lincoln wants an honest job but is eventually pulled back into dishonesty. It’s a little amusing how “Honest Abe” isn’t so honest after all.
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