Entertaining Mr Sloane

"Entertaining Mr Sloane"

How is Ed both a comically absurd and brutal character? But how does Orton make us feel sympathetic towards him?

Max Steinberg

Joe Orton makes Ed a very complex character and we can see this when he is first introduced into the play. He enters and the first thing that he says to Kemp is "Go on, get out of it afore I kicks you". This is a very disrespectful and rude way to speak to anyone let alone your father and although we later come to realise that Kemp effectively disowned Ed, we still feel that this is a very brutal way of talking to Kemp.

We then see Ed talking to Kath and immediately realise that Ed is harsh and controlling towards her as well. He treats Kath in a condescending way. The first conversation we see between Ed and Kath involves Ed practically interrogating her. He asks her a serious of questions like "What's this I heard about you?" and "Who told you to take in lodgers?". These questions are said in a very aggressive manner as if he feels that Kath should have explained herself earlier and we can clearly see that Ed likes to control conversations in a forceful manner. We can see that Ed is very demanding towards Kath as well. Whilst interrogating her he uses a lot of imperatives such as "Don't lie to me" and "Go and fetch him" and he orders her to do as he wishes. I think that he feels that Kath is beneath him in terms of importance and throughout a lot of the play he treats her as if she were second class. He also insults her, calling her "No good" and a "crafty tart": most people would never talk about their sister in this way and the fact that he does shows that he is a naturally brutal character.

This mistreatment of Kath extends to all women and we can clearly see that he is a misogynist. Ed calls women "half witted tarts" and this suggests that he has no value for women whether as companions or as sexual partners. Misogyny is a very strong word and it means a deep rooted hatred towards women. So we can see that there must be something to trigger this hatred and then we find out about Tommy. Ed had a romantic relationship with his friend Tommy but Tommy was a bi-sexual and he ended up making Kath pregnant, which, of course, made Ed incredibly angry about Kath taking Tommy away. This anger was partly because he was incredibly jealous and jealousy leads to envy and then in-turn spite. This could be a reason why Ed hates women so much. As a result of this anger, Ed forced Kath to give up her baby and, because of such great social pressure, she agreed. This shows how selfish a character Ed is: because he Ð''lost the fight' for Tommy he makes Kath suffer her whole life knowing that there is her baby out in the world that she can't see or own. Ed also burnt a love letter and a treasured photo of Tommy that Kath had kept and this shows how cold hearted he is.

Another example of Ed's selfishness comes at the very end when he compromises with Kath about Sloane. At the beginning he is incredibly self-interested and wants to keep Sloane for himself but then realizes that he has to "make a compromise". But then he is still the one who comes out on top of the compromise because he gets to keep Sloane "for the first half of the year" whilst Kath has to wait 6 months. He only cares about himself and how much time he gets with Sloane. Ed even discusses the situation with the agreement to Kath without Sloane and this shows he does not care what Sloane wants but what he wants. Orton does a clever thing by linking this to the story of Persephone and we have an illusion where he parodies this story where Hadies kidnaps Persephone and she has to spend half the year with him and the other half she gets to share with her mother. This reference is backed up by the fact that March is the Ð''changeover' time. Ed fits the character of Hadies because he is so aggressive and brutal and is forcing Sloane to do something which he doesn't want to. There is a slight sense of poetic justice with the fact that Sloane is forced into this because he has to pay some sort of penalty for Kemp's death Ð'- the fact that he has to stay with Ed is reminiscent of a different type of prison that he has to go to.

As we now have another love triangle Ed tries, in the course of the play to turn Sloane against Kath. Ed makes many references to male camaraderie and about how Ed tries to rub off his misogynistic views onto Sloane. Ed claims that "Women are like banks, boy, breaking and entering is a crime". We can see how Ed is trying to convince Sloane that women are not right for him and that he should not get attracted to Kath. He also disapproves of Sloane's friends who are either married or have girlfriends. When Sloane mentions that his friend is married Ed replies: "can't you do better than that". Again, we see Ed regarding women as lower class citizens and the fact that he feels that Sloane can possibly better his company by not being with them shows that he feels that women are below men and Sloane in particular.

When Kemp dies Ed is very un-sensitive about the situation and he is more upset with the fact that his illusion of Sloane is broken than the fact that Kemp is dead. The immediate reaction of Ed after Kemps death is to go to Sloane and accuse him of "abusing my trust". This shows that Ed didn't at all care for his father and there is something sinister inside you if you do not show emotion for your father dying. Even if people were in the same situation that Ed was in with his father it is no explanation as to why he feels no emotion towards the occurrence.

As well as being a brutal, selfish character, there are elements of Ed which are completely absurd, which provides comic effects for the audience. Orton introduces this idea very early on in the play. When Ed walks into the house and talks to Kath he demands that Sloane should leave immediately by saying "I don't want men hanging around", however, his opposition to Sloane staying comes to an abrupt end when he sees Sloane. This is obviously because he is someway attracted to Sloane and therefore could see this being the beginning of a relationship. The immediate change of his mind is so absurd that it can be quite funny in the sense that as soon as he sees Sloane he is awed. It is almost like a Ð''jaw-dropping' moment when someone sees something that they really desire.

In the conversation where he meets Sloane for the first time, some of the subjects that are brought up are very coarse and this provides another