If we regard the artists as toasters we can say that they also differ in their outlook and no doubt that their personality is various but nevertheless, just like the toasters, they are incapable of producing anything that is outstanding. If you put these works on a "plate-, you could not make a difference between them either, because they all lack originality "in form and taste."".
Either in Seduced or in True West the setting is quite absurd-like: the stage is quite bare and in both cases plants play a significant role. In Seduced the two palm trees function as the trees in Waiting for Godot; these are the only realistic things in the play, which reinforce the barrenness and lifelessness of the stage. We can also draw a parallel between True West and the famous Beckett play, since by the end. the plants die in both dramas.
Both playwrights are interested in the question of rivalry. A good example for this is Journey and True West, where we can see the duel of Jamie and Edmund, Austin and Lee. The jealousy of artists of the other's success is embedded in another kind of traditional conflict - the rivalry of brothers. In the case of the O'Neill drama the collision is of one-way nature - Jamie is jealous of Edmund's success:.
JAMIE. You're an overgrown kid! Mama's baby and Papa's pet! The family White Hope! You've been getting a swelled head lately. About nothing! About a few poems in a hick town newspaper! Hell, I used to write better stuff for the lit magazine in college! You better wake up! [ ] You let hick town boobs flatter you with bunk about your future (52).
In True West both brothers are jealous of the other, so they struggle quite hard to step into the place of the other. As it is stated on the truewestbroadway-site:.
In truth, the brothers actually envy one another - straight-laced Austin yearns to live on the edge; Lee covets the stable life of a highly paid writer. Their quest to diverge from their lifestyles results in a developmental stalemate.
