Detailed Character Analysis for Hally, Sam, and Willie - Essay Example

We learn about Willie through what Sam says to him concerning his dance partner: “You hit her too much. One day she’s going to leave you for good” (7). From this, we can gather that Willie does not like to admit his mistakes, as Sam had to draw the information out of him that Willie had beaten his dancing partner, Hilda. Willie also likes to blame others for his problems: “Before that I use to be happy. And is you and Miriam who bring me to Hilda and say here’s partner for you” (37).

We can see that Willie can’t take responsibility for his own actions and takes his frustrations out on others, but we can see how he learned this type of response from the way he’s been treated and seeing how others around him react. Willie functions as a foil to Hally. We can see the same kind of reactions in Willie as we see in Hally. The difference is that Hally thinks of himself as superior to Willie when he really does the same things as that Willie does. This is one reason that Willie isn’t as well developed as the other two characters; he has served his function.

We already have one main character that treats people poorly, but Willie functions as the character that highlights Hally’s hypocrisy, and so we don’t need to know that much else about Willie. As previously mentioned, the main portion of the play takes place in conversations between Sam and Hally. Hally is a young, white, school age boy that has picked up his attitudes towards Sam and Willie, the servants, from his parents. It extends further than just how he degrades them when he’s angry at them; it includes how he feels superior to them as revealed in his everyday speech with them: “Act your bloody age…Cut out the nonsense now and get on with your work.

And you too, Sam. Stop fooling around” (13). Even though the boy is does not earn the best grades in school, he considers himself intellectually superior to Sam and feels the need to instruct him: “Tolstoy may