Dinner With Friends - Essay Example

The play presents to the audience characters at various levels of life (Margulies 7). The play portrays Beth as an emotional character whose emotions seem to drive her life. Since she is an antithesis to Karen, she does not understand the art of cooking. She concentrates on her immense emotions instead of her coherent thoughts. She does not initiate persuasive communication with her husband, which leads her husband to be untrustworthy to her. Communication becomes crucial to couples as this character depicts (Margulies 13).

Beth’s character of exploitation is evident at the first scene, as she seems to look to Karen on various occasions. At the first scene, Karen and Gabe returns from their visit to Italy and passes by Beth’s place. After cooking dinner, they narrate stories to Beth who feigns her concentration. She cannot hide her emotions, as her friends recognize her emotions from her appearance in the face (Margulies 17). She eventually cries. This scene depicts her emotional trait, which she is not capable of hiding.

At another encounter, her husband, comes in late and finds that Beth told their friends of the breakup. After an argument, she is not able to control her emotions leading her to slap Tom in the cheek. These scenes depict Beth’s character. Her emotions throughout the play occur by her facial expression. The physique of Beth is such that she has black long hair with white face (Margulies 21). She has a middle height and normal weight. She is at her forties in terms of her age. Though she presented her husband as the problem in their relationship, her behavior made Tom make the decision of leaving her.

She failed to care for her spouse. In the play, Tom informs Gabe of Beth’s failure to make love with him a situation that led Tom to seek those needs elsewhere (Margulies 22). Beth is an insensitive character because she does not easily understand why Tom intends to divorce her. From Tom’s narration of the reasons for