Three characters in particular take advantage of the fact that society celebrates and values innocence in, “The Bad Seed.”
First there is the obvious evil character of Rhoda. Rhoda is the cruelest person in the play, but ironically she is given the sweetest and most innocent image. Perhaps the more awful you truly are the harder you must work to uphold an outstandingly clean appearance. Rhoda, an 8 year old girl, is described as, “the most satisfactory pupil [her] school has ever had. She’s never been absent. She’s never been tardy….And she’s the neatest little girl I’ve ever encountered,” by Miss Fern, the school master. She is also described as wearing perfect cloths which she never spoils and having a smile that, “ought to be patented.” Beneath all of her prim curtseys and proper manners that society blindly adores, however, she is usually scheming and plotting the demise of another who is actually more innocent than she.
Leroy is the second character that caught my eye. Leroy’s innocent image is accomplished by acts of stupidity. Usually, society views and accepts dumb people as being more innocent than the smart, conniving ones. Monica describes Leroy as a lowly janitor who has, “the mind of an 8 year old….” However, beneath his innocent guise Leroy is actually one of the smartest people in the play. Leroy is the one who figures out Rhoda’s guilt first. But because of his assumed retardation Leroy is left alone, presumed too unintelligible to possess more than a simple, innocent soul. I think Leroy was Rhoda’s fiercest competitor in the battle of wits.
Finally, the third character, Mrs. Penmark, took advantage of society’s celebration of innocence to hide her awful heritage. Mrs. Penmark, adopted daughter of Richard Bravo and biological daughter of a serial killer, always had a haunting nag in the back of her mind that she was descended from evil. To try to counter-act her bad blood I think Christine Penmark subconsciously did all that she possibly could to behave as perfectly and innocently as possible. She was the perfect daughter, wife and mother and she had a good conscious and good morals. Despite her pristine character Christine was too foolish to make sure her evil daughter died before she commit suicide. Unfortunately this play seems to portray the fact that the truly innocent people are often times less intelligent than the non-innocents.
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3 comments:
I agree with what you said about the 2 most conniving characters in the play looking the most innocent. I also have similar thoughts about the character Christine in this story. I, too, think that she tried her whole life to conform to society's idea of "innocence" by being the perfect housewife, mother, daughter, hostess, etc. I feel that the author reveals to the reader that innocence is all surface- is anyone ever as innocent as they seem?
I enjoyed how you picked Christine as a character who you thought was innocent. I guess when I was condiering innocent, I was thinking less about those who we might think as guilty, and more of those who are child-lke. You state that you think the truly innocent characters are portrayed as less intelligent, however I think that if anything those characters that we consider innocent just do a nice job of fooling us.
I completely agree with your feelings on Leroy. I think that he was very perceptive to the evil that was in Rhoda, as he stated in the play: they both see through each other. I found it interesting how the surrounding characters perceive Rhoda and Leroy to be very different then they actually are. All of the characters think that Rhoda is sweet, innocent, and the perfect child. They also believe that Leroy is uneducated and practically mentally retarded, even though he is probably the most perceptive person in the entire play.
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