So I was going to do this blog after reading The Skin of Our Teeth for the second time, but had been sick all day and just decided to go to sleep last night. I enjoyed The Skin of Our Teeth the second time around and took more from it then I did the first time. But like Dr. Sexson said in his article, reading Joyce, and perhaps even this play by Wilder, is not about the destination or any particular discoveries it is about the journey itself.
The three connections that I wanted to blog about between Finnegans Wake and The Skin of Our Teeth are as follows:
1. Obviously the Myth of the Eternal Return is in both. From the last line in Finnegans Wake returning to begin the first, and Sabina's last line matching her first. Also the theme of destruction and rebirth that continues throughout the work including, the iceberg, flood and impending war.
2. Throughout both works there is a mixing of reality and fantasy. In Joyce it is the dream-like state that his Book of the Night takes place in, and Wilder's continually changing ideas of time and place throughout the work the audience is never quite sure where they are.
3. Lastly the families in both works in a sense mirror each other. Mother, Father, Daughter and the two sons (Well that is before Cain killed Abel!).
The above poster is one of the original productions directed by Elia Kazan.
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