Deathwatch (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Jean Genet
- First Published: 1949
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Absurdist
- Time of Work: Unspecified
- Setting: A prison
- Genres: Drama, Absurdist literature
- Subjects: Values, Power, personal or social, Prisoners, Prisons, Crime or criminals, Murder or homicide, Death or dying, Existentialism
- Locales: France
Characters Discussed
Green Eyes, a handsome, twenty-two-year- old, condemned murderer. He is the leader of the cell and revered in the prison for his insidious crime of seducing a girl and then strangling her during sex. His chief rival is a black murderer named Snowball, whom he has secretly befriended and actually admires. Whereas the prisoner Lefranc lauds a black criminal, Snowball, as the god of the prison, Maurice, another cellmate, worships Green Eyes. This creates endless contention between Maurice and Lefranc; twice Green Eyes is forced to pull Lefranc from Maurice’s...
[The entire page is 785 words long]
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