A Rat’s Mass (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Adrienne Kennedy
- First Published: 1968
- Type of Work: Play
- Type of Plot: Surrealism
- Time of Work: The 1960’s
- Setting: A house called “Rat’s Chapel”
- Genres: Drama
- Subjects: African Americans
- Locales: United States
Characters Discussed
Brother Rat, also known as Blake, who is in conflict between his need to protect his sister and his love for Rosemary. He believes that he and Sister Rat are damned unless Rosemary saves them. A light black man with a human body but the head and the tail of a rat, Blake wants to return to the innocent time before, at Rosemary’s urging, he copulated with his sister on the playground slide to prove his love for Rosemary. His sister’s dead child and her return from a mental institution, as well as the secrecy that both have promised on Rosemary’s Holy...
[The entire page is 1050 words long]
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