Characters Discussed
Lady in Red
Lady in Red, the dominant character in this work (she has the largest number of lines). She recites the most violent and emotionally moving poems in the drama, including those that demonstrate the brutality and anguish endured and experienced by African American women. Like all the other characters in the drama, she has a feminist point of view. She recites poems titled “no assistance,” “latent rapists,” “one,” and “a nite with beau willie brown.” In “no assistance,” she berates a lover who has failed to assist her in developing and maintaining a relationship; in “latent rapists,” she points out that rapists often are known to their victims; in “one,” she portrays the image of a glittering seductress who cries herself to sleep after her romantic activities; and in “a nite with beau willie brown,” she tells the story of a crazed Vietnam veteran who throws his children out the window. Her pieces address the major themes of the drama.
Lady in Orange
Lady in Orange, a poet and a dancer. With a feminist outlook, she expresses a love of the arts of poetry, song, and dance in the poems “i’m a poet who” and “no more love poems #1.” The first poem declares that she is a poet who wants to write, sing, and dance but who cannot communicate with people anymore. In the second poem, she declares that she needs love even though the world considers her to be evil and a nag, thereby expounding on a primary theme in the drama, the misunderstanding of women and failures of communication between men and women.
Lady in Yellow
Lady in Yellow, who represents youth and liveliness. She recites “graduation night,” a selection about a fun night of dancing, parties, and lost virginity, and “no more love poems #3,” about the unfortunate dependence of women on sources outside themselves for love. The author uses this poem to affirm the drama’s assertion that strength must be found inside oneself and in the friendship and support of other women.
Lady in Green
Lady in Green, called Sechita, a dancer in a poem that is strong with images of Egyptian royalty and mixed with references to New Orleans “conjurin.” Sechita has performed in many places and has taken her mystical and magical aura along with her sometimes tattered appearance. She recites the lively and amusing poem “somebody almost walked off with alla my stuff,” which affirms the need to find strength within oneself.
Lady in Purple
Lady in Purple, who expresses the need for mutual support and understanding among women in the poem “pyramid.” In “no more love poems #2,” she begs her lover to allow her to love him, furthering the theme of unrequited love found throughout the drama.
Lady in Blue
Lady in Blue, who is given somber pieces, as symbolized by the color she wears. The poem “i used to live in the world” portrays an isolated character trapped by a six-block section of Harlem, her universe, thus demonstrating the tragedy of a woman without supportive female companions. In “sorry,” she points out the uselessness of the word, along with all the ramifications of the word when used as an excuse after inflicting pain on someone. In “no more love poems #3,” she asserts her need for love. These poems demonstrate the tragedy that isolation and pain cause in the lives of black women.
Lady in Brown
Lady in Brown, dressed in a neutral color not of the rainbow. She introduces the choreopoem by reciting the first major poem. She deals with the earthly matters of the world...
(This entire section contains 652 words.)
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that her color denotes through her recitations of “dark phases,” a poem about the pain and misunderstanding that often accompany the youth of black women, and “toussaint,” a piece with historical, social, and cultural significance as well as one denoting the pride that comes from learning about the contributions of black people throughout history.
Characters
Lady in Blue
The lady in blue in "now i love somebody more than" reveals she is of mixed
race (her father believed he was Puerto Rican), speaks some Spanish, and enjoys
dancing "mamba bomba merengue." At sixteen, she fled to meet Willie Colon at a
dance marathon, but when he didn't show up, she realized her love for him
surpassed her love for music. The lady in blue also shares the poem "abortion
cycle #1," which depicts a young woman enduring the harshness of abortion alone
because "nobody knew." Her third piece, "i used to live in the world,"
describes the suffocating confines of "six blocks" in Harlem, where a pretty
girl risks being assaulted. Midway through the poem, the lady in blue
transforms into a man stalking the lady in orange. Finally, she narrates
"sorry," a poem voicing frustration with men's hollow apologies.
Lady in Brown
The performers in for colored girls are not distinct characters but
embody various black female identities in the different poems. However, the
lady in brown begins and concludes the play, and, dressed in the one color
absent from a rainbow, she stands apart from the others. The lady in brown
participates in several poems and recites the poem "toussaint." Her brown
attire may symbolize the black female "everywoman."
Lady in Green
The lady in green performs the dance in the poem "sechita" while the lady in
purple narrates it. Sechita mentally reverses her situation, rising above the
squalid carnival of Natchez, Mississippi, by making her face "immobile," "like
neferetiti," and transforming into an Egyptian goddess "conjurin the spirit" of
the men who toss coins between her legs, rather than letting them control her.
She also delivers the fiery poem "somebody almost walked off wid alia my
stuff," where a woman realizes that by focusing on a man, she allowed herself
to be left "danglin on a string of personal carelessness" and demands the
return of her "calloused feet & quik language" and her "whimsical kiss";
her "stuff."
Lady in Orange
The lady in orange portrays the pursued woman in "i used to live in the world."
In another poem, she defines herself as more than just a "colored girl an evil
woman a bitch a nag," only to find that doing so leaves her without any
identity. She mourns over "bein sorry & colored at the same time/it's so
redundant in the modern world."
lady in purple
The lady in purple starts off as part of a nameless group of women but then
steps forward to narrate the story of Sechita, which is danced by the lady in
green. She later recounts the tale of three friends being courted by a single
man in "pyramid." In "no more love poems #2," she declares, "lemme love you
just like i am/a colored girl/i'm finally bein' real/no longer symmetrical and
impervious to pain," signifying a shift towards embracing black female identity
as it truly is, rather than striving for an unattainable ideal.
lady in red
The lady in red delivers the poem "one," centered on "the passion flower of
southwest los angeles," a "hot" woman and "a deliberate coquette" who lets men
love and sleep with her, only to send them away before dawn. She documents
these encounters in her diary and then cries herself to sleep. Additionally,
she narrates the harrowing tale of Crystal in "a nite with beau willie brown,"
where Willie drops their two children from a fifth-floor window after Crystal
softly tells him she will marry him.
lady in yellow
The lady in yellow narrates the poem "graduation nite" and, in another poem,
states, "bein alive & bein a woman & bein colored is a metaphysical;
dilemma/ i havent conquered yet," encapsulating the core issue of the
choreopoem. Similar to the other performers, the lady in yellow is not a fully
fleshed-out character but rather one voice among many in the collective
experience of black women depicted by Shange.
