Characters Discussed
Sarah
Sarah, also referred to as Negro, a student and poet who has retreated to the room that contains her treasures. She is a pale black woman who wants either to deny her black heritage or to die. Wearing black clothes and an executioner’s rope, Sarah has masses of frizzy hair, one clump of which she carries with her, but only blood for facial features. She verbalizes the internal conflict between her ancestries as a trap from which she cannot extricate herself despite surrounding herself with white friends to guard against recognition of her black birthright. Sarah sees her father as God but cannot reconcile his rape of her with her image of him as Christ and believes that she split her father’s head with the ebony mask. Sarah’s “funnyhouse” is the only safe place she knows, and her “selves” are the only ones with whom she interacts lovingly, but they are deceptions. Finally, her father overcomes her, and Sarah is found hanging in her room.
Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Lumumba, also called Man and Wally, one of Sarah’s selves. He sees himself not as the murdered savior of the black race but as a now-crucified Judas who has betrayed mother, wife, and child. A large black man with a shattered head, Lumumba has no identifiable face; the area of his face is covered by blood and skull fragments. He carries an ebony mask. Like Sarah, Patrice Lumumba wants to barricade himself with friends and externals against his black heritage. He is Sarah’s father, who raped her mother because she would not voluntarily consummate the marriage. Lumumba, although in conflict between his guilt and fear and his need to fulfill his mother’s expectations of him as a savior, pleads with Sarah to accept him and to help him save their race. Sarah’s escape to her mother exacerbates the denial of her African ancestry. Sarah’s father has died violently but continues to return. He appears to embody the part of Sarah that relates to the time she spent with her family in Africa.
Duchess of Hapsburg
Duchess of Hapsburg, one of Sarah’s selves, mirrored by both Victoria Regina and Jesus. She empathizes with Sarah’s fear and challenges the father’s right to return. The duchess reinforces Sarah’s belief in her room as a safe place. Concealed behind an alabaster facial mask, she carries a red paper bag of her kinky hair and futilely attempts to return it to her head while simultaneously reflecting Sarah’s need for Raymond to hide her so that she can escape the suffering of her father’s world. Failing to resolve the conflict, the duchess, hanging from a chandelier and decapitated, is discovered by an impotent Jesus. She is the female embodiment of white European tradition.
Queen Victoria Regina
Queen Victoria Regina, one of Sarah’s selves, who denies her place in the black world she believes to be evil. In facial appearance, she is a twin to the duchess. Queen Victoria is dressed in a royal but poor-quality white satin gown. The queen is interested in the motivations behind events. With understanding, she unmasks pieces of Sarah’s essence for the duchess and for Sarah herself. Ultimately powerless, Victoria Regina represents the repulsiveness of a white-distorted reality, and she witnesses Sarah’s death.
Raymond
Raymond, the Funnyhouse Man, a tall, anorexic-looking Jewish poet dressed in black. He initially displays a dispassionate attitude toward Sarah, whom he sees as a sadistic, suffering liar. He opens and closes the blinds in Sarah’s bedroom just as he opens and closes insights into her life. Raymond first states that her father shot himself but contradicts himself...
(This entire section contains 939 words.)
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after Sarah’s suicide with the statement that Sarah’s father is “married to a white whore” and living as Sarah’s selves have fantasized. Raymond has the insane laugh of a funnyhouse greeter. He may be Sarah’s boyfriend. He appeals to the part of Sarah that denies her African American background.
Sarah’s Landlady
Sarah’s Landlady, called the Funnyhouse Lady, whose real name is Mrs. Conrad, a lanky white busybody who increases her own sense of importance by revealing intimacies about Sarah such as details of her hair loss when traumatized and of her father’s suicide. The Funnyhouse Lady also has the insight to know, however, that Sarah sees only her room and her own perceptions as truth and that she has defined the rest of the world as “they.” Mrs. Conrad responds with false sympathy and genuine hostility to Sarah’s suicide. The landlady’s identifying characteristic is the inappropriate laugh of an insane funnyhouse greeter.
Jesus
Jesus, one of Sarah’s selves. He reinforces her internal conflict by being caught between the white mother and the black father. An impotent, hunchbacked, pale Negroid dwarf, he carries a red paper bag containing his hair. Jesus, betrayed by his own spiritual belief system and his need to deny being black, decides to kill Lumumba in the name of white royalty because God cannot be his father if his father is black. He is the embodiment of Sarah’s religious background.
The Mother
The Mother, Sarah’s mother. Once symbolized by a dove but now consumed by rage because of her rape by a man she loved, Sarah’s mother mumbles and sleepwalks in a white nightgown while she holds a bald head. She is bald, has been institutionalized, and has died because she allowed a black man to touch her. Even though Sarah shows her constant devotion, her mother denies Sarah’s existence because Sarah is black.
Landlady
Last Updated September 10, 2024.
The Landlady, a white woman, manages the boarding house where Sarah resides. She often comments on the events and Sarah's life, providing essential context on the unfolding situation. She believes Sarah has secluded herself in her room ever since the assassination of Patrice Lumumba and her father's suicide in a Harlem hotel.
The Landlady also mentions that Sarah's hair has fallen out due to her anguish. She provides background information about Sarah's father and recalls moments when he attempted to reconcile with his daughter. Ultimately, it is the Landlady who discovers that Sarah has taken her own life.
Patrice Lumumba
Last Updated September 10, 2024.
Patrice Lumumba represents one of Sarah’s inner personas. He appears as a black man with a head that is split in two, and his eyes contain blood and tissue. He holds an ebony mask.
Patrice appears to symbolize Sarah’s father, even though he uses the very same words that Sarah employs to describe herself. Additionally, he brings forth the theme of self-hatred within the play. Similar to all the inner personas, Patrice is bald.
Raymond
Last Updated September 10, 2024.
Raymond, a Jewish poet, resides in the rooming house above Sarah. She refers to him as a boyfriend who has a keen interest in African Americans.
At the conclusion of the play, Raymond is there when the Landlady finds out that Sarah has taken her own life. He tells the Landlady that Sarah’s father is actually a doctor who is married to a white woman. Contrary to previous beliefs, it appears that Sarah’s father never committed suicide.
Sarah
Last Updated September 10, 2024.
Sarah is the main character of the play, portrayed on stage by four of her inner personas: Queen Victoria, the Duchess of Hapsburg, Jesus, and Patrice Lumumba.
Among the various versions of her "reality," only a few facts are certain. Sarah is the child of an interracial marriage; her mother is white, and her father is African-American. She studied English at a college in New York City, writes poetry, and works as a librarian. Sarah resides in a brownstone rooming house in New York City.
Sarah's main issue revolves around racial identity and related concerns. She is torn about her heritage, particularly in relation to her father. By the conclusion of the play, it becomes evident that Sarah has taken her own life.
Uncertain aspects include her true relationship with Raymond, who also lives in the rooming house. It is ambiguous whether they were romantically involved. Additionally, there is uncertainty about whether she was born in Africa and if her mother was committed to a mental institution. Sarah's internal struggles are central to the play.
Other Characters
Last Updated September 10, 2024.
Mrs. ConradSee Landlady
Duchess of Hapsburg
The Duchess is one of Sarah’s inner personas, arguably the closest to her true
nature. She embodies the part of Sarah’s subconscious that harbors racist
tendencies. She blames her father for her mother’s demise. Like all the inner
selves, she has nearly lost all of her hair.
Funnyhouse LadySee Landlady
Funnyhouse ManSee Raymond
Jesus
One of Sarah’s inner personas, Jesus is depicted as a hunchbacked dwarf with
yellow skin. Sarah portrays him as Queen Victoria’s son. He shares the Duchess
of Hapsburg’s contempt for Sarah’s father. Jesus decides to hunt down and kill
Patrice Lumumba. Like the other inner selves, he too has lost almost all of his
hair.
ManSee Patrice Lumumba
The NegroSee Sarah
Queen Victoria Regina
Queen Victoria is another of Sarah’s inner personas; she bears a striking
resemblance to the Duchess of Hapsburg. Sarah describes her as Jesus's mother
and recounts how Sarah’s father searched for her. Like the other inner selves,
Queen Victoria also loses most of her hair throughout the play.