D'Amour, Detroit

There are a few examples of ambiguity in “D’Amour, Detroit”. The mystery of why Sharon dreams about Ben, and not her own man is one example of ambiguity. Mary is clearly disturbed by it, but remains quiet. Another example of ambiguity is the mystery of where Mary gets her seemingly expensive and foreign foods for the dinner parties. Ben even questions Mary about the caviar when she mentions having it. 

I’m not so sure that dramatic irony occurs in this play. The entire time that the play was going, I learned new things as the characters learned new things. For example, I didn’t know that Ben wasn’t actually working on his website in his spare time. Apparently, neither did the rest of the characters. 

There are a few stand-out reality checks that occur in this play. For instance, Ben announces that after seven weeks of pretending to work on his website, he has nothing to show for it. He even confesses that he does not want to start his business anymore. Mary is shell-shocked while Kenny and Sharon see it as a positive thing. ANother instance where a reality check occurs is when Sharon confesses to Mary of her slip up of drug usage. Mary is surprised because she thought Sharon was doing so well with her recovery.

 The most important element of the three, I’d say, would be the reality checks. I say this because the reality checks break whatever truth we initially believed, and replaces it with the actual truth. For example, Kenny and Sharon come across as more sane and together than Mary and Ben, at first. Then, it seems that these two couples interacting with each other brings the bad out of all characters. We are broken out of seeing Kenny and Sharon as clean, sane people. This also occurs for the characters. Mary and Ben were blinded by their new neighbors, and acted as erratic and irrational as them. In the end, they lost their house due to the foolishness fueled by Kenny and Sharon. Their perception and reality of the odd couple comes crashing down after they learn the truth from Frank.