Book of Days by Lanford Wilson Play Analysis

The page turning murder mystery starts in Dublin, a humble community in Missouri which is confronted with the baffling homicide of Walt, proprietor of the cheese factory, during his hunting trip. Ruth starts to explore the homicide after her husband’s dreams about transforming the plant into a gourmet cheese facility are compromised. To uncover the truth behind the murder, Lanford Wilson leads Ruth through the several themes consisting of religion, deception, and materialistic greed.

Lanford Wilson is trying to convey that religion can suppress freedom and expression. With the use of deception and greed distributed throughout the Book of Days, he can express the evil of religion.  For example, Ruth says “Your counsel is of the devil.” Ruth says this to Reverend Bobby Graves which is related to what Joan stated once before. Ruth believes that Earl is the one that killed Walt. Ruth believes that Walt was killed by Earl because Earl was with Walt during his death as well as the fact that Earl wants to Len’s job and the only way, he can get there is by killing Walt. When Ruth finally speaks her mind at the church, we can see that Wilson is trying to express the fact that Reverend is suppressing and ignoring what Ruth is saying leading to everyone else thinking the same. Another instance of religious corruption is when the Reverend tries to keep James’ adultery under wraps so that James, Walt’s son, does not have to face any repercussions in his career. As the Reverend of a church, you would think that this should be highlighted and addressed but not in Dublin, which is what Wilson is wanting the audience to see. With that being said, Wilson expresses that people with high level of connections can get away with a lot of things while the innocent and under appreciated must suffer due to their greed.  With Ruth finding the true killer of Walt, Len, Ruth’s husband, faces major repercussions. Len’s smart proposal to produce major profit for the cheese plant is threatened. Due to solving the homicide, Len and Ruth are basically cast out. Wilson is once again trying to express the fact that innocent people’s lives are overturned due to things that the wealthy can get away with. We find out that James is the mastermind behind all of this, he is the one that told Earl that he will get a promotion if he kills Walt. James says this as he is overcome with greed to become in control of all his dad’s assets and to further his career. The theme of greed goes hand in hand with religious corruption and deception as the reverend keeps this discreet as others like Ruth and Len are negatively impacted while James moves further up in his career. 

The series of events or the plot is what really brought this play to life and what it made it such a page turner. For example, when Ruth first thought it was a murder or when we found out that James was the true mastermind. The character development was also fantastic. I enjoyed it when Wilson made Len into a somewhat comedic character rather than just a bland and flat husband. The themes that Wilson uses fit perfectly into the play which gave the characters more depth and emotion. The diction that is used when Ruth describes what the Reverend was doing, stuck out more than any other diction, perhaps to emphasize the point Wilson was trying to make. Unfortunately, since we were reading the play, we were not able to experience any music, although Wilson did include several sounds like the gunshot. Also, since we were reading the play, we were not able to pick up on visual aspects of the production other than the imagery supported by the sounds that Wilson included. Convention was used throughout the play as it worked with what the reverend was doing as well as the repetition of the themes I described above. 

Book of Days is a fully realistic play. This is because the play is set in a real town with people going through a regular and believable scenario. Wilson used the church and the cheese factory to set up realism. Wilson uses the corruption of religion and the suppression of the people that comes with it as the object of discussion for social significance in the play. The human significance is the actual discussion of the topic announced in the previous sentence, which is shown by Ruth uncovering the truth about the homicide and the suppression that she receives from the corrupted reverend. Wilson uses the themes of greed, deception, and religious corruption to fuel emotions like anger when Ruth is ignored by the whole community. Wilson also invokes the feeling of mystery and anxiety as we find who the true mastermind is. The entertainment value was very pleasing as the themes, plot and characters led to a thrilling and gripping play. 

I found the play somewhat funny. There were points that provided comedic relief like when Len expresses his love for cheese and starts to cry. There are not a lot of places where Wilson could have added comedy so the potential for it was quite low. Potential for drama was at its maximum with the low amount of action that was in the play. 

Lanford Wilson gracefully used a reeling and continuously intriguing plot, character development, and social and human significance to enforce the themes of deception, corrupted religion, and greed. With the themes and the different components of the play that were greatly emphasized, Wilson was able to convey two messages: tainted religion can suppress freedom and expression and that people with great influence and wealth can get away with a multitude of things while the blameless face consequences.