Andres J.

Perez Nuñez 007975862

Scorched

The final scene, “the voice of antient times”, including the letters is the strongest scene for

the characters and things will never be the same after this. We start with Alphonse telling

Janine that Simon, just as their mother, was silent. This prepares the viewer or reader for

what is to come. Making an allegory to Nawal´s silence and creating irony with the fact

that Simon was the one who rejected her the most. This part, externally, also makes the

viewers to get intrigued of what happened or of what Simon discovered. Internally, in the

play, t makes the other characters question their search for the lost father and brother. In

Alphonse´s words “Maybe we pushed too hard to discover the truth”. (1) We continue with

Simon asking Janine about a mathematical theory. Janine explains it and while she is doing

so, she realizes that what Chamseddine was true about their original names and that they

were the product of a sad raping story. The purpose of this dialogues is to create tension

and starts an uncanny build. This helps with storytelling and makes the viewer feel that the

climax is coming but since there is a lot of mystery, created by the fact that the characters

do not say anything and just remain silent and amazed at the same time, it is hard to tell

when.

Janine stops talking, she already knows what happens here. They are both now their

mother. Chamseddine starts talking again but more for the viewer to understand because,

again, they already know what happened. They elongate this scene with a little story of

Chamseddine in which he tells the twins that he knew their father and brother but they

were broken and mad. With this story is how the audience understands that the Father is

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that character from a couple of scenes ago, the one who killed without hesitation, that

one character which the public already though had to be something with Janine´s family.

This is a treat for the audience because generally, a good story involves the audience and

thinks on how they will react. This piece, plays with that, giving a reward to the audience

to elevate their emotion making them think “Look. I was right.” Making them feel

comfortable with the situation just for releasing the bomb after that and creating a

dramatic change on people’s mind.

“No. Your brother didn’t work with your father. Your brother is your father.” (2) This are

the exact words that Chamseddine says to make the people in the story and in the

audience that leaves everyone open-mouthed. Chamseddine proceed to tell the whole

story, how the son raped the mother and becomes father of the brothers. In theatre this is

called realization. This is the moment when all the tension created along the play with

questions gets solved with a shocking and unexpected answer. After this, a little scene of

the brother/ father’s trial is showed up. On that scene what is shown to the audience is

that Nihad, in a sinical way, is not regretful f what he has done.

The letters as a climax of the story are the best way in which this play could finish. In them

Nawal leaves their last words to their family. She crates a contrast on the letters for the

father of the twins and the son’s. On the father’s, she leaves very clear that she hates him.

She also, indirectly, makes Nihad face the responsibility of having two children and

predicts he will stop talking just as her when he knew the truth. In the son’s letter, Nawal

say that she always loved him, opposed to the other letter and she always looked for him.

For the twins, she gives them a reflection about her life and about their story. It is clearly

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visible how Nawal does not know how to feel about her children. She is not sure where

their story begins, if with the horror of a rape and a war or with the beautiful story of a

teenage love. In the end, she does not choose any of them and states that the beginning

of the story is when she craved her grandmother’s name on a stone and left it on her

grave. On this letter there is an aura of regretting and asking for forgiveness to the twins.

Nawal tries to end the cycle of hate between the women of their family when she tells

Janine to break that cycle. Nawal never says “I am sorry” but still this letter feels like an

apology.

In the end, everyone remain silent, but while Nihad remains alone thinking on what he has

done, Janine and Simon stay in silence listening to their mother’s silence. This feels like

they have forgiven her but still not forgotten what happened. The fact that they are

together with their mom’s silence is translated as if they were connected with her and

feeling her sadness and anger.

This last scene is a change for every character involved in this family drama. For Nihad, it is

a bad experience. He understands that he raped the mother he always looked for before

joining the army and carries that feeling of regret and sadness with him. This is the first

time in the play where we see him being emotionally affected for something and it is

horrible that something this serious had to happen in order for him to feel something.

Even though this is a bad experience for his character, it also helps him to get

development. He now understands that there are consequences for his acts and that the

universe is so cruel that it will give him the lesson with the most uncomfortable and

horrible situation.

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For Janine’s character, the resolution is that she comprehends that the forgiveness is the

only way to finish a fight. Throughout the story there are some other references to the fact

that she is going to learn this lesson in the end. One of the most notable is when

Chamseddine tells her about the war in which the army killed refugees and then the

refugees got revenge, then the army wanted revenge as well and they killed more refugees

and like that over and over. Still, the moment in which her character learns this is when

Nawal textually tells her “The women on our family are trapped in anger. I was angry with

my mother just as you are angry with me and thus as my mother was angry with her

mother. We have to break the thread.” (3)

Nawal also closes her character’s arc in this part of the story with the letters. She could

finally could communicate with her children. It is her voice the one who narrates the

letters and from Janine’s and Simon’s eyes she is finally talking to them and explaining the

reason why she was silent and treated them like that. Apparently Nawal did not wanted to

tell the twins about their past because she simply could not stand remembering all the

things she suffered and she wanted them to discover everything by their own. Even if

Janine and Simon feel that Nawal is talking to them, the viewer can think that this is not

like that. Nawal in the end never talked to the twins and it is sad because her character

development was shown to the audience after she already died.

The most drastic character development that is shown up in this part is Simon’s. He passed

from hating his mom and from not wanting to know anything about her, to wanting to

listen her silence. It is through this scene that Simon finally accepts and stops repressing

the anger but mainly sadness that he felt regarding to his relationship with her mom. In

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the end he empathizes with his mom, just after knowing everything what she went

through. He understands Nawal and he finally forgives her. Again, he does not say that he

forgives her but the audience can tell that because of the gesture of asking Janine to listen

Nawal’s silence together.

There are different character’s arcs closed in this scene but they all have one thing in

common, the silence. Janine and Simon end up silent listening to their mom, Nihad

remains silent and Nawal end up silent since the beginning of the story. Just as Nawal said,

“silence awaits everyone in the face of truth.” (4)

Works cited:

Mouawad, Wajdi. “Scorched.” Modern Canadian Plays, Volume 2, 5th Edition, Edited by

Jerry Wasserman,

2013, pp. 317-53.