51 pages • 1 hour read
John CarianiAlmost, Maine
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Summary
Play Summaries & Analyses
Key Figures
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaThemes
Love
Every scene in this play revolves around love in one form or another, and taken together, Acts One and Two and the Pro/Inter/Epilogues provide a rich tapestry of various kinds and outcomes of romantic love: friendships that blossom into more, chance encounters that reveal failings of past love, as well as the hope of new love; love gone stale and sour, and that persists for far too long, to the lovers’ detriment. Throughout all of these depictions of love, Cariani does not leave the audience/reader with any easy answers, but instead provides moments of recognition and empathy.
Disconnection
In many scenes in this play, characters, especially male characters, have trouble expressing themselves. Pete, while trying to express himself honestly, says the wrong thing, which leads to a missed opportunity, though it is perhaps rectified in the Epilogue. In his impulsiveness, East barely seems to understand his own actions or their motivations, much less be able to communicate them to Glory. Lendall, despite having taken action to move their relationship forward, has failed to indicate this in any way to Gayle, causing her to take drastic action. Phil and Marci both bottle up their feelings until those feelings spill out in destructive ways. And, finally, Hope, rather than giving Daniel an answer, cannot communicate at all, and instead leaves him, only to return too late to repair the relationship she ran out on.
Guilt/Regret
Several of the scenes that comprise Almost, Maine, contain characters wracked by guilt or regret. Glory feels guilty for having had a role in her husband’s death, for instance, and Jimmy regrets having lost Sandrine so much that he tries to make himself into a villain that getting the word “villain” tattooed on himself, though the word is misspelled. In both of these instances, regret and guilt keep the person from moving on, and it is only when they begin to give up these feelings that new possibilities seem to present themselves: Glory says goodbye to her husband, followed by hello to East; Jimmy says he is happy for Sandrine, then finds the Waitress is named Villian.
