Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
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actress, probably the best in the company.” 54 Ferber provided a subliminal characteri-<br />
zation <strong>of</strong> Julie as an ethnic femme fatale when Ellie complained about her own inability<br />
to attract men:<br />
Strangely enough, it was Julie who drew them, quite without intent on her part.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re was something about her life-scarred face, her mournful eyes, her langour,<br />
her effortlessness, her very carelessness <strong>of</strong> dress that seemed to fascinate and hold<br />
them. Steve’s jealousy <strong>of</strong> her was notorious. It was common boat talk too, that<br />
Pete, the engineer <strong>of</strong> the Mollie Able [the Cotton Blossom’s tug boat] . . . was<br />
openly enamoured [sic] <strong>of</strong> her and had tried to steal her from Steve. 55<br />
Kern also foreshadowed Julie’s ethnic qualities before her initial entrance with an<br />
orchestral leitmotiv that is later recognized as a sequential phrase <strong>of</strong> “Can’t Help Lovin’<br />
‘dat Man.” This musical fragment also establishes her emotional connection with Pete<br />
and Steve for it underscores their entrances. After the miscegenation scene in the first<br />
act, Julie returns for only one more scene in the second act that summarizes the effects <strong>of</strong><br />
that episode upon her life. She appears as a headliner at the Trocadero Club, an<br />
“uptown” Chicago nightclub, but she is now an alcoholic and completely disillusioned<br />
with life on the stage. Hammerstein set the scene:<br />
A woman sits dejectedly in a chair. This is Julie, a hollow-cheeked woman<br />
—looking older than she really is—with all the earmarks <strong>of</strong> one who is downand-out;<br />
marks which she has desperately and pathetically tried to hide by<br />
overdressing, by making use <strong>of</strong> too many odds and ends <strong>of</strong> finery, by a tooanxious<br />
application <strong>of</strong> rouge and lipstick and by dyeing her hair a wretched red.<br />
She sits there, oblivious to all that is going on around her. From time to time she<br />
54 Ferber, 90.<br />
55 Ferber, 114-115. This foreshadows the later revelation by Pete <strong>of</strong> Julie’s mixed-blood heritage<br />
and her stereotyped seductive skills.<br />
75