Ms. La Trobe says it best in Virginia Woolf's Between the Acts: "This is death, death, death – when illusion fails." (p. 180) Various characters in the novel create illusions to escape the reality that pains them. And those illusions are continually interrupted by other characters who purposely or accidentally blow away the smoke and blow real air into the dreamers' faces. La Trobe is probably right: when the illusion fails, it's probably death. But it has also probably gone too far: Between the Acts reveals to us the resilience of illusion and the difference between an interrupted dream and a destroyed dream. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The scene in the Pointz Hall library is filled with illusions created and destroyed. First we see old Bart dozing in his chair, dreaming of himself, a young man in a helmet, and in the sand a circle of ribs, and in the shadow of the rock, savages; and in his hand a gun.' (p. 17) It is a touching juxtaposition: a tired old man in his comfortable chair in his sheltered home in England and the same man, many years earlier, untamed in his wild India. Is this his old gun in his hand, or just the arm of his "chintz-covered chair?" (p. 17) Enter Isa. “Am I interrupting?” he asks. (p. 18) No, Isa is not simply interrupting, she is "destroying youth and India" for Bart, tearing him from the ground of his virile youth, the reasons why he acted instead of sleeping and fought men rather than his sister . , and throwing him back into the quiet library of Pointz Hall. Bart doesn't let Isa get away with this: "Your baby's a crybaby," he says (p. 18). He does it to upset her, it's true, but he also does it to console himself, to remind her and himself that he can still bully someone. Bart is a classic bully with a classic bully motivation. He belittles Lucy, his stupid sister, and scares George, his nervous young nephew, both easy targets. He is looking for some shadow of his youth, of his India, of his masculinity. He's trying to escape his old man's body. Isa is also concerned with youth, but she does not attempt to escape her years through memory as Bart tends to do: she denies memory. Isa is "book shy"; "for his generation the newspaper was a book." (p. 19) She isn't interested in reading Spenser or Keats or Yeats - she can't read anything more than a day old, she refuses to be sucked into the past. Isa is afraid to realize her 39 years, she is afraid to put them in the context of the story, she is afraid to place her 39 years somewhere in the ever-growing timeline of her own life. His relationship with his children, the true young people in his life, is a heartbreaking manifestation of his abstract fear. She continually knocks on the window glass, trying to get their attention as they enjoy the garden outside, but they never hear her. We never see Isa interact with her children, even if she talks about it. Their presence always escapes her. In the library scene, Isa escapes into a rape fantasy, a dream of assault. For a moment, she avoids the real environment which is full of books, those ancient things, and goes to a place more real to her, "so real that [she saw] the girl on the bed - screaming and hitting him in the face" . (p. 20) Rape corrupts the domestic, the maternal that she loathes, and perverts the stasis she fears falling into until Lucy Swithin and her hammer enter and interrupt Isa's reverie. Lucy Swithin is the third member of the trinity of illusion artists in the library. Lucy's escape, like that of Bart and Isa,displays a fixation on time, but while Bart seeks to return to the past and Isa wishes to erase the past completely, Lucy wishes to unite the past with the present and future - to connect everyone and everything. throughout history and prehistory. Hence his faith in the Christian God, Creator of all, Supervisor, Unifier. Lucy enters the library stunned by his speech about nailing a sign on the barn to raise money for the church. He's afraid the rain will force the upcoming show indoors. “We can only pray,” he says. (p. 23)The third blow to an illusion in the library: "and provide umbrellas," Bart retorts sarcastically, mocking Lucy's faith. (p. 23) And the destruction of the protective illusion has come full circle: Bart is interrupted by Isa; Isa is interrupted by Lucy; and now Lucy is crushed by Bart's bullying. And again: 'What is the origin - the origin - of that?' he asks, referring to the practice of touching wood. “Superstition,” he replies. She is slightly hurt "for once again he has dealt a severe blow to her faith," attempting to destroy the refuge of her illusion and expose her to reality. (p. 25) And all the while during this scene, as each person plays their role in creating and breaking the illusions, they look out the window, '[seven] times in a row,' (p. 22) beyond the other and the surrounding environment, the environment so hostile to their disappointments. La Trobe perfectly captures their feeling later in the novel: “Oh, the torture of these interruptions!” (p. 79) These interruptions destroy the fantasy and return dreamers to the reality they try to avoid. Enter Mrs. Manresa, active and dynamic, into their bubble. It is an illusion enhancer. Isa "destroys youth and India" for Bart, but doesn't Mrs. Manresa "give old Bartholomew back his spice islands, his youth?" (p. 41) For this he is grateful to her, he is fascinated by her, he also plays her superstitious game. Counting cherry stones, Mrs. Manresa confirms that he is a farmer, a "wild child of nature" (p. 50); Bart discovers he is a thief. The life that Mrs. Manresa brings to Pointz Hall "[makes] old Bart feel young." (p. 43) She also 'bestows youth on [Isa]' with her gaze (p. 41). However, Mrs. Manresa's illusion, her game, is a sexual illusion, in which she plays against other "conspirators" of the same sex (though not maliciously) for the temporary affections of men. (p. 41) He recognizes Isa's youth, but he can't let you know it. Manresa's escape from monotony is his highly sexualized action. “She said it, she did it, not me”: this is what everyone feels in her presence. (p. 41) This is because Manresa's illusion is external: she draws everyone into her game, makes them all players, while people like Bart, Lucy, and Isa keep their illusions, for the most part, internal. Manresa laughs and chats and puts on makeup and "dresses too much for a picnic." (p. 41) She flirts with Bart and Giles and they play together, fascinated. We don't know the real Mrs. Manresa at all; or perhaps the real Mrs. Manresa is exactly the one we know: a woman who continually plays the part of the seductress. Perhaps Mrs. Manresa, the truest illusionist in Between the Acts, is also the truest character because she makes no attempt to hide her illusions. She wears them as she wears her rubies and emeralds. The scope of Mrs Manresa's illusions is rivaled only by the magnitude of those of Mrs La Trobe. With her work, Ms. La Trobe attempts to force the public to consider the history of England. Lucy and Isa prefer to maintain their illusions. "[Time] doesn't exist for us, we only have the present," says Lucy. For Lucy, linear time does not exist; it's all the.