Killing time without injuring eternity

Analysis of David Henry Hwang’s “The Sound of a Voice”

            The Sound of a Voice, by David Henry Hwang, is a sorrowful play about the desire and desperation of two lonely opposites. Hwang’s ability to pull the audience’s interest in with sympathy and pity for his lonely characters is incredible. Both characters in the play are complex and mysterious. Throughout the play, the man and woman are building a beautiful understanding of each other.  The symbolisms of their loneliness, the change in attraction, and a tragic end of life, make for an incredible story of an ironic and unexpected union of two lost and lonely souls.  

            Scene I is set in the woman’s dull kitchen where she pours tea to her visitor. It is this scene where the man, a transient that has found his way to her home, first notices the colorful flowers in a vase perched upon a shelf. When the visitor notices the flowers, he steals one. He is intrigued by the flowers and their liveliness.  The woman seems to resemble her environment. She is boring, reclusive and homely. Much like her home was described in the play, she appears to be “drab” (Hwang). The only lively part of her home is the flowers. Perhaps this contrast of appearances is what intrigued the visitor. 

            The woman makes it known from the beginning that she is extremely lonely. She yearns for human interaction. She states to the man “But anything you say, I will enjoy hearing. It’s not even the words. It’s the sound of a voice, the way it moves through the air.” (Hwang) With rare visits, she misses interaction. She misses it so much that any sound of voice would be soothing, no matter what it is saying. She tells the man that she does not remember the last time she had a visitor. The time in between her visits are still and quiet. Those lonely periods of time are lifeless. As she claims “Time begins with the entrance of a visitor, and ends with his exit.” (Hwang) 

            Though they are opposites, the man and woman find common ground when he speaks of where he chooses to sleep in the forest. The night before his arrival, the man sleeps next to waterfall and tells the woman about it stating “The sound of water put me to sleep. It rumbled like the sounds of a city. You see, I can’t sleep too much in silence.”(Hwang) They both are scared of silence. She admits to the man that she will sleep better now that he is there, “I’ll lie down in the next room, and hear your breathing through the wall, and fall asleep shamelessly.”(Hwang). 

            At the end of Scene II, the man is preparing for sleep. The woman says goodnight and takes the flowers out of the room. The man sleeps with the stolen flower under his pillow and hears something before he falls asleep. What he hears is not yet known to the audience, but it symbolizes a very important element to the story. 

            After staying several weeks, the man starts to notice that the woman is forming an attraction to him. At first this makes him feel uncomfortable as he is chopping wood without a shirt on and she stares and makes comments about his body. He then the next day purposely keeps his shirt on as if to repel her attraction. He mentions to the woman that the night before he heard her playing a flute. This delicate tune was heard softly as he was attempting to sleep. She is bashful and tells him that she is not very good at it. He does however convince her to play for him. Before she begins to play she states to the man “I try to make these sounds resemble the human voice. The shakuhachi (flute) became my weapon. To ward off the air.”(Hwang) 

            It is at this point of the play, Scene V, that it becomes obvious a mutual attraction has been formed. He begins to see the woman in a new light. She is soft, gentle and sweet. She is lonely, and so is he. At night he continues to hear the beautiful sound of the flute. He peaks into the room where she is playing and sees that the room is full of flowers and is stunningly beautiful despite its dreariness. He now sees the woman as a youthful with elegant features. When the man returns to his bed, the stolen flower is wilted. 

            The next day the man is practicing with his sword. The woman shows him that she also can handle a sword with great precision. Wondering how she learned this, she tells him “I’ve had to pick one up”. This indicates that the woman before has had to defend herself. It is this scene, Scene VII, that the man reveals his true intentions for his journey. The woman is known to outsiders as a witch. Rumors state that she has many male guests, but they never return. The woman states she is aware of the rumors and that “great glory was to be had by killing the witch in the woods.” The man has come for that reason. 

            Scene VII is also where the meaning of the flowers can be interpreted. The man claims he can hear faint voices coming from inside the flowers. The voices to him sound like lost imprisoned souls. “It hums with the peacefulness of one who is completely imprisoned.” In silence these voices can be heard. She becomes angry with him and tells him that if he came to kill her, then he should go ahead and do it. She is tired of being alone and would rather die than experience the loss of another visitor. This suggests that the witch has imprisoned the souls of the men that have attempted to leave in order to ward of her loneliness. 

            At the end of the play, the man attempts to leave the woman’s house without saying goodbye. He is ashamed that he cannot complete his task of killing the witch because he formed feelings for her. She approaches him as he is leaving and is obviously upset. She tells him “All I wanted was an escape- for both of us. The sound of a human voice- the simplest thing to find, and the hardest to hold onto. This house- my loneliness is etched into the walls. Kill me, but don’t leave. Even in death, my spirit would rest here and be comforted by your presence.”

            In the final scene, the woman runs into her room and the man follows. He attempts to play her flute but it does not make a sound. This represents the death of the woman, absolute silence. She is seen hanging from the ceiling. She appears young, suggesting that the woman was a ghost. She only existed to him as a lost and lonely apparition. She is surrounded by many vases of her flowers, their petals sprawled about the room and whirling in the air. The lonely ghost of the woman is now gone and the trapped souls of her visitors are freed.

Hwang, David Henry. The Sound of a Voice. Sixth Compact Edition. Boston: Boston, 2005. 1222-1236. Print.