Themes (EOEH) Independence vs dependence y Was Emily born independent?

 No  Emily was not born to be independent to fend for herself  Instead, it is her circumstances that have forced her to become independent  Emily was forced to adapt and take care and fend for herself since she was a young girl and a young bride.
 Her father took a second wife, causing her mother to go crazy and abandon her  When her father died, her mother left her alone  She had to live with random relatives

 Emily did not have a personal maid and none of her sistersin-law want to lend her their personal maids  Emily was bullied by her sisters-in-law

Is Emily truly independent?  Emilys independence is stems from the dependence of others on her, and her on others.  Her independence is a spin-off effect from the dependence upon her.  Hence, she is not truly independent  For example, she depends on Richard.  She treats Richard exclusively and manipulated him so that she could depend on him for her social status  I have written to a famous college in London for you to study there next year youll do everything that I want you to do.  Also, Emily confesses to her dependence when she says that as a woman in the society she lives in, she had no value. (male-dominated society)

Are the family members of Emily truly dependent on her?  Emily depends on her family members social status for her independence and this independence allows her family members to be dependent on her, causing a two-way relationship  The family depends on Emily when they have events or are going abroad as Emily was sort of a homemaker and settles everything at home

 Thereafter resulting in the reliance on Emily  Every aspect of Richards life is dependent on Emily as she makes decision for him and controls everything he does in his life such as his education, his friends, his career, etc. Thereafter, Emilys character has been shaped to be independent due the her circumstances and her independent character allowed her to realize that she had to depend on the social status of her family members so as to gain her identity. Thus, Emily manipulates her family members to trust and rely on her, allowing her to find her identity and be independent. Tradition vs Modernity y Emily and her children  The theme of tradition vs modernity is brought out between Emily and her children. This is due to the different mindsets that Emily and her children have in this play. For Emily, she was someone who is more inclined to the traditional side. This is portrayed when Emily picked folk dance instead of ballet for Doris as she views ballet as girls showing half their body naked, stretching their thighs and folk dancing is far more civilized and feminine with those pretty peasant dresses they wear. This means that Emily feels that ballet is far too exposing as compared to folk dance as the folk dancers wear pretty peasant dresses whereas ballerinas wear costumes that leave half their body naked.  Also, Emily once again brings out her traditional point of view when she describes woman as a person who takes care of the house and her husband. This is shown when Emily still continues to fulfill her role as Kheongs wife despite his infidelity as she says that no matter what he does, I still am his wife, I must continue to look after him Also, she also inculcate this kind of mindset into her daughter and she tells her that when you get married, you must know how to cook and look after your family Thus, from these evidences, we can clearly see that Emily was more of a traditional woman as her mindset tells us so.  On the other hand, Emilys children have a much different mindset. Firstly, this is shown when her children left emerald hill one by one and moved to different places, Edward went to stay at Ang Mo Kio This tells us that the children no longer want to stay at the old mansion on Emerald Hill and instead, they chose to move to new towns rather than the old Emerald Hill.  Also, Emilys daughter, Doris, chose to marry a foreigner. This shows that Doris is very different from Emily as Doris has that chance to marry the person that she loves whereas Emily could not choose who she wanted to marry when she was young and had to marry Kheong. Through Doris

marriage, we can see that Emilys children have a much different mindset from Emily as they have the liberty to choose what they wanted to do, while Emily did not have the power to do so when she was young.  Thus, by understanding all these evidences, I can say that the theme of tradition vs modernity is successfully brought out by Emily and her children as Emily had a traditional mindset while her childrens mindset were more inclined towards the modern side. Love  The theme of love is pointed out in various scenes of the play. It was also an important part of Emilys life as there were ups and downs not only in her love life with Kheong, but with various people in her life.  Firstly, I would like to talk about her love life with Kheong. In general, Emilys love life with Kheong was met with several disappointments. At the start, their love was already very unstable. This was because their marriage was made up and before they even marry, there wasnt any love in them. It was after their marriage then they started building up their relationship. Since it was a marriage that was made up and the age gap between both of them, there would inevitably be some conflicts on their love life. Emilys love life with Kheong was met with disappointment when Kheong started having an affair with the whore Diana Lee. Although Emily did so much for Kheong, looked after the children, took care of the house, being a dutiful wife and mother, and expected Kheong to love her back, but Kheong on the other hand shattered her hopes and expectations and left with the his mistress, Diana Lee, resulting in the disappointment in the love life of Emily and Kheong.  Next, it is the love between Emily and her parents. Her parents provided her with lots of love at the start of the play and Emily seems to be a happy child. However, as the play progresses, we see that Emilys father had a mistress and her mother was so shocked that she turned mad. However, without Emilys mother, Emily still led a happy life, she still had love from her father. Unfortunately, her father died and her mother refused to take care of her and abandoned her. This time round, she was deprived of both fatherly and motherly love. As a child, Emily definitely expected her parents to shower her with lots of love. However, they disappointed her and she was forced to stay with random relatives. Thus, this was another disappointment in her search of love.  Also, the love between Emily and her eldest son, Richard was also disappointed. Emily loved Richard a lot and provided him with the best for example sending him to a prestigious college in London. Thereafter, she expected Richard to follow what she plans for him and be achieve success when he grows up and bring Emily pride and joy. However, Richard disappointed her by working at

Salisbury Riding School as a trainer and defy Emilys words to go back to college and committed suicide. This made Emily very sad and disappointed that even her son committed suicide and dashed her hopes and dreams that she has pinned on him.  However, although Emilys search for love was met with several disappointments, she still managed to get the only genuine love that she had, love between her close friend Bee Choo and her. Both of them were extremely good friends at the throughout the play as both of them often chatted on the phone and when Emily was speaking the Bee Choo, her tone always changes and becomes very friendly and affectionate. Also, Bee Choo did not disappoint her but was always willing to be Emilys best friend. Thus, I can see that love between Bee Choo and Emily was the one and only genuine love that was not disappointed throughout the story.  Therefore, the theme of love in this play revolves around Emily and her search for love which has mostly met with disappointment. The theme of love was also an important part of the play as each love that disappointed her had an impact on her. For example, the disappointment of love between Emily and her parents moulded and shaped Emilys views towards life and she became more and more possessive after losing all these love that she expected herself to have.