Cruel Tears Essay, Research Paper

In reading the play Cruel Tears, you will find that there is definitely a tragedy. However, it is unclear as to what the tragedy is caused by. In looking at Johnny and Jack you can start to unwind this debatable event. Did Johnny s weakness or Jack s jealousy cause this tragedy? It is unfortunate that more history of the relation between Johnny and Jack is not available. All you know about there past together is that jack has watched many girls from town go after Johnny. Jack Sees Johnny living the good live and then looking at himself he all his jealously filled mind can see is a failing marriage that was only started because he got Flora pregnant. Johnny on the other hand is very used to getting his way. He also is getting married not totally because Kathy is pregnant, he loves her but the rush is put on when she becomes pregnant. Kathy is also the woman that Jack actually wants to be with. Johnny getting into this relationship so quickly was not able to adjust from his bachelor lifestyle. It seems that Johnny expects this to be totally different and wants total control of his wife, although he does not make his true opinion known to his wife. Johnny is also Jack s superior at work, which makes their relationship even more unbalanced. Really, the tragedy could not have happened without both Jack s jealousy and Johnny s weakness. Although I feel that Johnny s hasty decisions near the end of the play may have had the most impact on creating this tragedy, Johnny s weakness was that he trusted Jack too much when Jack was actually manipulating him all along.

In conclusion, I feel that Jack and Johnny are each nether less or more to blame for the outcome of the play. Jack probably didn t understand the extent of the damage he had caused to the stability of Johnny s mind, but he still shouldn t have been dishonest with his friend to begin with. Also, I believe that Johnny should have trusted his wife more than Jack. Even after much thought, I cannot blame either Jack or Johnny for this tragedy. I believe it was their constant competition and mistakes that caused the terrible outcome.