Veronica Folkedahl

Suna Gunther & Stephanie Murry

THEA 204

8 November 2016

Everyday a Little Death Character Analysis

The character I am portraying in this song is Charlotte Malcom, a wealthy Countess residing in

Sweden in the 1900s. She is a mature woman in her 40s, and has a limited education in modern day

terms, but a fine one for the time the show takes place in/was written in.

My partner in this scene is Anne, who is a 18 year old newlywed to Fredrik. We are just meeting

for the first time because my character's husband has sent Charlotte to Anne's home to tell her about

Fredrik and Desiree's infidelity. However, Anne is a friend of my daughter Marta. Charlotte has mixed

feelings towards Anne, which I think stems from her seeing a lot of herself and her own problems in her.

She doesn't mean to hurt her, but ultimately ends up doing just that, but she also is trying to warn her

about the reality of marriage. I think in a way, she is also trying to comfort Anne because she is in, and

has been in, the same situation. At first, she is just trying to get a read on how much Anne knows and

how she feels about her husband, but it turns into her accidentally telling her about Fredrik's infidelity

with Anne and they end up comforting each other through their unity.

I am in the living room of Anne's home. Even though this is a new and strange place to me, I

think part of the discomfort comes from it being very similar to my home in its idea. The similarities
Anne and Charlotte share between their husband's affairs are also parallelled by the fact that both

women live in luxurious homes because of their husband. All of the fanciful things they indulge in are

allowed to them because of their husband's money. I think it goes to show that her feelings about the

affairs are heightened because she is surrounded by reminders of her husband.

My objective for the scene is to destroy Anne's ideas about men, and in the song my objective

switches slightly to wanting Anne to hate men with me so that she understands me and I have someone

to relate to.

The obstacles that stand in my way are the fact that Anne loves her husband and doesn't know

about his infedelity, my own moral concious because I don't originally want to tell Anne about Fredrik,

the fact that we are strangers so it is a barrier of comfort between us, and that Anne is young and

doesn't understand as fully what it means to be married and devoted to a man.

 Show Synopsis

A little night music, at the opening, centers around two couples and their infedelities relating to

Desiree Armfeldt, a glamorous actress who is past her golden days. The first couple is Anne and Fredrik.

Anne is a 18 year old virgin who has married the wealthy Fredrik, an older gentleman whom has a long

standing affair with Desiree. Fredrik surprises Anne with tickets to Desiree's show, but once they are

there, Anne storms out with suspicions of their affair. Fredrik follows her, but returns shortly to visit

with Desiree and the two end up starting to canoodle. However, Count Magnus appears, Desiree's most

recent lover, and comes upon the two who pretend as though nothing has happened. In a jealous fury,

Count Magnus Malcom confessess to his wife and sends her off to Anne's home, who happens to be a

school friend of their daughter's. Charlotte ends up telling Anne about the affair upon her visit with her.

Then, all four of them end up being invited to a party hosted by Desiree.

All 4 of them end up showing up to the party that Desiree is hosting, and the drama ensues.

Charlotte decides that she is going to seduce Anne's husband to win her own husband back, and Anne

agrees to go along with it. Fredrik also learns the shocking news of Desiree's daughter's name; Fredrika.

Dinner is served, and the stakes are high and tense as everyone is on a quest for revenge and desire in

some form. They all abandon the dinner, and go off on separate paths. Anne ends up with Henrik as

they profess their love for each other, Desiree is rejected by Fredrik, and the count ends up trying to

shoot Anne and Henrik when they are trying to run away together. Desiree and Charlotte prevent this,

but the Count is still upset and ends up challenging Fredrik to a game of Russian Roulette while also

seducing Charlotte. It comes to a conclusion with Fredrik realizing and accepting Fredrika as his

daughter, and him confessing his love for Desiree.

 Stephen Sondheim Bio

Stephen Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist, and is recognized as one of the

greatest composer's in all of musical theatre. He was born on March 22, 1930 in New York City. He had

a rough childhood with a lack of familial surroundings, but a presence of abuse and isolation. He is highly

awarded with 8 Tony's, 8 Grammy's, a Pullitzer Prize Award, and many others. Sondheim became

interested in musicals at a young age, in part due to his early friendship with James Hammerstein. He

also was under the mentorship of Hammerstein, under which he started writing musicals. He then went

on to study theatre at Williams College, where he started meeting with Babbitt studying music and

musicals. He then got into his broadway career after meeting Arthur Laurents at a party, and after a

messy ordeal with west side story, finally got his first musical produced for which he was both a lyricist

and composer; A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.