"The Dark I Know Well" Question

[defygravity24]

Posted: 1/21/14 at 11:58pm

While recently listening to this song, I was wondering what the purpose of it was. It sheds a lot of light on Marta and Ilse but Marta's story is never featured again nor developed further.

Updated On: 1/22/14 at 11:58 PM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 1:30am

Actually, quite the opposite.
Marta's revelation in this song is what ignites Wendla's curiosity about being beaten, directly leading to her unintended temptation of Melchior by asking him to beat her, which in turn leads straight into the hayloft scene, amd thereby the entire second act and the root of what haplens to Melchior and Wendla,

[FlowerChild67]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 1:55am

^Yeah, I like to point out that the rest of the show never would have happened had Martha's brain not come undone.

If you're talking about the song specifically, well, you're right, it doesn't advance the plot- but neither do any of the other songs.

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 2:28am

There is a distinction to be made.
The song is not a plot line. The song is a plot device. Its never presented in a way to position as a plot line. It positioned solely to explain Ilse and to set events in motion. That is all.

And no, the songs in SA: the Musical are internal monologues, not musical journeys to advance the story. They are just beats.

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 3:16am

I'm assuming you've never seen the show, so you don't know that the song follows a scene in which the female characters [Wendla, Anna, Thea, and Martha] are hanging out, when it is pointed out that Martha's braid has come loose leading to a dark reveal. Martha gets defensive, and slowly shares details of how her father sexually (and psyhically) abuses her at night. After Martha shocks the girls by revealing her bruised arm, the girls react in varying degree of disbelief and confusion, especially the now slowly awakening sexually Wendla. When Anna mentions wanting her children to grow up "strong and tall, and free", Thea retorts with "Free? But what how will we know what do if our parents don't tell us?". The scene fades as Martha steps center to a microphone brought on by Ilse (who has been lurking in the shadows) and thus allowing Martha to shed light onto her own problems. The adult woman plays Martha's mother briefly, as the adult man plays Ilse's father who comes onto her via the line "Ilse, Ilse - it's story time" which leads into Ilse's section of the song.

Updated On: 1/22/14 at 03:16 AM

[ClumsyDude15]

Posted: 1/22/14 at 6:26am

Sorry to double post, but one of my favorite memories of the song during the show was the moment when the boys would join in as background, and the way the lighting highlighted them in red as the dark surrounded both Martha and Ilse center.