Response to: Teach Me How to Cry by Patricia Jourdy

The play Teach Me How to Cry takes place in the mid 1950's in a small American town, exactly which is not specified anywhere in the play. In the beginning of the play, Miss Robinson, who is the main character Melinda Grant's teacher, is in the Grant home having tea with Mrs. Grant, Melinda's mother. Melinda enters during this scene and is shocked to see her mother interacting with Miss Robinson. Melinda tries to cover up for her mother and ultimately hurries her out of the room. Miss Robinson offers Melinda to take part in the school production of Romeo & Juliet promising that, if she does in fact try out, she will most likely get the lead role. This is the premise of the play. Melinda does not want to do the play because she does not want to leave her mother. She believes that her mother is a bit crazy and detached from society, seen by the fact that she is solely focused on Melinda's "pretty dresses" and dolls when Melinda is a teenage girl. Mrs. Grant wishes only to be nice to Miss Robinson and wants the best for her daughter, but Melinda is too afraid to leave her, and this notion and idea of performing in the school play is where the entire 3 acts get their start from.

Melinda Grant is a difficult character because she is so concerned about her mother. Her mother does not have normal reactions and interactions with society, and therefore, in Melinda's great care and concern for her mother, she does not fit in either. But the struggle within Melinda is that she so badly wants to. She urges to be part of all the popular kids and wants to be accepted, but she can't because she is so afraid to leave her mother alone, because if she does, then her mother will assume that Melinda does not love her. In the notes on characters it states that "Melinda never smiles, nor does she cry, nor in any way openly express emotion". This exactly grasps the nature of Melinda. She never shows emotion because she does not know how to properly react to people because her mother is a little bit crazy and does not fit in with society. This notion of Melinda Grant's character directly corresponds to the title of the play, Teach Me How to Cry, because it is Melinda's final step into social relations with the outsider Will Henderson, and her eventual romantic interest for him, that leads her to break down and cry when she finds out that Will, her love interest, is leaving town and she will again be all alone. Before she met Will Henderson and fell in love with him she was unable to express emotions like this, but at the end of the play she can finally be with a person who she cares strongly about and who cares strongly about her and show her true self.
The whole play is based around people's perception of others and how others view themselves. It is striving to be part of society and wanting so desperately to be accepted. This is clearly shown when Will Henderson is having a conversation with his parents after his father has an appointment with the important doctor in town, whose daughter is conveniently the most popular girl in school, Polly Fisher. Mr. Henderson suggests to will that he should befriend her because, "the Fishers are important in this town. Mrs. Fisher's a big wheel in local society. They'd be a nice entrée into a bunch of good homes. Why don't you take Polly to a show some night, Willy? I'll foot you". The Henderson's are not very wealthy and Mr. Henderson wishes to move up in society by using his son to make friends with the popular crowd. His son wants nothing of this because he is only interested in Melinda, who is virtually non-existent in the social structure of the town. This correlates with the common theme throughout the play of people wanting acceptance and people wishing to be one with the crowd. Melinda wants to be one of the popular girls, but she wants her mother to know that she loves her and therefore won't do anything wrong. Polly wants to have a good reputation and wants to have the "perfect" life. The Henderson's want to be accepted into the community and don't want to have a bad reputation of being poor and outsiders.

Will Henderson is really the only character that goes against commonality at all. He falls for Melinda and he has no desire to be one of the popular kids. He goes against his parents and he defies their wishes for him to obtain good status in his new school. He defies their orders to stop seeing Melinda because he loves Melinda. And that is what the whole play is about. It follows the story of the school play Romeo & Juliet through Melinda and Will's love. This love is unusual and un-allowed, and in the end, although not as drastic as the suicides of both Romeo and Juliet, Will and Melinda are forced to be separated by Will's inevitably forced move to another town. This constant uprooting and move from town to town, because of his father's work as a "demonstrator" affects the way Will is. He is seen as a sort-of "bad boy" because he does not fit in. He is an outsider, as is Melinda. He cannot shake off this unknown aura about him, so he plays off of it. He tries to manipulate girls, like Polly, to live up to this reputation of living as a bad-ass. Truly, this is not his nature and it comes through when he meets and falls for Melinda. He shares with her his true sensitive side due to the longing and desire to fit in, but his inability to do so because of his constant moving leaves him fearful of rejection. He write poetry to deal with this and is very sensitive to other people's needs. He knows Melinda is afraid and he wants to help her. He devotes himself to her and changes her; she is now able to cry and show emotion in ways that she never has been able to before. Her entire persona is changed at the end, all due to Will's love. He is insecure and sensitive and he just wants to be loved. He is looking for someone to love him and be accepted by someone because he does not get that security anywhere else. He finds what he is looking for in Melinda, but he is then forced to leave her by his parents' will to leave town.