Marisol by Jose Rivera premiered in 1992 it is set in New York City at about the same time. They play starts out with Marisol almost being killed on a train by a madman wielding a golf club but she had an invisible protector. She lives in the Bronx unded by desperate people who are vocal about what they want; one neighbor begs for heat while another wants their boyfriend back. There are multiple examples of desertion in Marisol’s life from the people that she has met to the neighborhood she lives in. Marisol is about how a person deals with the fact that everything and everyone they have ever cared about can and will abandon them.
Marisol is set in the Bronx, a space where people have been forsaken to the point that the environment has taken on their characteristics. When Marisol gets back to her apartment she is bombarded with the shouting of her neighbors. One is asking for the heat, while another, Sandy, is yelling at an ex-boyfriend. Sandy screams, “Matthew? It’s Sandy! I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE. STOP HIDING FOR ME, YOU MALIGNANT FUCK! ” (13). Sandy is shouting at a past boyfriend who has obviously left her, this sets a very clear scene that Marisol lives around people who are used to being left behind.
When Angel comes to her, Marisol’s first thought is to try to figure out why Angel had come to her. She asks countless questions, like, ‘Why did the plague kill half of my friends? ” (17). Referencing the AIDS epidemic that killed a generation of people, people who were abandoned by their family and friends because they had a disease which was associated with people who are gay. The admission of the disease forced people to come out when they weren’t ready in order to get the care that they needed. This “plague” ripped them of their privacy, and often took more than just that.
Lastly, she asks, “Where did the moon go? (17). The moon has been a constant reminder of where we are and what time it is. So much so that the absence of it causes concern and anxiety to the point of feeling lost with no sense of north or south. Later in the play, after Marisol is told by June that a Marisol Perez was killed last night in the Bronx, June asks Marisol, “Isn’t it past time to leave the Bronx behind? ” (21). June is trying to persuade Marisol to leave the death trap that is the Bronx to live somewhere safer. June wants her to leave her bleak apartment surrounded by abandoned people and abandoned places.
Marisol is finally in a place where she controls whether she will abandon or be abandoned. However, she has a hard time deciding because she wants to go back to her familiar space, until June says, “You think the Bronx need you? It doesn’t. ” (30). This puts a whole new spin on the audience’s idea of abandonment, can be abandoned by someone if you don’t need them? It would show you what you needed in its purest form even if you didn’t want to know. When Angel comes to Marisol to say goodbye, we already have been able to tell that Marisol is devout, so we know that spirituality is exceptionally important to her.
After Angel said, “It also means I have to leave you. I can’t stay. I can’t protect you anymore. “(19), Marisol responded, “What you’re leaving me? ” (19). When Angel tried to reason with her, Marisol lashed out saying, “I’m gonna be meat! I’M GONNA BE FOOD!! ” (19). This line is crucial, it shows how terrified Marisol is to lose her faith and guardian angel all in one moment. Marisol has been praying and checking her good-luck charms every moment she can. She has recited children’s bedtime prayers and ritualistically gone through all of her religious relics.
She has shown time and time again that she believes in a higher power to protect her from this decaying world. After Angel has described the situation and apologized, Marisol starts to lose her sense of self and direction thus abandoning her sense of relativity to the world. She is told that a Marisol Perez was murdered, causing her to become wary of whether this is reality. When she describes her commute to work it seems like a fantasy, she explains, “Every person the subway this morning gave me the shivers They all looked so hungry. I keep hearing children crying.
I keep smelling burnt flesh. ” (22). It sounds like a horror story narration, not a normal day. Later, in act two, Marisol becomes confused because nothing is where it should be or how it should be. She is trying to find her way to Manhattan, south. She talks to a Woman With Furs who is also dazed with the change of geography. Marisol, desperately needs to find June so she becomes flustered saying, “The Empire State Building? What’s it doing over there? It’s suppose to be south. But that’s … north… I’m sure it is … isn’t it? ” (39).
This amplifies her feelings of abandonment, it’s so much harder to remember who you are when you can’t even remember where you are, or how you fit in. Marisol explains to Scar Tissue, “I lived in the Bronx … I commuted light-years to this other planet called Manhattan! I learned new vocabularies … and amputated neat sections of my psyche, my cultural heritage … yeah, clean easy amputations… ” (43). It seems like she found little value in these pieces of her, because she released them so easily. She values her religion, her faith, over all other things.
Yet, when Marisol meets Scar Tissue, who has been abandoned by his skin and desperately wants to find it, they bond quickly and she wants to stay with him but she still need to find June. Marisol says, “Don’t leave me! ” (44), reiterating what she has said previously. But, Scar Tissue responds unlike anyone has before, “Why? You’re not alone, are you? You got your faith still intact. You still believe God is good. You still think you can glide through the world and not be a part of it” (44). The question of, “is Marisol alone” is one that hasn’t been addressed.
While yes, she has no family that we know of and June is nowhere to be found, but, does she still have her faith? Can she believe in something that can’t protect her anymore? At this moment, Marisol questions whether she was right in believing that there is a God and that she had a guardian angel. The instant that her faith was confirmed it was also contradicted because Angel couldn’t protect her anymore and God was going to be slaughtered. Marisol was abandoned by the one thing she had the most control over. She was abandoned by her faith, this notion that has been her shelter and shield for as long as she has known.
After Scar Tissue has left her, Marisol continues on her search for June she starts on this long monologue which ends with Marisol screaming, “DEAR GOD WHO DO I HAVE TO BETRAY TO GET OUT OF THIS FUCKING MESS?! ” (48). She has finally reached the point of desperation where she will abandon all that she knows to escape the collapsing environment that surrounds her. She has abandoned all earthly things, but she has a tight grasp on her faith and no one can take that from her. In the end Marisol says, “Right now, thousands upon millions of angels are dying on our behalf. Isn’t that amazing?
The silver cities of Heaven are burning for us… All for us. All for me. ” (56). Thus overcoming her sense of abandonment because her faith isn’t really gone it’s just somewhere else and trying to get back. It didn’t desert her at all. Marisol, in the end, feels defined by her faith. In death she is now immune to all the suffering around her. While Marisol is still about how a person deals with the fact that everything and everyone they have ever cared about can and will abandon them. At last, it allows the audience comfort in Marisol’s purge of her own abandonment.