Raymond's Room (Raymond and the Landlady)
Raymond
Significance in Plot
Raymond is Sarah's boyfriend, but they seem to be
He is described as being the "funnyman of the funnyhouse". A "funnyman" is usually thought of as a comedian or clown, but Raymond is not particularly funny in any part of the play. And being a clown of a "funnyhouse" another word for "insane asylum" may imply control or manipulation of the situation.
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Profile
Name: Raymond
Ethnicity: Jewish
Appearance: "He is tall, white and ghostly thin and dressed in a black shirt and black trousers in attire suggesting an artist." (Funnyhouse of a Negro, pg. 11)
Work: Poet
Photo by Spencer Selover
Room Description
Room is above the Negro’s room, has blinds (which has a mirror behind it) and a bed. The blinds covering the mirror could symbolize the concealment of true identity. Raymond repeatedly opens and closes the blinds, which could show the moral ambiguity of the character as he is talking to the Duchess of Hapsburg.
Relationship with Sarah
The first mention of Raymond is by Sarah who says that he doesn’t like the statue of Queen Victoria and "says it is a thing of terror, possessing the quality of nightmares, suggesting large and probable deaths" (Funnyhouse of a Negro, pg. 8). Though this may not reveal much about Raymond as a character, it serves as a foreshadowing of the deaths of Sarah's selves.
**Intimacy Notice
In Scene: Funnyman's Place, "the Duchess is partially disrobed and it is implied from their attitudes of physical intimacy -- he is standing and she is sitting before him clinging to his leg" (Funnyhouse of a Negro, pg. 11)
Raymond having physical intimacy with the Duchess rather than Negro Sarah implies that only a part of Sarah has a relationship with Raymond.
However, Raymond's attitude toward the Duchess is very cold. He doesn't attempt to comfort her much. He is listening to what the Duchess is saying, but constantly laughs at what she is saying and seems to interrogate or accuse her. Toward the end of the scene, he keeps repeating phrases such as "Isn't it cruel of you?" and "How tormented and cruel you are." This connects to Sarah's father calling her a "nigger of torment" and also to the idea that Sarah feel guilt for not forgiving her father. In this scene, Raymond almost acts like Sarah's own accusing voice toward herself. It is ambiguous if this scene shows an accurate depiction of Raymond or Sarah's imagination of Raymond's judgement toward her.
Landlady
Profile
Name: Mrs. Conrad
Ethnicity: White
Appearance: "She is a tall, thin, white woman dressed in a black and red hat [...] She laughs like a mad character in a funnyhouse throughout her speech." (Funnyhouse of a Negro, pg. 10)
Work: Landlady
Photo from iStock
Significance in Plot
The Landlady is a character that seems to be the most removed from Sarah's mind throughout the play. This makes this character important for the audience when trying to get an idea of what Sarah is like from an outsider's perspective.
Through the Landlady, the audience learns that Sarah's previous monologue is something that she has been mumbling in her room over and over for a while, that Sarah's father hung himself, and that Sarah blames herself for her father's death.
The audience also learns though the Landlady's monologue about three different times Sarah's father came to visit Sarah and that Sarah had gone to the Harlem Hotel to check on her father. This reveals the only moment where we can see Sarah's concern and possible bit of love toward her father.
However, there is an eeriness to the Landlady because she is laughing throughout the play as well. There is often no context to why she started laughing, and when juxtaposed to events like Sarah's suicide, the laughing can make the audience question the sanity of the Landlady as well.