E-Lecture - Rose Maxson
- Rose is Troy’s Second wife whom he married after being released from prison. She is the mother of his second child, Cory. She is a forty-three-year-old African American housewife that is ever dutiful.
- Rose is a loving and supporting wife. She does everything she can to make him happy.
- Troy maintains an affectionate patriarchal relationship with Rose, Demanding respect from her as the head of the household and primary breadwinner, though he is greatly influenced by her realistic take on the changing world.
- Rose’s request that Troy and Cory build a fence in their small, dirty back yard comes to represent her desire to keep her loved ones close to her love.
- Unlike Troy, Rose is a realist, not romantically longing for the gone days. She is no doormat. She doesn’t let Troy walk all over her; she always calls him on his crap. When he makes inappropriate sexual remarks in front of company, she tells him that’s not cool. When he exaggerates stories, she sets him off, saying, “You always talking about what you give … and what you don’t have to give. But you take too. You take … and don’t even know nobody’s giving!”
- She has high hopes for her son, Cory, and sides with him in his wish to play football.
- After Troy cheats on her, Rose is heartbroken because she has given her all and made sacrifices as his wife. When Troy brings home Raynell his child with Alberta, Rose agrees to care for her; but she will no longer be a wife to Troy. She devotes herself to the Church.
- For the rest of the play, we see that Troy and Rose are totally estranged.
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