Ok but Boss is also misunderstood... Lol jk he's a jerk

     The first scene of Act 2 has introduced us to a little bit more of the plot that the play will follow. It establishes the reason Chance left St. Cloud to begin with and also allows us to gain some insight on the status of his reputation with those that know him. For the most part, the scene introduces 2 main characters: Boss Finley and Heavenly. There are two other characters here but I got the impression that they really are not that important to the overall plot, at least not as of yet. So, for the most part, I'm going to be talking about Boss and his beloved daughter: Heavenly.

Boss fits his name

     He's the boss. From a glace, he is the stereotypical rich, politically savvy father that tries to maintain his pristine image from the public. In order to maintain this image he has adopted a very controlling personality in terms of his family and lifestyle. This public view of him is extrememly important in order to maintain his current lifestyle. To put it simply, he's living the good life. He has a house on the Gulf (or at least we think it's on the Gulf) with a nice little boat. He's wealthy and he knows it. He uses his wealth to influence those around him and to make sure nothing interferes with his life. Boss has this control issue about him that everything has to be perfect in his life and if something isn't up to his specifications then he feels a need to fix. From a certain point of view you can perceive his actions as just an over concerened father. He worries about his children's public appearance and even went as far as to pay five grand just to hide his son's little stag party (it's basically a bachelor party). Again, from a particular perspective this could be seen as caring for his son but when you look deeper in it may not be just that. What he might actually be doing is protecting his own image by preventing the public from having a negative view of his children. This would adversely affect his own life so the big question is: does he care about his children or just himself? I think there's two possibilites here. 1) Boss is simply an overbearing father who is trying to control his daughter's life and shape it in the way he sees best. He wants her to marry the person that will make her life the most financially stable and secure. Or 2) Boss is looking out for his own status. He needs to control his children's lives in order to secure the stability of his own. He even goes as far to say later on when speaking to Heavenly about her going into a convent, "a daughter in a convent would politcally ruin me." Either way he has a control issue.

Good Heavens

     We get the chance to learn a little bit more about Chance's love interest in this scene. Previously, we thought that Heavenly was the one that didn't want to be with Chance. Now we know that it was her father that didn't want her with Chance. I really only have gathered one thing from her personality so far: she really just wants to be with Chance. Her heart continues to lie with him even after all these years.

I have the impression that Heavenly has a very strong female personality, especially for the time period. However, her father is just so overbearing that she can't seem to get what she wants out of life. She has the aspirations but not quite enough strength to go through with it. Or simply her father has that much more strength to keep her in check.

Tom and Nonnie

     As of now these two are background characters. There's not much to say about either of them. Especially Aunt Nonnie. From what I've gather Tom is just the sad puppy that's trying to please its master. In this case his master is his father. He realizes that his father cares about Heavnely more than him and he tries at every turn to try and please Boss. However, he continues to just be a srew up that his father has to take care of all the time. This is something he seems to not realize. His character may become important later on as it is implied that he has a plan to remove Chance from St. Cloud, so until then we can only guess about his true personality.

     Nonnie literally has about ten lines of dialogue so there is an extremely small amount to go off of. From what I can see she is the kind aunt that nobody really seems to give the time of day. I think she's the type of person to always think of family first and that "love conquers all." But until we get her to talk a little more that thought is really only a guess.

Chance is misunderstood. Change my mind. (title ripped from the creative mind of Teagan Havemeier)

     Chance is misunderstood

     Let's start off by saying that I will not be adhering to the common opinion that Chance is a jerk. At first glance, yes, his actions during the first scene would definitely be considered rude, obnoxious, or even downright cruel. However, I believe many people reading this are suffering from the psychological effect of only remembering the bad things about a person and forgetting the good things. It goes a little something like this: let's say you go your whole day with several people complimenting your new haircut. Then out of nowhere someone says it sucks. What are you more likely to remember or take to heart the most? The several people that complimented it or the one person that said it sucked? Another example could be a long time friend that says one thing that really hurts. What are you going to remember? All the good things or the one thing that really hurt you? Just because Chance says some mean things, his actions (in my opinion) outweigh the way he speaks to Princess.

 
     If you couldn't already tell, my initial impression of Chance is that deep down inside he's a nice guy but his methods could use some work. Some of what I'm about to say could be taken as a bit of a stretch but bear (yes that's the proper bear/bare, I looked it up) with me and you might understand where I'm coming from. Remember when Williams specifically said this when describing Chance helping Princess back to bed: "He assists her to the bed. There is an unmistakable sympathy in his manner, however shallow." This is when it appears that Princess is about to undergo another panic attack and Chance understands this. While this is a very important line for his character, most people only remember the fact that he basically threw Princess out of bed in the first place. I believe there is a distinction between the two acts. For the latter, this could be seen as a form of laziness on Princess' part. There really is no reason for her not to be able to get out of bed herself. So Chance really saw no reason to actually help her. Sure it's a dick move but it is implied that Princess is actually able to get up from being on the floor by herself which is much harder than getting out of bed. This would show that she didn't need help after all. However, in the former he sees something truly wrong with her. He understands that she may be in trouble and his nicer side comes out to help her back in bed. "Unmistakable sympathy... however shallow" is a way to show that this side of him doesn't come out often and it isn't very strong but it does exist. He even goes to offer her more oxygen and she now becomes the rude one shouting "no" at him. All he was trying to do was help.
     Let's go back to the beginning of the scene where Princess is claiming she can't breath and requires the use of her oxygen tank. First off, how extreme do panic attacks need to be to require an actual tank of oxygen? That's a serious question I have. The point I was about to make was how when requested for him to get the oxygen tank, Chance actually remembers here it is and why she needs it. He rushes to the case and attempts to open it. Sure he might not have remembered the combination to the case it was in but it doesn't erase his effort to help her. This is another instance where Princess is the rude one in the relationship, not Chance. She begins to berate him on this placement and storage of the tank questioning him "Why in the hell did you lock it up in that case?", he then explains how he believed that she wanted it in there and she continues to talk down to him as if he wanted her to die on purpose. My conclusion: Princess is the rude one, not Chance.

Princess, what's her deal?

     So Princess is kind of this super mysterious character right now. We don't know much about her nor do we really understand her motivations very well. Her character is very dramatic, I guess this is understandable considering she was an actress, and pretends to be this weak and feeble person when in reality she is not. Throughout the scene all I could picture was this has-been that is struggling to cope with the fact that her career is over. She turns to life's more dangerous pleasures to try and forget how much of a failure she has become. She constantly repeats how she just wants to forget. And everytime she says it she takes a drink of vodka. She doesn't just want to forget she wants to get drunk (keep in mind she just woke up and she's drinking vodka in the morning). Chance and her later talk about how she can't remember anything and how Chance does not believe in amnesia and she states "Neither do I. But you have to believe a thing that happens to you.", this isn't medical amnesia. She's just hungover from the day before! She got drunk and can't remember anything!

     Many people are picturing her as the victim in this scene but I strongly disagree. I do not believe Chance is taking advantage of her, I believe it's the other way around. Her character is a ravid acoholic and sex addict which many people incorrectly stated that Chance was taking advantage of her. This is made evident during the last part of the scene. As Chance tries to blackmail Princess into helping him get a job, she completely turns the table on him by seducing him into bed. How can you conclude that Chance is the one taking advantage of the situation?
     Furthermore, Princess paid for Chance's services, he isn't doing anything that he was not asked to do. He even goes through the trouble of packing her bags for her, which we learned he did when she calls him a "bastard" for packing her oxygen tank in the wrong bag. I say be glad he even remembered where he put it lady. I think she's extremely rude to Chance when he try's to help her, however sometimes he does deserve it. All-in-all I believe that Princess is the rude and selfish one of the two. I mean, just look at her fake name: PRINCESS. What kind of self-centered, arrogant person does it take to come up with the fake name of Princess. Any way, I hope you get the point.