Criticism Post #5 – Revised

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Pentad

From our class reading, Burke (1969) proposed his theory, the pentad, to help explain ‘‘what is involved, when we say what people are doing and why they are doing it,’’ (p. xv). In this post, I will apply the theory of pentad to Grace and Frankie, Season four. As Burke states, there are five areas of analysis, and can be explained by the following from our class notes:

1. It is helpful to create lists with each area.

2. Look at relationships between the following area, (one will often dominate as the key aspect of the story):

• Symbolic act (what) –  A motion as a result of the act/the will behind it/the motive.
• Scene (where) –  Time, space, and the audience.
• Agent (who) –  Who played what role, attitude/position, and collective individual or collective like community.
• Agency (how do they do it)  – How would this have happened?
• Purpose (why) – What do they think they are doing? What do they state as their purpose?

3. Decide what the dominant aspect is.

4. What the dominant area says about the real motive, (not to be confused with the stated purpose).

Over the course of Season four, many things happen to Grace and Frankie, including their house beginning to fall apart. They attempt to get it fixed, only to be scammed and robbed. At one point, they both find themselves being stuck on the floor for the majority of the day, due to their backs giving out. Grace has her own set of misfortunes including, having knee surgery, and getting caught drinking in public while riding a scooter into a parked cop car. Frankie gets lost while driving around her granddaughter, by following an ice cream truck, and ends up at the Mexico border. These are some of the unfortunate events that happen to them, which they try to keep from everyone, including their children. When their children find out about these events, they become very concerned for both their Mother’s safety and well being. The children love and adore their Moms, and are scared that they live alone, too far away from everyone else, and should be somewhere where they can always have help when needed.

In the very last episode of Season 4, Episode 13, Grace and Frankie’s children decide that it’s time their Moms need to move into assisted living, based on a check-list they found online, which they believed to match their Moms after all the unfortunate events that recently took place. At first, Grace and Frankie both refuse to go, and think their children are wrong for even bringing it up. After the children take aside Grace and Frankie individually, they manage to trick them into believing they need to do this for the sake of each other, because they know Grace and Frankie would never leave each other behind, and want to do what’s best for the sake of the other.

Breanna says to Frankie about her mom, Grace: “Maybe you don’t need to be there, but she does, and we can’t imagine her going anywhere without you.” 

Bud says to Grace about his mom, Frankie: “She would never go anywhere without you again.”

And just like that, the children convince them to move into assisted living for the sake of one another. Two months pass by while they are living in their new assisted living, Walden Villas. While Grace and Frankie live there, the children put their beach house up for sale, and don’t notify Grace and Frankie that it sold. Meanwhile, Grace and Frankie finally realize they were both tricked into living there for the sake of each other, and decided to leave back to their beach house without telling anyone. 

Grace: “Since we came here for eachother, can we leave for each other?”

Frankie: “Done.”

They leave Walden Villas and arrive back to their home, only to discover it was sold. Together, they fight for their house back, and after a few nights of squatting, and speaking with the new owner, they get it back.

Symbolic Act: When Grace and Frankie move back to their beach house, together.

Scene: At Grace and Frankie’s beach house, and also the assisted living where they briefly lived at, Walden Villas.

Agent: Grace and Frankie, and their children: Bud, Coyote, Breanna, and Mallory.

Agency: When the children convinced their moms that they need to move for the sake of each other. They tricked them into moving into the assisted living, Walden Villas.

Purpose: Grace and Frankie care and love eachother so much, they thought they were helping each other out, by moving to assisted living for each other.

If Grace and Frankie didn’t care and love each other the way they did, the children wouldn’t have been able to convince them to move into assisted living. Without that purpose, there wouldn’t be the agency to do that. The dominant aspect of this pentad theory is the purpose. It’s the most important part, because Grace and Frankie will do anything and everything for each other. Just like they moved in for each other at the Walden Villas, they move out and fight together to get their beach house back. The real motive for this episode is not the children tricking their moms into moving in assisted living, but realizing the special relationship, and strong bond that Grace and Frankie share with each other. They will do anything for one another, and the audience can clearly see this after watching this episode.