Neil Simon’s 'The Odd Couple': Why Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar are unable to live with each other

Index

1. Introduction

2. The Odd Couple
2.1. Oscar Madison
2.2. Felix Ungar

3. Why Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar are unable to live with each other.

4. Conclusion

Synopsis

Bibliography

1. Introduction

“I am a creature controlled by some cruel fate that had twisted and warped my personality so that at the first sign of personal involvement, I became transformed from human being into the most feared and dangerous beast on earth, the observer-writer”, says Neil Simon, calling himself “a monster who finds himself totally involved in situations, and then suddenly and without warning steps back to watch the proceeding”.^[1]

Some call Simon “Broadway’s most successful playwright”^[2], others “in commercial terms, the most successful dramatist in the American theatre, and probably in the history of the world”.^[3] Fact is, he has had dozens of plays produced and “has been showered with more Academy and Tony nominations than any other writer”.^[4]

Born on July 4, 1927, Marvin Neil Simon grew up in Manhattan and shortly attended New York University and the University of Denver. His most significant job came in the early 1950s when he started writing for television comedy series. By the 1960s, Simon had begun to concentrate on writing plays for Broadway. His first hit was ‘Come Blow Your Horn’ in 1961. Throughout his career, Simon “has drawn extensively on his own life and experience for materials for his plays”. The author’s “milieu is middle-aged, middle class New York [, neighborhoods he knows well from when he was a child], and he builds much of his humor on the familiarity of that world to his audience”.^[5]

But Simon is probably best known for his characters Oscar Madison and Felix Ungar from his 1965 playwright ‘ The Odd Couple’.“Neil Simon's fabulously funny creation The Odd Couple started out in 1965 as a Broadway play, became a movie in 1968 and then was adapted for TV by ABC in 1970, remaining on screen for five years and more than a hundred episodes”^[6], as well as used for other derivative works and spin-offs. In his plays, above all in this play, Neil Simon delivers insight in the life of egocentric people and their struggle in society, “his characters are more or less well-meaning blunderers on dead-end roads”^[7]. It does not matter “ob es um Ehe, Freundschaft oder Eltern-Kind-Beziehungen geht, immer steht das Aufeinanderprallen gegensätzlicher Lebenseinstellungen zweier Menschen im Ringen um eine mögliche Form des Zusammenlebens im Mittelpunkt”^[8]

2. The Odd Couple

The cornerstone of the comedy is the relationship between two very different men: sloppy Oscar Madison, divorced since several month, and the neat and precise Felix Ungar, estranged and kicked out by his wife. They decide to share Oscar's Park Avenue apartment in order to save money for alimony. “[H]owever, the couple remains at odds. Two men of opposite temperaments, rejected by their wives, cannot dovetail in a common household”^[9]

It all begins with Oscar’s poker game every Friday. According to his untidy nature, his apartment is “a study in slovenliness”.^[10] Oscar’s poker buddies Roy, Murray, Vinnie and Speed are sitting around a table, only Felix is missing. Because “he’s never been this late before”^[11], they start to worry about him. After a while and a phone call of Felix’ wife Frances the poker pals find out that they broke up and are getting divorced.^[12] The worrying about Felix even grows, since they now think he might kill himself, but Felix appears at the door. Even though the poker players pretend to not know about the situation, it escalates and Felix gets hysterical. After everything is cleared again, they deicide to give Felix some rest and after he and Oscar are alone, Oscar asks him to move in with him. To understand why this cannot go right, one has to take a closer look at the characters as they are “drawn on the fundamental differences and conflicts […] between the two”.^[13]

2.1. Oscar Madison

Oscar Madison is a 43 year old pleasant appealing husky^[14] man who works as a high paid sports-writer for the New York Post. He enjoys life, especially “his weekly poker game, his friends, his excessive drinking and his cigars. He is also one of those lucky creatures in life who even enjoys his work […]. His carefree attitude is evident in the sloppiness of his household, but it seems to bother others more than it does Oscar”.^[15] One example of this is Oscar’s answer to Roy, constantly complaining about something in his apartment:

OSCAR […] Temper, temper. If I wanted nagging I’d go back with my wife.^[16]

Oscar is divorced since several month and his wife Blanche and kids now live in California.^[17] Already after this short time, Oscar started to neglect his family duties. His kid Brucey is calling, asking for his goldfish, Oscar did not even know about it, pretends to have fed it, but says to his friends: “Oh, God, I killed my kid’s goldfish!“^[18] But not only his son, also his wife wants to speak to him, reminding Oscar that he is four weeks behind with alimony. Clearly, Oscar now has a big problem in owing his wife 800 dollars as support for his children. He even has to lend money from his pals to go on in the poker game. His money problems do not prevent him from playing. However, Oscar is not unsatisfied with himself, he even knows of his weaknesses, but is always optimistic and does not take everything too serious:

“ROY You don’t take any of this seriously, do you? You owe money to your wife, your government, your friends…

OSCAR […] What do you want me to do, Roy, jump in the garbage disposal and grind myself to death? […] Life goes on even for those of us who are divorced broke and sloppy.”^[19]

[...]

^[1] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 4

^[2] Cohn, Ruby. New American Dramatists 1960-1990. Second Edition. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. p. 10

^[3] Berkowitz, M. Gerald. American Drama of the Twentieth Century. London and New York: Longman Literature in English Series, 1992. p. 153

^[4] Neil Simon. American Masters. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 13.02.2006 <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/simon_n.html>

^[5] Berkowitz, M. Gerald. American Drama of the Twentieth Century. London and New York: Longman Literature in English Series, 1992. p. 155 - 156

^[6] Lewisohn, Mark. Guide to Comedy - The Odd Couple. BBC. 13.02.2006 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/o/oddcouplethe_7774950.shtml>

^[7] Cohn, Ruby. New American Dramatists 1960-1990. Second Edition. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. p. 10

^[8] Roeder-Zerndt, Martin. Unterhaltungskunst und Lachkultur. Überlegungen zur Situation der amerikanisches Komödie am Beispiel Woody Allens und Neil Simons. American Theater Today. Vol. 35. Anglistik & Englischunterricht. Heidelberg: Karl Winter – Universitätsverlag, 1988. p. 40

^[9] Cohn, Ruby. New American Dramatists 1960-1990. Second Edition. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. p. 11

^[10] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 217

^[11] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 219

^[12] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 229

^[13] Lewisohn, Mark. Guide to Comedy - The Odd Couple. BBC. 13.02.2006

<http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/o/oddcouplethe_7774950.shtml>

^[14] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 263

^[15] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 220

^[16] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 220

^[17] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 223

^[18] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 224

^[19] Simon, Neil. Simon, Neil: Collected plays. Volume 1. New York: Random House, 1971. p. 226