Will and Grace - the Significance of Pills

Courtney McIntyre

ENC 1102

11/06/2006

Essay 3

The Significance of Pills

Will and Grace is a comedic drama about a gay man and a straight woman who live together in Manhattan. They have a very strong relationship with love and concern for each other that goes all the way back to their college days. Will is a responsible, successful lawyer who is very disciplined when it comes to work, along with being obsessively compulsively neat. Will also likes everything to be in order. On the other hand, Grace is an interior designer who lives a very chaotic life with very little routine. In the scenes by Kari Lizer, Will becomes addicted to pain killers after falling and injuring himself from wearing wooden clogs. The pain killers affect his personality; they suppress his feelings, and challenge his friendships.

The pain killers have effects on Will’s personality. Typically, Will is a very neat and orderly person. Grace becomes very nervous when will comes home because he dislikes water rings on the table and crumbs on the carpet. After being drugged up, Will comes home to find Grace and Jack having an old fashion folding party. Will states; “Hey, I hope you saved the fitted sheet for me. It’s fun to pretend it’s a giant shower cap.” (Lizer 1282) That was not something Will would normally do. The pain killer were loosening him up and taking him completely out of his normal routine. Grace notices something very strange about Will. She tells him; “There are crumbs on the carpet, your robe doesn’t match your socks, and, oh my God, there’s no product in your hair. ( Lizer 1282) Will was very lazy on the pills. He was normally a very responsible person, but the pills put American Idol priority over his job. Drugs can change a person’s mood from uptight to carefree.

The pills also suppressed Will’s feelings. They covered up the pain that he had all bottled up inside, almost to the point where he felt no pain, physical or emotional. “Little secret. If you cheat and take’em a little closer together, you can avoid the pain completely. It’s even pretty effective in squashing the lingering ache from having to work so hard for my mother’s affection, making it nearly impossible for any man to love me enough to make up for the hole she left in my heart.” (Lizer 1283) He chuckled as he said it. Almost like he was trying to cover up how much it bothered him. Will needed the love and affection from his mother growing up as he was a very confused boy. His mother did not accept the fact that he was gay and made very little time for him. Will was very confused with his sexuality which possibly was a result from the lack of love he received from his mother. He had to find it from other people, male or female. His struggles with relationships were because he was to afraid to let anyone in with fear of being hurt in the long run. Will’s relationships have been a struggle all his life. He was able to build friendships, but love relationships have lead to heartbreak. Many relationships are complicated by trust. Will’s feelings of love and trust were deeply affected by his mother. The pills made those feelings dormant inside of him, which he liked. He was sometimes an angry man, constantly nagging if things were out of place and intense always on edge.

Friendships are affected by Will’s addiction. It put Grace in a predicament