36 pages • 1 hour read
Neil SimonThe Odd Couple
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1965A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Oscar Madison
Oscar Madison is one of the main characters in The Odd Couple. He is the resident of a large apartment in New York City, which he lives in alone due to his divorce. Oscar is described as a “pleasant, appealing man” who “seems to enjoy life to the fullest” (8). He hosts his friends for a weekly poker game and is incredibly social. Simon mainly defines Oscar by his flaws to highlight the reasons behind his deteriorating relationships. One of his primary shortcomings is his slovenly nature. Oscar’s apartment is disgusting and littered with filth. He is also fiscally irresponsible, and frequently misses his child support payments to his ex-wife Blanche. While his friends try to remain supportive, they occasionally struggle to understand his actions. After hearing he is a month behind on child support, Murray asks, “It doesn’t bother you? That you can go to jail? Or that maybe your kids don’t have enough clothes or enough to eat?” (13). Rather than reflect, Oscar attempts to brush him off with a joke and resume the poker game. In this way, Oscar’s carefree nature frequently crosses into self-centered apathy. At the onset of the play, he would rather use his money to gamble and eat fancy dinners than keep up with his child support payments.
Despite his flaws, Oscar is still a character the audience can root for. He is incredibly social and values his friends. Even during his most bitter arguments with Felix, he still makes it clear that he prioritizes their friendship. When he kicks him out of the apartment, he says “For the sake of [our] friendship, please say, ‘Oscar, we can’t stand each other, let’s break up’” (82). Oscar struggles in the aftermath of their “break up,” but his actions pay off in the end. Felix admits to Oscar that getting kicked out gave him a new perspective on his flaws and made him realize he could be difficult to live with. Oscar also has occasional moments of vulnerability that shine through his brash facade. When Felix first moves in, he confesses that he has a hard time living alone and tells Felix, “When you walk into eight empty rooms at night it hits you in the face like a wet glove” (34). Despite his outwardly detached nature, Oscar craves meaningful connection and is struggling to live in isolation after his divorce.
By the end of The Odd Couple, Oscar makes genuine progress. While his apartment is still mostly filthy, he at least began mandating his guests use ashtrays. He also gets another phone call from Blanche, but this time, she is thanking him for his timely payment. Oscar thinks nothing of it and insists he was just fulfilling his obligation to his family. He realizes he learned from living with Felix and comes to understand that his treatment of his space and the people in his life could turn his fears of being alone into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Felix Ungar
Felix Ungar is the other protagonist of The Odd Couple. He is an uptight news writer, a recent unwilling divorcee, and a member of Oscar’s poker crew. Oscar invites him to move in with him as he searches for a new place to live. Felix is meticulously clean and finds it difficult to live in Oscar’s slovenly home. He spends most of the play trying to encourage Oscar to maintain his home and mourning his ex-wife Frances. Like Oscar, Felix takes what could be positive traits—organization and service—to extreme levels, thus alienating people he cares about. While each man initially seems wildly different, they are united by their penchant for excess. One of Felix’s primary flaws is his controlling nature. This usually manifests in his cleaning. While Oscar’s apartment was undeniably filthy, it can be impossible to do anything while Felix is cleaning. This is most apparent in the second poker game of the play, in which Felix’s constant cleaning, air filtration, and sandwich making makes it impossible for the men to complete a game. After another interruption from Felix, Speed exclaims, “In the last three hours we played four minutes of poker” (43). While this line is meant to be delivered comedically, audience members will also be able to see the extent of Felix’s cleaning. It is no longer helpful and instead impedes on the men’s ability to relax and enjoy themselves. This highlights one of his core similarities to Oscar. Felix’s desire to keep things clean and under control is occasionally coming from a self-centered place. He knows the game is important to his friends but still insists on interrupting them with his cleaning.
Felix is also portrayed as being resistant to change. He is unwilling to give the Pigeon sisters a chance or to continue their date even though they expressed they were interested in him. While he initially passes this off as fear that he humiliated himself by crying in front of them, he ultimately admits that he is unwilling to move on from Frances: “But why did I cry? Because I felt guilty. Emotionally I’m still tied to Frances and the kids” (71). Felix cannot accept that his relationship with Frances is over and would rather spend his time focusing on the past than exploring what could be in his future.
As was the case with Oscar, Simon emphasizes the goodness at the root of Felix’s flaws. While his cleaning is partially driven by his anxiety, he also finds genuine joy in taking care of his friends. Shortly after kicking him out, Oscar describes Felix’s unconventional plans for hosting the next poker game: “A Luau! A Hawaiian Luau! Spareribs, roast pork and fried rice…They don’t play poker like that in Honolulu” (84). Though the men are flabbergasted by how Felix might combine a luau and poker, the audience can see Felix enjoys planning fun events for his friends and showing them a good time.
He is also a devoted husband and father. While he is initially rattled by his split and is far too cavalier about threatening his ex-wife with suicide, this emotion ultimately tempers. He frequently expresses regret that he made Frances’s life difficult, saying “I used to love to come home at night. That was my whole life [...] It’ll never be like that again” (67). The sadness he feels at being kicked out by Frances allows him to reflect after being kicked out by Oscar. Since he has now had the same experience twice in a row, he is able to understand that he plays a role in his dysfunctional relationships. Once the audience learns about Felix’s change in perspective, they can be optimistic that he can finally change.
Related Titles
By Neil Simon
