Objectification and lack or respect is something that still exists today and this entrenched concept prevails over time as women are considered to be the inferior gender. With society accepting as the norm for men to work and provide for their family and the woman’s role was merely to bear children and take care of the household, this separation of power and subordination results in men feeling they are always in control and they have the right to hold that power over women. Many women in return accept this and will not contest it, in most part because they are unable to fit the ‘system’ they are in. This investigation on the six plays will also delve into the relationship between choosing not to fend off the objectification and lack of respect as a trade off to not need to be alone. It is also important to keep in mind while analyzing this theme in the plays that we do not assume that all men take advantage of the women and condemn as being ‘evil’, as we need to be aware that it is in part their nature to react in this way if they do because the society they are in constructs them to do so. It is equally crucial that we acknowledge that society can change and therefore it just for women to continuously seek for change even when if the outcome looks bleak. Although much improvement has been instilled in societies around the world with fairer treatment of women at work or at home, readers need to understand that it is because women, like those portrayed in the plays, have endured the crux of the hardships in history already.
The inability for women to successfully assimilate into their society will be explored, along with how it influences isolation. To do so, it is essential in understanding how they approach assimilation in the time and place the play is set in; do the women have the right mindset to facilitate integration or are they still caught in the past and ponder about their homeland? When thinking about integration, we also need to be careful not to make the generalized assumption that it is a necessary element in their lives to bring happiness and that it is always achievable. Along with this is understanding how assimilation affect the three inevitable outcomes for women and whether the process of assimilation conflict with the women’s desires to be happy.
Chapter 2: Role of Women in America
The role of women is an intriguing topic to explore as the female character often has a significant function in drama, even when the play is written with a male dominated cast. To understand the representation of women as constructed by their respective societies in the various American plays, the study will focus on three aspects; the purpose and significance of marriage, the ability to survive independently, and the lack of respect and objectification of women.
The Purpose and Significance of Marriage
The theme of marriage, or in some of the texts, the desire to be in a good marriage, is a focal point in all six plays; It appears to be the cause of happiness in some while the root of the family’s misery and entrapment in others. While considering this theme and understanding how it interacts with the concept of the role of women, we must also take into account whether the marriages were voluntary or arranged. In the view of these scenes, we can further understand where the position of women is in marriages and how their role in the marriage affects the family unity and the opportunity to sustain bliss.
Marriage is considered a rite of passage for women in Machinal. Helen Jones is persuaded by the actions of other girls that marriage is the only key to success and happiness for a woman. When she is first propositioned, she becomes frantic and automatically trails off in her scattered and insecure thoughts about what is expected of her as a young woman. “Married, all girls, most girls, married – babies, a baby!” (Treadwell, 186). While she is terrified by this though, she slowly reconciles her insecurities and forces herself to believe that this needs to a reality for her. Wanting to confirm her daunting feelings of marriage, Helen attempts to seek the advice from her mother. “I got to get married, Ma. All women get married, don’t they? (Treadwell, 190). However her mother is too concerned with the prospect of her daughter’s rich finance supporting her to notice her daughter’s reluctance and vulnerability. Unlike what she originally expected, Helen soon realizes that she can never genuinely feel happy in her marriage as she does not love her husband. On the surface, she fulfills the obligations of a married woman by giving birth to a girl and plays the role of a wife for six years without feeling affection towards her husband or her child. In a quest for true love, Helen finds herself in an affair, thinking she could escape the sorrow from her marriage. Her prevailing desire to escape from her marriage leads her to murder her husband. “I put him out of the way – yes. To be free” (Treadwell, 248). The actions of this desperate woman to break the constructed role for all women in her society however, only results in her death as she is caught and tried for murder.
In some cases, marriage is portrayed as an escape route, spurned by a desire to climb out of the hole of desperation and step into a future with hope and little remembrance of the past. In Bitter Cane, Li-Tai wishes for a better life than one of pleasing men but she knows no other way. Her lover, Lau is a sugar cane laborer who is bound by contract to work for years to pay off his debt and so when Lau proposes to her and indulges her with thoughts of leaving Hawaii, she foresees that it would not succeed. “He wanted to marry me. What kind of a future would we have had? A plantation runaway and a pei-pa girl? He was obsessed with escaping” (Lim, 192). While Lau thinks that once they are married, they can start a fresh life together, she acknowledges that marriage is simply a façade for happiness and that their characters have always lead a harsh life and were not destined to find contentment. Li-Tai also suggests that her bleak life is connected with the fact that she is female as she tries to explain to him, “I’m a woman, Lau. There’s nothing out there but desolation.” (Lim, 200). Lau commits suicide following Li-Tai’s rejection and she meets Wing, who is Lau’s son and later becomes her lover. However, Li-Tai’s persistent despair wavers when Wing proposes and she grasps the opportunity to leave her past behind and attempt to find happiness with him. What is particularly interesting here is that Wing intends to leave the sugar plantations in Hawaii to “go to Honolulu” (Lim, 194), another Hawaiian island. This suggests that their escape through marriage is not principally a physical escape, but more of an emotional escape.
Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, also attempts to use marriage as a way to escape from her flirtatious past and take the opportunity to secure a stable appreciation from a man before she ages too much and therefore no longer entices the opposite gender. The reader understands that Blanche is quite insecure about her deteriorating looks and her concerns about losing the power of seduction and often seeks for compliments to help convince herself that she has not completely lost her talent yet. When she first sees her sister Stella, she initiates the expected compliment by joking that she still has that “awful vanity about [her] looks even now that [her] looks are slipping!” (Williams, 123) with Stella dutifully responding, “They hadn’t slipped one particle” (Williams, 123). However Blanche’s plan for marriage fails and her last chance of earning happiness and security with someone who appreciates her is lost. “She thought Mitch was going to – going to marry her” (Williams, 191). Her fiancée Mitch, is in a similar position as Blanche, also looking for someone to spend the rest of his life with, a stable long term partner as he admitted to his drinking buddies that “you all are married, but I’ll be alone” (Williams, 144). Despite his desperate need to be with somebody, Mitch does not want Blanche when her provocative life is revealed as she is no longer ‘marriage material’. This suggests to the reader that marriage from Mitch’s perception and perhaps from the perspective of society as well, is that the sanctity of marriage and the purity of the woman are traditionally crucial.
Contrastingly, in Flyin’ West, Minnie is pressured by her sisters to escape her abusive marriage as a move into the direction of a better future. Minnie is reluctant to do so despite knowing her sisters’ words of wisdom were only articulated out of love and protection. In the play, Minnie’s character displays the dilemma that many women are caught in their marriages. On the one hand, they love their husband and will be willing to sacrifice themselves to place their husbands’ outrageous requests and wishes first while their concerned family members struggle to convince the abused woman to think rationally for themselves and not their undeserving so-called husbands. This problem is greatly highlighted by Sophie when she bluntly recalls the truth that no one else wants to mention. “You know as well as I do there are no laws that protect a woman from her husband. Josh beat Belle for years and we all knew it. And because the sheriff didn’t do anything, none of us did anything either.” (Cleage, 717). Flyin’ West also offers the reader an interpretation to the importance of marriage. Their grandmother explains that enduring a harsh life does not “make sense without the children” (Cleage, 698). Respecting her grandmother’s words, Minnie places her child’s best interest first over Frank’s as she accepts that she needs to escape from her abusive marriage regardless of how much she still loves him.
In A Streetcar Named Desire, Stella withstands the abuse her husband exerts on her as a way to maintain happiness in her life. Stella comprehends the complexities of marriage and the need of personal sacrifice to build a life with her husband and provide a family for their unborn child. “I’m not in anything I want to get out of” (Williams, 158). She accepts that there are both positive and negative aspects in her marriage and she concludes that the joy which her marriage brings to her life overrides the pain and heartbreak that she occasionally experiences. Most importantly, Stella displays her intimate affections for her husband, indicating that she has invested emotionally in this relationship to the point that it is impossible for her to break away from such a commitment. “I can hardly stand it when he is away for a night…when he’s away for a week I nearly go wild! And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby” (Williams, 125). However this concept of true love and marriage is lost on Blanche when Stella repeatedly tries to defend her love for Stanley, to the ironic extent that Blanche measures the validity of this concept by comparing it with her desire for short term pleasure with strange men and calls it a “fix is worse than mine” (Williams, 158).
This idea of marriage invoking a symbol of happiness to help overcome any hardship is also represented in And The Soul Shall Dance through Murata and Hana’s marriage. Murata endures much of the same obstacles Oka faces when farming and trying to reap crops to support his family, but Oka envies Murata because he does not have his beloved wife with him. Oka believes that any hardship is tolerable so long as his Shizue could support and comfort him because they would “be poor but happy…like Murata and his wife and the kid” (Yamauchi, 151). However as a reader, I must examine whether the reason behind Murata and Hana’s loving marriage and their happiness hinges on the fact that Hana plays the expected, stereotypical role of a woman as a devoted mother and wife. In contrast, Emiko refuses to play the role of a wife as her heart belongs to another man and she does not want to be married to Oka in the United States. Her refusal antagonizes Oka as seen in his frustrated scene with her where he brutally scolds her and spats “all I wanted was a little comfort and you…no, you didn’t” (Yamauchi, 151). This raises the question of whether subordination and living up to expectations is paramount to meeting the purpose of a successful marriage from the perspective of women and their husbands.
This concern also arises in Fences when the reader attempts to understand Rose’s decision for staying in the marriage with her cheating husband, Troy. Throughout the play, the character of Rose revolves around Troy and their son Cory to the extent that she exists in the play simply to wait on the two most important men in her life. She does so without questioning the structure behind their family and appears to be content serving them from managing the housework to mediating between characters to maintain tranquility. “You ready for breakfast? I can fix it soon as I finish hanging up these clothes.” (Wilson, 21). While Troy has a full time job with the garbage disposal department and their teenage son holding a part time job at the local supermarket, Rose is the only character in the household who does not have an occupation, something which is not uncommon for women in this time of society. What is interesting however, is that other characters in the play as well as readers take for granted that her role is merely a housewife, but when Rose confronts Troy’s infidelity, she defines this as her employment and not simply a contribution to the family. “That was my job, not somebody else’s” (Wilson, 69). This suggests that Rose understands and accepts that she caters for her family and stands by her husband even if it means sacrificing her own dreams, not purely because she loves him, but because it is her responsibility to do so.
The reader also has the opportunity to value the importance of committing to a marriage from the perspective of women. Rose admits in the opening scene that she once told Troy “if he wasn’t the marrying kind, then move out of the way so the marrying kind could find me” (Wilson, 6), implying that it was crucial for her to find the right man to settle down with. The opening sequence also reveals to the audience that Rose understand the importance of devoting her married life as a loving wife and mother as she “recognizes the possibilities of her life without him” (Wilson, 5). As a result, the ultimate incentive which drives Rose to fulfill the expectations of a responsible, dutiful yet subordinate wife may be generated from a desire to feel safe and secure.
And The Soul Shall Dance also depicts the disastrous consequences of an arranged and unloving marriage. At the heart of all their problems, lies the bitter circumstance of Oka and Emiko not being in love but forced into a marriage by Emiko’s parents. “Your father palmed you off on me – like a dog or cat – an animal…couldn’t do nothing with you.” (Yamauchi, 150). As a result, there is never peace in Oka’s household, and over time the bitter truth and hateful feelings for each other are revealed as the two refuse to reconcile or make an effort to cope with each other. Oka can only imagine what life could have been like and he endures each day by believing that “there must be a better way to live…there must be another way” (Yamauchi, 152). The fact that it is not only the female character, Emiko, who feels trapped in the marriage but also the male counterpart, Oka, as shown from his sour words, “I didn’t marry her. They married her to me” (Yamauchi, 138), is quite a unique aspect in this play.
The Ability to Survive Independently
Males are often depicted as the breadwinner in literature, especially when the characters are situated in a patriarchal society. In And The Soul Shall Dance, it is understood that Oka provides for Emiko even though they do not love each other and he does so because legally, they are husband and wife. As the harsh farming life does not guarantee a stable income, Oka finds it hard to support his life and send money back to Japan to support his first wife and daughter, Kiyoko. However, neither Oka nor Murata expected the difficulty they face in America as it was everyone’s dream and belief that they could “make money, go home and live like a king” (Yamauchi, 138). As the women often simply take on the role of a mother and a wife, the females often do not work and solely depend on their husbands as Emiko does. She is financially reliant on Oka even though she wishes she did not have to owe him anything. However she has no choice in this matter as she would not be able to survive without his money. “I don’t have the money. Give me money to…I’d die out there” (Yamauchi, 151). Emiko’s desperation displays the level of frustrated dependency the woman has on the man, a frustration that Oka is burdened with and a frustration that is imposed on Emiko.
In some scenarios, the male do not solely hold the title as the financial controller. While they may be the breadwinner of the house and that is the only source of the income, they give their paycheck to their wives. This leaves the control of finances in the hands of the women. In Fences, Rose says to Troy on payday, “You can hand yours over here too, Troy” (Wilson, 47), referring to the monthly income earned to pay for everything their family lives off. Rose also shows that she is in charge of deciding how the expenditure is allocated as she justifies that she uses the money responsibly by purchasing her groceries from the cheapest store. The reader can also interpret this habit of giving the wife the salary as a common practice as Troy’s best friend Bono, shares with him that he has a similar experience with his wife on pay day. “Yeah, Lucille do me the same way” (Wilson, 47). Although the money is exclusively earned by the husbands, this practice of giving the small monthly fortune to their wives, suggest the direction of an inter-dependency relationship and a more equal dynamics in the household.
However, there is also some representation of women being the financial controller such as the sisters in Flyin’ West. Fan and Sophie are aware of the importance and the value of their land as their survival is dependant on their family ownership. The older sisters understand the unquestionable need to keep the land in their possession and not sell it for a one-off profit no matter how much the price is being offered. “Your sisters are sitting on a fortune. He said speculators are paying top dollar for these farms around here” (Cleage, 704). Sophie, being the most self-righteous and determined member of their community, appoints herself the role of ensuring that all the African American people have their own land and are not manipulated into selling their land. Although most of the other people in their community are interested in monetary rewards and do not hold the same sacred values that Sophie speaks off, she does not surrender her position and further attempts to convince her fellow neighbours to hold onto their land as it is the soil which makes them free, independent people. From a broader perspective, Sophie controls the town’s spending and use of capital as she dictates what is built and who to hire as teachers for the new school and most importantly, whether to trade the land for more money or not. In contrast to Sophie’s self-assured personality and competence in handling finances, Winnie lacks the experience and confidence at controlling her portion of the dead and thus is easily suppressed by her husband. Frank fails to provide for himself and Winnie, first failing as a poet and then failing to receive his inheritance from his father’s will as his half brothers intentionally cut his share out of the division. As a result, Frank completely depends on Winnie’s share of the land and shamelessly attempts to cheat her out of the money. “This is the chance we’ve been waiting for. A chance for me to get back on my feet. To show my brothers I don’t need their money.” (Cleage, 712). This scene is particularly intriguing as Frank jeers at his brothers and declares independence from them and their money, yet ironically, he does so by automatically taking ownership of his wife’s money to recover from the decline of hope and monetary support. Frank’s behaviour not only confirms that he cannot succeed as the breadwinner in the family, but is also unashamed of entirely relying on and taking advantage of his wife.
In Bitter Cane, Li-Tai does work and provide for herself and so she is financially stable as the men working on the sugar cane plantations are often lonely and want company from the opposite gender. As a result, the occupation that Li-Tai employs does not respect herself as a woman. Instead, she is viewed as more of an objectified service, and ultimately the source of her financial stability relies heavily on men. This indicates the difficulty that women face as they strive to become self-sufficient and how there are very few options available for woman to achieve this. In light of this overbearing obstacle, it also raises the question to the reader of whether it is better for women to accept the dominance of men holding the higher if not sole paycheck and simply rely on them or to abstain from their care and protection in the form of money.
Li-Tai is also emotionally attached to men, first Lau and then Wing. She tries to hide her feelings and not let it distract her from her work and will to survive around most of the men on the sugar plantations, but she has a particular vulnerability when it involves Lau and Wing. Li-Tai contemplates whether this emotional attachment is viewed as a positive result or a negative consequence when she reveals her reaction to Wing’s rejection. “When you didn’t come, I wanted to die. Is that love?” (Lim, 194). Regardless of how Li-Tai and Wing perceive this emotional response, the reader can interpret Li-Tai’s confession as her professing her unconditional affection for Wing and her survival directly connected to his reciprocation. This is also the case with most of the wives who love their husbands despite the hardships and abuse. In the scenario with Stella from A Streetcar Named Desire, she cannot leave her husband as she is too emotionally invested and realizes that her heartbreak would hurt her more than the bruises on her body. Winnie also struggles with the decision to leave her husband and realizes that although it is in the best interest of herself and her unborn child to distance herself from her abusive husband, she cannot physically do so alone. Her liberation from her abusive marriage is undertaken by her sisters and grandmother’s plot to poison Frank for her. She then learns from her sisters and grandmother on how to survive upon the liberation of oneself. This is particularly vital in the story as her sisters suggest liberation and the ability to possess their own land are part of what makes the women survive independently. “This is the land that makes us free women” (Cleage, 710). As a reader, it is also quite essential to realize that this feeling is rooted in the African American people’s history, working on plantations as slaves, and therefore the intertwining implications of each limb of their success as free and independent women. In contrast to the previous examples of women maintaining their emotional linkage with little voluntary resistance against their husbands, Rose from Fences is the only woman who can detach her emotionally ties from her adulterous husband as she puts aside her damaged feelings as Troy’s wife and responsibly takes on board the role as a mother to a newborn innocent child. While Rose decides to stay in the same house as him, she leaves him outside on the porch as she picks up the baby from him and says, “from right now…this child got a mother, but you a womanless man” (Wilson, 79).
In A Streetcar Named Desire, the reader also becomes familiar with Blanche’s emotional and psychological dependence on men quite earlier on in the play. Blanche finds her strength to survive each day through compliments on her looks on a regularly basis, especially from men who eye her as a beauty. “Intimacies with strangers was all I seemed able to fill my empty heart …I think it was panic, just panic, that drove me from one to another, hunting for some protection” (Williams, 205). When she is in a vulnerable state, she denies reality and convinces herself that she lives in the made-up fantasies of her past, a time and place where she is still the belle of the city. Realizing that her strength derives from the company of men, she desperately tries to be engaged to a man, even though she does not sincerely love him. "You need somebody. And I need somebody, too. Could it be - you and me? (Williams, 184). When she is no longer admired by men in her community, Blanche moves to Stella’s location, hoping to be the blossoming flower in an unknown area and to find unconditional comfort and support from her sister. “I want to be near you, got to be with somebody, I can’t be alone!” (Williams, 124). However, her desolate dependency on men and insecurity leaves Stella no choice but to commit her to a mental institution, fearing that Blanche will not be able to physically survive on her own, as Stella reasons to herself that Blanche’s weakness has driven her to imagine that Stanley would commit adultery and sexually harass Blanche. Even when Blanche exits, she obediently relinquishes her power and will to the doctor and comments on the inevitability of her future. “Whoever you are – I have always depended on the kindness of strangers” (Williams, 225). Her peaceful yet uncanny departure suggests that she no longer wants to be strong and is grateful to be dependent on someone, even a stranger who will cage her in a hospital like the doctor.
Will and desire to survive is also explored in the various plays, suggesting that intention and incentives are crucial to one’s level of endurance. Hana from And The Soul Shall Dance comments that you need to have a “strong will” (Yamauchi, 138) to survive in harsh immigrant farm lands of the United States. Without the willpower and committed strife regardless of how bleak it may seem, a person does not stand a chance to survive, like Emiko who only has talent in tea pouring and dancing, which are useless qualities in the United States as formal training in tea ceremony will not reap the crops. Flyin’ West also implies that not everyone is fit for living a working life and starting afresh on their own, and only the strongest will be able to bear nature’s cruelty. “Sohpie doesn’t think they’re strong enough for this life” (Cleage, 676). These scenes parallel Darwin’s fundamental concept of survival of the fittest, where only those who are willing to strive no matter what will survive and those who are not strong enough and give up will eventually perish. The other adaptation of will and desire is the case found in Machinal where Helen will do anything to try and achieve independence and freely survive, even if her actions are not permitted in the legal framework nor accepted by her society. Her courage to act perpetuates from her lack of alternatives and she undergoes infidelity and murder to escape from her husband and marriage. While Helen does experience freedom to a certain extent, it is short lived as she is arrested and trialed for her murder and bears the ultimate punishment of the death penalty. This scene clearly displays that although will and desire are essential to achieve independence and liberation, having those two qualities alone is not always sufficient for survival.
Objectification and Lack of Respect
Women do not appear to have much respect from men, neither from the general male population nor from the wives’ husbands. They are often blamed for things which they are not at fault for or passed off as a scapegoat for the outcomes of events which do not occur the way men had hoped for. In And The Soul Shall Dance, Oka condemns Emiko for his failure to support his family and for the little happiness he experiences in the United States. He blames Emiko for the second marriage to her, in spite of the fact that it was her father who arranged the marriage without either of their consent. Oka is aware of this factor and at one point he even apologizes for his outrageous outburst at Emiko for placing the entire burden on her and admits that it is more of her father’s fault. “I’m not blaming you for that…And it’s not my fault what happened to you either…I didn’t ask for you. It’s not my fault you’re here in the desert with me” (Yamauchi, 151). However he later reverts back to venting his frustrations at Emiko, probably because she appears too delicate to stand up for herself and she is present in his life while her father is in Japan. Li-Tai in Bitter Cane, also understands the notion of women causing the downfall or a mishap inflicted upon men. “If a man is weak, it’s the fault of the woman” (Lim, 197). While Li-Tai is sarcastic and resentful in her words, she suggests that she also accepts this as the truth since she blames herself for her misery and her lovers’ death and desolation.
Badmouthing and the use of provocative vocabulary to describe women are frequently employed by men, normally during states of anger, frustration and drunkenness. Frank from Flyin’ West frequently experiences these three emotions and expels them at Minnie. His continuous degrading of his wife assures his self-image and his authority. “You want to know who I told those white men you were, Min? I told them you were a black whore I won in a card game.” (Cleage, 712). Frank’s cruel words deliver a double insult; He calls Minnie a whore, suggesting that she is unworthy and only serves the purpose of pleasing him, but he also references her skin colour. Being African American has greatly improved in their society with the liberation of slavery and the ability for coloured people to own their own land, but from the point of view of Frank, being coloured remains a negative concept, one who is worthless and lowly. At times, the lack of respect for women derives from the society’s opinions and therefore ingrained into the males’ belief that men are superior and are always in control of their relationship, thus they do not need to be courteous to their women. Frank reinforces this sentiment as he never accepts Minnie’s diverging decision. “I’m your husband. Don’t you ever tell me no!” (Cleage, 712). It is as if Minnie’s biological organs which make her a woman also mean that she is stripped of her right to give an opinion or object to her husband. This belief of not needing to respect women is also displayed in the play Fences. Rose is busy attending to the housework while Troy is lazing around the house yet without moving or considering Rose’s hectic routine, he calls for her to wait on him. When Rose eventually comes out to meet Troy, his first response to her is, “You’re supposed to come when I call you, woman” (Wilson, 43). He does not contemplate the possible reasons for not answering immediately nor does he ask about her well-being or if she is tired from managing the house. Instead, in a commanding voice he reinstates the expectation of his wife to answer to him like a servant and calls her not by her name, but by the term ‘woman’ as if it is a subordinate status.
Women are also constantly objectified, most obviously from being a prostitute or connections drawn crudely by other characters for being like a prostitute even though they do not work in the industry. This is most clearly displayed in Bitter Cane as Li-Tai commits her life to prostitution and therefore being one of the few women, if not only woman on the heavily male populated island, she is a clear target for objectification without an opportunity to engage with the male’s conscience. A man’s conscience is further examined when Wing is first introduced to prostitution. He rejects the notion of finding comfort in the arms of a strange woman and hopes to make money and return home and fall in love with a girl who he will marry. Wing even scorns at the idea, claiming that he will not “shame his family” (Lim). A few months later though, his naivety and innocence is short lived when his own principals crumble and he eagerly meets Li-Tai. However, instead of simply finding physical attraction and pleasure like the other men, he falls in love with her, something that the other men do not do as they only love her physical features. The notion of women being a commodity to men is also conveyed when men marry or like a woman based on their looks. Helen’s absurd suitor, who happens to be her employer, does not even date her, but merely calls her into his office one morning and proposes to her. As Helen reconciles with herself over her decision, she reveals that “he fell in love with my hands” (Treadwell, 189). While Helen’s character does take extreme care of her hands throughout the play by wearing soft gloves, the reader can extrapolate that her husband-to-be fell in love with her overall physical appearance and not just simply her hands. Becoming interested in women based on their appearance is also indicated in Fences. Troy proudly claims “I eye all the women. I don’t miss anything. Don’t never let nobody tell you Troy Maxson don’t eye the women” (Wilson, 3) when his best friend Bono attempts to warn him about straying. However Troy does not take him seriously and perceives it as part of his liberty if not strength to admire and buy other women drinks, even though he is married to Rose for almost two decades.
Ownership of women is also explored, particularly in Bitter Cane, both from the perspective of men and women. With Li-Tai being a prostitute, most of the men who utilize her services believe that they own her because they have exchanged their money for some time with her flesh and beauty. “Li-Tai is mine! I own her. Every hair on her body, every inch of her flesh and bones is paid for in gold” (Lim, 201). What is especially interesting here is the understanding of how a payment is exchanged for ownership for a period time. Yet, after the duration has ended, most of the visiting men still attempts to control Li-Tai as if they still have reigning power over her. At this point, the reasoning that the men have for possessing the woman is no longer the payment itself, but the embedded belief that she deserves to be owned by a man and has no rights of her own. It is more commonly understood that men believe that they have the power and authority to own a woman like an object, but the concept of being owned by a woman, unusual as it is, is also raised. Li-Tai’s marriage into being the fourth concubine meant that she was subordinate to her husband as well as the first wife. “She sold me to a rich old merchant on the Big Island. I cried and begged to go back home. But I was his number four concubine” (Lim, 180). Since the first wife has the most authority amongst all the other wives, she could treat Li-Tai in any manner she wished, even trading her like a product in exchange for money. Without respect from both genders as a human being and constantly objectified as a pretty woman, this eventually leads her to believe that she does not deserve anything better and that it is acceptable to be owned by men, as portrayed through her gloomy words, “As a woman you’re allowed to do only one thing. Please men. I’ve spent my whole life doing that! You see this body? It’s not mine” (Lim, 185).
Ironically in A Streetcar Named Desire, Blanche wants the objectification. She thrives on the attention men give her and does not know any other way of life. In her overly-simplified and twisted mind, the more she is admired and pampered like a doll, the more men love her. However as Blanche ages, the more insecure she feels about her looks as she worries she will no longer have the power to seduce men. “I was played out. You know what played out is? My youth was suddenly gone up the water-sprout” (Williams, 205). The consequences of Blanche desperately trying to relive her youthful past lead her to having a relationship with a teenage boy she teaches and thus her redundancy as a teacher. She also kisses a young boy passing by the house as a way to experience the young age again. Her distorted perception of male physical attraction is a positive stimulant, ultimately brings her downfall as it tempts Stanley to sexually harass her. "Come to think of it - maybe you wouldn't be bad to - interfere with..." (Williams, 215). Sadly enough, the horrific encounter with her brother-in-law does not change her attitude as she continues to indulge in fancy dresses and accessories to lure a rich gentleman.
In general, little respect is earned by women in the plays. On a rare occasion when it is gained, it is often derived from trivial matters. In And The Soul Shall Dance, it is suggested that Emiko was respected in Japan as an educated and polite lady, prepared by her family to marry a prosperous gentlemen. The education that Emiko underwent however did not include academic or professional education. Instead, she was “sent to schools…the culture thing: tea ceremony, you know, all that” (Yamauchi, 138). Whether this is genuinely a form of respect is also at question as learning the cultural aspect of life prepares the women to be better wives who will not risk shaming their husbands in public. As a result, the training can also be seen as a way to enhance the product that is marketed and “groomed for a rich man” (Yamauchi, 138). This ‘respect’ is also useless outside of the context of Japan which further undermines the validity of the respect.
The treatment of women in society hinges on the perception by males and society as a whole that the female gender is weaker and inferior. As a result, the analysis of the role of women revolve around issues concerning marriage and child bearing, and with that, further issues denoting the desert of respect and the crippling ability to successfully survive on their own. They lead their lives trapped in a subordinate marriage and suffer from isolation and loneliness. Only one play portrayed the woman resulting in death, but many of the other women in the plays ‘die’ in spirit and hope.
Chapter 3: Assimilating as a Woman
This chapter will explore whether the women in the plays are able to assimilate with their surroundings and the society they are in. It also contests the assumed generalization that integration is always a positive affect which will bring more happiness or success to women and their families. By doing so, the focus on the essay shifts to how the women embark on the difficult challenge in assimilation and why they do so in the first place. In most cases, they believed that migration and the necessary attempt to integration would be more beneficial to their lives but they are miserably confronted with the harsh truth of reality. The question of whether the risk was worth it also arises and is an intriguing point to consider. Upon concluding that the women are unable to fully integrate with the rest of society, the essay will explore how the theme of isolation interacts with integration. It is important to note that isolation here is not restricted to their family members or other characters in the play, but also by extension, the society at large.
In And The Soul Shall Dance, the Japanese families thought that migrating to the United States would be a smart and wise choice, a chance for them to start afresh in a new country and make the amount of money that they could not back at home. However the reality soon sets in as they struggle to farm their land with the uncooperative weather conditions, low crop return from the previous harvests to provide them with the raw materials to grow more crops the following years. They migrated with the hopes of earning a small fortune so they can return home to Japan one day and live comfortably and happily. However this plan becomes only a dream as it is impossible to reach the goal and so their stay in America which was once thought of as a temporary stay becomes a permanent one where they will need to integrate into the American life, especially with the second generation who were born in America. To appreciate how the theme of assimilation functions in this play, there are several female characters that need to be analyzed as each of them represent something different in the theme of integration.
Although Shizue is not a character on the cast, she is a character who is referred to by other characters in the play and she plays an important role in helping us understand how the other female characters deal with the process of assimilation in the United States. Shizue died in Japan as she waited for Oka in the United States to earn sufficient money to send to her and their daughter Kiyoko so they could unite as a family in the new world. However money making in America is not as easy and fruitful as the dream has it and so before Oka could save enough, Shizue passed away, leaving Kiyoko with Shizue’s parents. Oka always believes that if Shizue was still alive and living with him in the United States, their lives would be happy. He has no doubt that they would be poor and they would still struggle with farming and earning money to sustain their livelihood, but he believes they would at least tackle the problem together and the union itself would be enough joy to give them strength to overcome any problems. With this firm mindset, he blames Shizue’s sister, Emiko for not easing Shizue’s hard life in Japan which caused her to die, and envies his neighbours’ family bliss quite frequently.
Blamed for indirectly causing her sister’s death, Emiko never sincerely received love or care from her legal husband, Oka who her family arranged for her to marry despite against her wishes and individual affections for another man. As a result, when she arrives in the United States, she has no intention of playing the role as a dutiful wife. Over time, the lack of relationship between her and Oka leaves her isolated and miserable in a foreign land where nothing is familiar to her and her upbringing. She refuses to integrate herself into the American society nor the new home, as her mind still lives in the past in her homeland. The only way Emiko keeps herself going and spiritually alive is by immersing herself of the past with Japanese rituals like dancing and strumming her instrument while humming Japanese tunes, like a nostalgic diasporic subject. Her dream is to one day return to Japan although she realizes herself that this is impossible without money or support from her legal husband. Knowing this is unattainable, she does not choose to attempt and give life in the United States a chance, but mellows in her thoughts and fantasies of her past, her real home and lets her soul dance to free herself as she does in the closing scene of the play written in the stage directions “she breaks into a dance, laughs mysteriously, turns round and round, acting out a fantasy” (Yamauchi, 173). Although Emiko does do this because she is lonely and isolated, it is important to consider that it is also because this is the only thing she knows how to do. When she lived in Japan, she was raised like an upper class daughter with tea ceremony lessons, dancing and other educated girls were expected of in order to court a high ranking gentleman. However this skills that she spent a life time in acquiring are useless here in the United States and she does not know how to farm, nor does she have any interest in learning how to, and as a result she only has her past skills to entertain herself.
There is more hope for a successful assimilation into American society for the American-born second generation such as Masako as they spend their childhood growing up in the United States and therefore have more opportunities to be exposed to society. She can speak English and she even guides Kiyoko into learning English just as she did many years ago. Her American schooling also shows signs of integration. However her lifestyle on the farm, the stories she hears and the Japanese traditions which are kept alive around her home can prevent her from fully assimilation into the American lifestyle as her exposure to Japanese culture is much stronger and more prominent than the American contact she gets from school. With Kiyoko’s case, she struggles with integration does not just occur with her difficult transition into American life without the knowledge of English, but is also seen in her integration into her new home in the United States with her father and her stepmother. She arrives in the United States, thinking that she would be happy, just as the other Japanese immigrants did when they first made their voyage, but she soon finds herself in a household of fighting, discontent and misery. As a result, she feels distanced at home as well as in American society. To further amplify this situation, Masako teases her that if she is unable to speak coherently in the correct accent at school, she would be teased by other students, which would add to her already isolated life.
Chinese immigrants in Hawaii suffer similar difficulties when assimilation, especially Li-Tai in Bitter Cane. The Chinese men also aspired for improvements in their livelihoods and migrated to Hawaii to work on sugar cane plantations, but they never had much money despite slaving away at hard labour. This was in part due to the low pay they were given by the overseers but also because they would squander their money on tobacco or Li-Tai as way to escape frustration, boredom and loneliness. The men appear to lack an opportunity to integrate to the American lifestyle as they are isolated from mainland America while at the same time they have no opportunity to return home as they are bound by their contract to remain in Hawaii to work. As a result, they frequently find comfort in Li-Tai, the Chinese prostitute who also lives on the island. In her line of occupation, being accepted in society is difficult, but even before she became a prostitute, she lacked the chance to experience integration and belonging as she was always treated like an outsider and tossed around like an object rather than a person with feelings. The head wife despised her and mistreated her unfairly, and then later sold her away like an unwanted possession before she began her life as prostitute. As she has never experienced genuine happiness in life aside from her brief affair with Lau and Wing, she has a very pessimistic view of her life as a woman and brainwashed belief in women’s existence is to solely please men or take the blame for men’s problems. Li-Tai does not ever see any hope in integrating or being accepted by others, even when rare chances are opened to her, such as marrying Lau or escaping the island with Wing. This is in part because she is scared of the outcome and “didn’t have the courage … to face what was on the other side” (Lim, 198). She believes her escape to freedom and joy would fail and therefore shies away from attempting to grasp it, but she has also grown to believe that she does not deserve something good.
The three sisters in Flyin’ West feel quite accomplished, especially Sophie who intends to build a community for African Americans to fully cherish the liberty they have finally been awarded and therefore transition African Americans into a smooth integration with the rest of society among the white population. However integrating is not easy, particularly not for a black woman. She faces challenges from white speculators who want to buy up the land that belongs to the blacks and develop it. Sophie also lacks a united support from her black community as they can not appreciate Sophie’s ambition to raise their race or her understanding of the symbolic nature of giving up their land to whites for a one-off payment. Although she personally believes that she and her family has managed to integrate their lives in a better society by moving west from Memphis, she believes it is not enough unless her race as a whole can be integrated fairly with the rest of society and therefore pushes hard to convince the other African Americans to see her broader vision. Meanwhile, Frank mockingly declares that no matter how hard the sisters try, they will never be able to fully, or rather, fairly integrate into a white man’s society so long their skin colour is black, and that they are only fooling themselves by creating this make-believe integration that Sophie desperately wants to achieve. Frank’s bitter and distasteful lines do remind us that race is always and continues to be a hot issue in the United States, but he underestimates the determination that the women have in fighting for change for future generations.
Although Fences revolves around the life of Troy, his interaction with Rose reveals a lot about her ability to integrate with society and therefore is worth exploring her character in relation to this theme. In Chapter Two, I concluded that Rose is able to show independence as she does not let Troy always order her around and she handles how the money Troy earns is spent, but by doing so, she still plays the ‘mothering’ role as expected of her as a woman. There is little substantial change for female characters in her position as she still is the woman who stays at home to look after the children and the household as the man works. There appears to be no opportunity opened to her by society, unlike the significant improvements of integrating black men into society, such as Troy fighting for a higher paying job as a driver of the garbage truck like all the white drivers rather than the be the worker who has to pick up the rubbish which is always conducted by African Americans. We also see societal improvements for the younger African American generation as Cory has potential to be selected for a sports sponsorship for college from scouts, something which Troy was passed over during his youth. These two scenes in the men’s lives show how society is changing for their betterment and thus moving them closer to a fairer treatment of black men in America, but no improvements are made on the women’s account. As a result, Rose still lacks the ability to fully integrate into society as a worthy person in a male dominated country.
Being accepted by people around her and being able to integrate into society has always been problematic for Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire. Her life depends on her youth and beauty, and from that the attention she is able to obtain from seducing men into showering her with gifts. Over the years though, her exhaustive involvement with men caused her reputation as a respected lady to slump and when she reaches an incident where she is let go from her teaching job over inappropriate behaviour with a male student. Blanche decides to stay with her sister Stella where her reputation is unknown, with hopes to start again and this time, attempt to find someone who she can rely on for the long term. Unfortunately, her past catches up to her and the new society she has started to settle down in is unforgiving of her past and starts to judge her. Blanche also does not help herself to change as she attempts to integrate with the society with lies to men through the façade of being a lady with high morals. The final scene of the play where Stella blindsights Blanche by committing her to a mental institute parallels how Blanche can not fit into society nor the new home she has been staying in with Stella and needs professional help to make her better and well fitted enough to be around people in society. Her admittance into the mental institute also echoes her famous line earlier on in the play, “I'm anxious to get out of here - this place is a trap!” (Williams, 219), referring to her previous lifestyle and home.
Perhaps the most tragic out of the six plays, Machinal depicts the course of the life of a young woman who has felt scrutiny from society from the very beginning and her failure to acceptingly grow into society’s role of a woman is her ultimate failure. As she struggles to belong in any ‘group’ that society has constructed for her, she finds it difficult to integrate into society and play her part as a young single woman, a dutiful wife or a devoted mother. She never wanted to be part of it and always wanted to escape it as she felt it suffocated her with pressure but played the ‘society game’ out of obligation and persistence from those around her. She ultimately fails as she is always miserable and feels her life is unfulfilling. Her desperate desire to be happy leads her into an extra-marital affair that brings her momentary happiness until her true love leaves. As a last resort, she murders her husband to be free from the chained bangles that tied her down to society’s roles. Never having gained society’s acceptance from the beginning, as seen by the gossip behind her back by her coworkers, she also fails to do so and integrate by the end of the play at her trial. The scene at court symbolizes how she is being judged by society and cast aside as an outsider and thus never experienced integration into society. What is particularly interesting in this play is that although she is convicted for murder and sentenced to death, the audience still sees her as a victim. Some may feel this from the start, but by the last scene, the cathartic experience would have evoked sympathy for the young girl who was destined for misery. This sympathy is further conveyed by the three journalists at court, each of them offering different interpretations by using varying connoted adjectives to describe her and the trial.
Most of the women in the plays lack the ability to assimilate successfully in the societies. This is in part because they do not live up to the expected roles constructed by the societies that they live in from the beginning. While some do not take on the difficult challenge of attempting assimilation in hopes of bridging a better life, others strive in this direction, only to fail. This failure often results in a broken spirit to fight and continue with their lives. We do however see in some cases of the plays where the women accept this and does not allow the overbearing failure affect the rest of their lives, and instead they look ahead and concentrate on how to live in the situation they are in. On the whole, the unsuccessful attempt in integration crystallizes the theme of isolation experienced by women.
Chapter 4: Conclusion
Women often tend to be in a negative position by the end of the plays. As hypothesized, they often mellow in their isolation from other characters or society, feel trapped in their subordinate marriages, unable or unwilling to break out of it, and worse of all, experience death physically or mentally. The women also have very little chance of breaking out of this cycle of doom for them as the society they are in often prevents them from doing so. Straying from the expected roles which bring them misery and unworthiness contributes more to the isolation, subordination in marriage and death.
However, a particular aspect to note from the research project is that these themes of isolation, subordination in marriage and death do not necessarily occur at the ending of the plays. In many of the plays, the women conclude with the same status or level of isolation as the starting of the plays. This suggests that there is extremely little opportunity from the very beginning for them to improve their positions in society and their lifestyles. Such a bleak outlook confirms the struggle to steer away from the ‘inevitable’ outcomes deemed acceptable for women in American drama.
Bibliography
Cleage, Pearl. “Flyin' West.” Drama in America: An Anthology. ‘Ed’. Turner Darwin. Washington, D.C: Howard University Press, 1994.
Lim, Genny. “Bitter Cane.” The Politics of Life: Four Plays by Asian American Women. ‘Ed’. Velina Hasn Houston. California: Temple University Press, 1993.
Treadwell, Sophie. “Machinal.” Plays by American Women: 1990-1930. ‘Ed’. Judith E. Barlow. New York: Applause Theatre Books, 1981.
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire and Other Plays. New York: Penguin Books, 1959.
Wilson, August. Fences. New York: Penguin Books, 1986.
Yamauchi, Wakako. “And The Soul Shall Dance.” Between Worlds: Contemporary Asian-American Plays. ‘Ed’. Misha Berson. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1990.
