The Women - Longwood University

January 5, 2018 | Author: Anonymous | Category: Arts & Humanities, Performing Arts, Theatre
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The Women

Clare Boothe Luce Author Bio

Characters • • • • • • •

Mary Haines- (Mrs. Stephen Haines) is the central protagonist of The Women. She has been married for twelve years; "living in a fool's paradise.” Crystal Allen- Young shop-girl, working at the perfume counter of Saks Fifth Avenue. She improves socioeconomic status through being the mistress, then wife, of a wealthy man, Stephen Haines. A "terrible man-trap." Sylvia Fowler- (Mrs. Howard Fowler), aged thirty-four, is one of the married women in Mary's social circle. Both she and her hubby have affairs; she finds out Miriam is her hubby’s mistress. Conflict creator. The Countess De Lage- A wealthy middle-aged woman, is a member of Mary's social circle. The countess has been divorced four times. She marries Buck Winston who cheats with Crystal. Miriam Aarons- “The second Mrs. Fowler.” A twenty-eight-year old stage actress part of Mary's social circle. Miriam is having an affair with Howard Fowler, Sylvia's husband. Peggy Day- (Mrs. John Day), age twenty-five, is the youngest member of Mary's social circle. Peggy is a more sympathetic character than most of Mary's friends Nancy Blake- “5 star chic.” 35 and the only woman in Mary's social circle who has never been married. Nancy is a financially independent woman who supports herself as a novelist. Courtesy of e-notes.com and booknotes.com

Plot Points •The Women is set in the world of high society wives in New York City during the height of the Great Depression. Mary Haines, the protagonist, learns from a gossipy manicurist that her husband, Stephen, is having an affair with a shop-girl named Crystal. After the news of Stephen’s affair is published in a gossip column, Mary decides to divorce him. To obtain her divorce, she travels to Reno, Nevada, where liberal divorce laws attracted many society women wishing to downplay any potential for scandal. While she is in Reno, Mary learns that Stephen has married Crystal. Two years later, Mary, now living back in New York with her children, learns that Crystal has been unfaithful to Stephen. With the help of her friends, Mary sets out to expose Crystal’s infidelity in order to win Stephen back. •Although men are at the center of the lives of the women in The Women, no male characters appear in the play, which is set in such locations as beauty parlors, women’s clothing stores, and other predominantly female environments. The Women addresses themes of the modern woman, marriage and divorce, female friendship, beauty standards, gossip, and socioeconomic class. •The Women has been criticized over the years as a work that portrays women as shallow, conniv ing, ‘‘catty’’ creatures whose lives revolve around their efforts to look beautiful so as to obtain and hold onto wealthy husbands. Others, however, have regarded The Women as a feminist text that addresses lasting issues about women’s status in society. Courtesy of e- notes.com and booknotes.com

Got Problems? She said/She said/He said what?! Themes • Redefining “Womanhood” • Understanding Marriage/Divorce • Exposing Social Institutions

Conflict • Gossip(Misinformation) • Deception(Fake Friendships/Relationships) • Class

Context Historical • •





The Great Depression: In the fall of 1929, the United States economy was devastated by a collapse of the stock market Political measures to address the problems of the Great Depression in the United States were dominated by the leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt's domestic program for addressing the Great Depression is known as the New Deal. The crucial first few months of Roosevelt's institution of the New Deal are known as the Hundred Days. The Reno Divorce: Nevada had relatively liberal divorce laws, as well as very short-term requirements for state citizenship (only six weeks, at the time), many wealthy society women during the 1930s went to Reno in order to get divorced Popular Culture References: Hollywood: Mae West, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, and Harpo Marx. Moguls: Darryl F. Zanuck, co-founder of 20thCentury Fox, and Louis B. Mayer, VP(MGM) studios. Courtesy of e-notes.com and booknotes.com and novelguide.com

Find out more Dubofsky, Melvyn, and Stephen Burwood, eds., Women and Minorities during the Great Depression, Garland, 1990. Gimlin, Debra L., Body Work: Beauty and Self-image in American Culture, University of California Press, 2001. Wasserstein, Wendy. Uncommon Women and Others (1977) concerns five women who meet for lunch and reminisce about events from their college years. Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce (1997), by Sylvia Jukes Morris, provides a critical biography of Luce, focusing on her ambitious personality and her various professional and political successes. Clare Boothe Luce: A Research and Production Sourcebook (1995), by Mark Fearnow, provides an overview of Luce's life and career, a detailed plot summary of her major works and their critical reception, and an annotated bibliography.

Criticism Brent, Liz. “Critical Essay on The Women,” in Drama for Students, Gale, 2004. Carlson, Susan L. "Comic Textures and Female Communities 1937 and 1977: Clare Booth and Wendy Wasserstein," in Modern Drama, Vol. 27, December 1984, pp. 564–73. Gates, Anita, "What Is It about The Women ?" in New York Times, June 16, 2002, Sect. 13, p. 4. Hamilton, Joan T. “Visible Power and Invisible Men in Clare Boothe’s The Women” in American Drama, Vol. 3, No. 1, September 1993, pp. 31-53. Maddock, Mary, "Social Darwinism in the Powder Room: Clare Boothe's The Women," in Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 1990, pp. 81–97. Winn, Steven, "The Women without Their Men," in the San Francisco Chronicle, September 25, 1992, p. C5

My words on The Women Two that I looked at in particular are Mary Maddock’s “Social Darwinism In The Powder Room: Clare Boothe’s The Women” and Joan Hamilton’s “Visible Power and Invisible Men in Clare Boothe’s The Women.”

synthesis-the women.htm

What’s next? Additional YA novels Hot Girl-Dream Jordan Frenemies-L. Divine Paradise Lost-Kate Brian Dramarama-E. Lockhart What will I do without him?-Sharon Flake The boyfriend list-E. Lockhart P.S. I loathe you-Lisi Harrison

The Girls Tucker Shaw

Girls gone Gossip Meet: Crystal: She’s a townie, and she’s cheating with Mary’s boyfriend. Sylvia: She’s nasty, and she’s got something up her Prada-designed sleeve. Amber: She’s a flake, she’s the barista at the hottest coffee shop in Aspen, and she serves up gossip even hotter than Grande skim lattes. Peggy: She’s Mary’s best friend, and she has no idea how to cope with all these girls. Mary: She’s beautiful, and her ski-star boyfriend is cheating on her. A modern retelling of the classic play The Women (which featured not one male in the cast), The Girls , by Tucker Shaw, is a quick-witted, stylish comedy about friendship, love, and most important, gossip! An elite Aspen prep school sets the stage for jealousy and intrigue as the lives of many girls tangle into a wickedly fun mess (in which no boys ever appear). The narrator of the story, Peggy, tells what happens at Aspen during the first week of the new semester. The air is full of lies, jealousy and misunderstandings and towards the end of the book all of the girls notice who their real friends are and how small the world really is.

Talkin’ Tucker Courtesy of jacketflap( http://tinyurl.com/y8czv4y) and Denver Post( http://tinyurl.com/9f9vv9)

The 411

Born in Maine, Tucker Shaw, who has been featured on The Today Show, is the author of many popular books for teens, including Confessions of a Back-Up Dancer and Flavor of the Week. He lives in Denver, Colorado, where he is a food editor for the Denver Post. However, before getting the gig as the food editor, he was a working writer since graduating college in 1991, living in New York and freelancing and working on staff at a few ill-fated publications. It was in 2004 he decided to take photos of everything he ate that year and compile it into a book, called, appropriately, "Everything I Ate" (Chronicle Books). During the course of doing publicity for that book, he was approached by the Denver Post to apply for the recently-vacated Dining Critic position. •

• • • • •

I really liked this book but one thing I missed was guys There's lots of angst and backstabbing, and cooking too (Peggy works at a local restaurant). I was hungry the whole time I was reading this For a book "in which no boys ever appear" it is all about boys...wasn't terribly impressed Cute book - I would have never guessed it was written by a man!

Keep a look out Movies: Waiting to Exhale Waiting to Exhale All about Eve All about Eve Why did I get married? Why did I get married? Why did I get married too?

The Women(2008) The Women 2008

Shows: Living Single Golden Girls Sex and the City

Music: "I'll take your man" Salt NPepa "Meeting in the Ladies Room" -Klymaxx “Irreplacable”/”New Shoes”/ “Ring the Alarm”Beyonce

Wild Women: Stage Performance 1939 movie Catfight

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