Overtones is the first play I read for this blog. Luckily, it's not a long read, so I was able to get through it in one sitting even with my horrible attention span!
This play is about two women, Harriet and Margaret. I mean Hetty and Maggie... wait! I mean... uh...
What I mean is that this play is indeed about Harriet and Margaret, but is also about Hetty and Maggie. Harriet and Margaret are both cultured women, and Hetty and Maggie are both the "primitive selves" of these women, respectively.
So, once again, to make this clear:
Harriet. Cultured. Hetty! Primitive!
Margaret. Cultured. Maggie! Primitive!
This play centers about how the civilized Harriet and Margaret keep a civilized and polished front when in actuality their "primitive selves" are screaming inside of the bodies they're trapped in about how they wish they could do whatever they wanted, no matter what the cultural standards require. It's almost like a little angel and devil on your shoulder troupe, except that the angel is the one making the actual decisions. The facades that these women are trying to put up are ones of class, success, and intelligence.
These two women do not like each other, and as the play progresses the inner thoughts of these women are shown through the "primitive selves". We find out that these women lie to anyone and everyone, including their own husbands in order to get their basic needs, or at least what they think are their basic needs. The play is very cleverly written and shows the standards that these women had to live up to, and also reminds us of the sometimes too high standards we set in our society.
Carter, I like how you describe the duos as an, "angel and devil on your shoulder troupe" because it reminds me (though possibly hard to imagine) of the reality of the situation. Women can be... let's call it crazy, we all know they can be. In the play, the women are charming on the outside, and have devilish voices barking at each other from the inside, something I like to imagine happening in real life all the time. It would be like watching Mean Girls if we could hear their thoughts as they speak.
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