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British Women Dramatists and the Feminist Movement, 19 14- 1939

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British Women Dramatists and the Feminist Movement, 19 14- 1939 BRITISH WOMEN DRAMATISTS AND THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT, 19 14- 1939 Rebecca Selden Cameron A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Graduate Department of EngIish University of Toronto Q Copyright by Rebecca Selden Cameron 1998 National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 OttawaON K1AON4 Canada Canada The author has ganted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence dowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distriiute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format élecîronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyxight in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés - reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. A bstract British Women Drarnatists and the Feminist Movement, 1914-1939 by Rebecca Selden Cameron Doctorate of Philosophy, Department of English, University of Toronto, 1998 Modem British drama has been widely acknowledged for its attention to feminism, yet the era is frequently represented by male playwrights alone. This dissertation explores feminism in British drama written by women between 19 14 and 1939. It focuses on the inter-war years since women's drama of this period merits more serious criticai consideration than it has thus far received. Each chapter considers two plays within the context of inter-war feminist debates conceming woman's potentiai for artistic genius, her place in history, her role in marnage. and her position with respect to war. While the plays were selected for their diverse feminist perspectives, their feminism is not always overt, but often tentative and sometimes even critical. The fint chapter discusses women's relationship to artistic genius in Clemence Dane's Will Shakespeare (1921) and Gordon Daviot's The Laughin~Woman (1934). Both playwnghts challenge the prevalent view that women were inherently less capable of genius than men by showing how histoncal conditions have favored male genius. The plays treated in the second chapter, Gordon Daviot's Oueen of Scots (1934) and Joan Temple's Charles and Mant (1930). use their feminist perspectives to resist conventional historical accounts of their fernale subjects. The third chapter examines the psychologicai and economic limitations of women's position in marriage in Githa Sowerby's Sheila (1917) and Elizabeth Baker's Penelooe Forgives (1930). Two war dramas, Cicely Hamilton's The OId Adam (1924) and Winifred Holtby's Take Back Your Freedom (1935), form the basis of the fourth chapter, which andyzes the connections between militarism and masculinity in these plays. In al1 of these plays, the realist form offea wornen playwrights intriguing possibilities for bringing women's pnvate experiences to a public forum. Through their women characters in particular, these writers are able to integrate political feminism with women's personal experience more convincingly than many male dramatists of their time. The subtle and intrïcate ways in which inter-war wornen playwrights address the feminist issues of their day warrant their inclusion in further critical studies of modem British drama. Table of Contents Introduction Chapter One: Women and Creative Genius in CIemence Dane's WilI Shakesmare (192 1) and Gordon Daviot's The Laughing Woman (1934) Chapter Two: Historical Wornen in Gordon Daviot's Oueen of Scots (1934) and Joan Temple's Charles and Mm(1930) Chapter Three: Marrïage and Divorce in Githa Sowerby's Sheila (19 17) and Elizabeth Baker's Penelope For~ives(1 930) Chapter Four: War, Feminism and Pacifism in Cicely Hamilton's The Old Adam (1924) and Winifred Holtby's Take Back Your Freedom (1935) 155 Conclusion Works Cited and Consulted Introduction -JOAN: 1 am a soldier: 1do not want to be thought of as a woman. 1 wiil not dress as a woman. I do not care for the things womn care for. They drearn of Ioven, and of money. I dream of leading a charge, and of placing the big guns. (83) Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan, 1923 -EVA: Why should 1 be sacrificed al1 the time? Why should 1be at everybody's beck and call? Why should 1 have to do everything? I'rn sick of king put upon. i'm sick of you. I'rn sick of Sydney. I'rn sick of Lois. I'rn sick of you dl. (Dunng this speech SYDNEY hns risen. EVA's agitation habecome quite uncontrolled. The table by her is covered with omamenfs,and now with a violent gesrure she throws ir over su thur everything is scanered on the floor. .. Shrieking she zhrows herselfdown and hysterically beats upon the fior with herfists) (52) Somerset Maugham, For Services Rendered, 1932 Throughout the twentieth century, feminism has held a certain fascination for British dramatists. Many of the best-known playwrights of early-twentieth-century Britain take on feminist issues in their plays, including Granville-Barker, Galsworthy, Maugham, and especially Shaw. Ibsen's profound impact on the English stage was not just as a realist, but as a feminist. From the first unskilful translation of A Doll's House by Henrietta Frances Lord, England greeted Ibsen as a feminist playwright. Lord's introduction emphasizes Ibsen's progressive views on women, though her speculations about Nora's retum to Helmer the folIowing Christmas and her reading of the play through the doctrine of Karma considerably weaken her credibility. Lord was not alone, however, in proclaiming Ibsen's feminism. Shaw's Quintessence of Ibsenism attributed feminist ideas to Ibsen, and suffragists praised him for what they saw as overt support for their cause. Beatrice Hale, for instance, declares: "to the cause of women msen] gave one of its greatest inspirations. He has preached many lessons to wornen on many themes, but in 'A DoIl's House' he chanced to sum up what was perhaps in his day the very essence of Ferninism" (98). Such interpretations were so prevalent that they provoked William Archer to cornplain about "the facile hero-worship of those who saw in A DolI's House a sort of Woman's-Rights manifesta, and hailed Ibsen as the preacher of a social, one might almost say a social-democratic, gospel" (Ibsen 56). Though Ibsen may not have been the feminist that the English took him to be, his reception forged a strong link between modem drama and ferninist consciousness in England, which carried on in the plays of Shaw and the New Dramatists. The influence of feminisrn on the drama was so strong that the First Annual Report of the Pioneer Players, a ferninist theatre group founded by Edy Craig in 19 1 1, could state: "It is obviously quite impossible nowadays [ 19 1 1- 121 to produce thoughdul plays written by thoughchil people which do not bear some traces of the influence of the feminist movement."' After the First World War, certain lighter forms of feminism had become so common in the drama that they were almost cliché. Inter-war theatre critic Ernest Short comments that the increasing numbers of women in the post-World War 1 audiences created a "psychological climate in which ferninine interests were dominant, instead of secondary" (17). He claims that two-thirds of any typicd audience were female, and a good proportion of these were young women, which had an effect on the type of drama produced: "Among the repercussions due to the flapper element . .were the plays which showed that young women were in no mood to lirnit their choice of men friends to those whom parents judged desirable as home-maken" (197). Although it is tempting to dismiss Short's comments as biased, his observations about drarna are not entirely wrong. Many lighter cornedies of the 1920s and 1930s do seem to pander to the fashionable 'The Pioneer Players were responding to cornplaints that they were interested only in suffrage propaganda Their report is cited by Dymkowski. 221-22. spirit of rebellion that infected many young women after the War. The feminism in such plays is usually superficial and often flippant, as in J. B. Priestley's The Roundabout (1933): LORD KEïTLEWELL: Seeing that you have arrived here and insist upon being my daughter, may 1 ask why you're wandering about the country-side in that ridiculous get-up? PAMELA. It's not ridiculous. It's very sensible. Only of course it's not meant to have any ferninine charm. SAUNDERS. I'm glad you've reassured me on that point. (PAMELA looks at SAUNDERS.) 1 was beginning to wonder if I'd lost touch. (13) Noel Coward's parodies of chic, brazen feminism in exchanges such as Amanda and Eliot's in Private Lives (1930) likewise reflect the extent to which feminisrn had become the vogue: AMANDA: . I expect your affairs well outnumbered mine anyhow. ELYOT: That is a Iittle different. I'm a man. AMANDA: Excuse me a moment while 1 get a caraway biscuit and change my crinoIine. ELYOT: It doesn't suit women to be promiscuous. AMANDA: It doesn't suit men for women to be prorniscuous. ELYOT (with sarcasm): Very modem dear; really your advanced views quite stade me. (44-45) The targets of Coward's cynical satire are found in drarna as well as society.
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