MASARYK UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
GENDER ISSUES IN SELECTED PLAYS BY PAULA VOGEL
Bachelor Thesis Brno 2018
Supervisor: Author: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. Vlasta Čáslavská
Prohlášení
Prohlašuji, že jsem bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy university a se zákonem č. 121/2000Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.
Declaration I hereby declare I have worked on this diploma thesis entirely on my own, using only the sources listed in the “Works Cited” section. I agree with storing this thesis in the library of the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University and making it available for study and research purposes both in electronic and printed form.
Brno, 2018 ...... Author’s signature
Acknowledgement
Most of all I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D. for her patience, valuable advice and also a willingness to help and give an opinion.
Furthermore, my thanks go to my husband for his help and support not only during the time of writing but also throughout my university studies.
Annotation
The thesis aims to analyse two of selected theatre plays called Meg and How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel. Gender inequality in the patriarchal society appears to be the central motif examined by this author. Vogel implements social taboo issues into her theatre plays and also examines to which extent are women living basically in a patriarchal society able to accommodate themselves to the male-dominated world. Since Vogel is still living author, a variety of the internet sources are explored in order to get a picture of her work and life, as well as about social background and the significant factors that influence her creation.
Key words: Paula Vogel, theatre plays, drama, feminism, patriarchy, taboo issues, education, gender inequality
Anotace
Cílem této bakalářské práce je analýza dvou vybraných divadelních her, nazvaných Meg a How I Learned od Pauly Vogel. Hlavním tématem této autorky je genderová nerovnost v patriarchální společnosti. Vogel ve svých divadelních hrách reflektuje tabuizovaná témata a zároveň zkoumá, do jaké míry jsou ženy žijící v zásadě patriarchální společnosti, schopny přizpůsobit se světu mužskému. Jelikož je Vogel současnou autorkou, pochází mnoho informací z internetových zdrojů, s cílem získat komplexní představu o jejím životě a díle, stejně jako o společenském pozadí a význačných faktorech, jež ovlivňují její tvorbu.
Klíčová slova: Paula Vogel, divadelní hry, drama, feminismus, patriarchát, tabuizovaná témata, vzdělání, genderová nerovnost
Table of contents
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….7
Vogel’s Biography……………………………………………………………………..9
Vogel’s Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..13
Early influences……………………………………………………………………….15
Social Background of America in 1960 – 1970 ……………………………………...19
Meg……………………………………………………………………………………23
How I Learned to Drive………………………………………………………………32
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….41
List of References……………………………………………………………………..44
Introduction
The topic of gender inequality in patriarchal society has always been an eternal and inexhaustible source of inspiration for artists of many diverse professions. Relations between the representatives of different genres provide a grateful subject for writers of many artistic genres, as well as playwrights who offer the audience a unique opportunity to watch the drama on stage. People are simply driven to the story performed, they may virtually experience non-standard situations, they can identify themselves with a fictional figure, and finally, being under the impression of the author’s insight into the current issue, they can observe the way women deal with patriarchy and learn to use their female weapons.
The playwright who is gifted to see differently, to look at people and subjects from an oblique angle, who does not hesitate to present so-called taboo issues as a comedy, has become an inspiration for the topic of my bachelor thesis. Her name is Paula Vogel. This author is undeniably the person that manages to take up and handle with taboo issues with ease and introduces them with courage and with her typical style of humour. Saddik reveals the secret of Vogel’s creation: “Vogel plays in audience’s expectations and predetermined conception.” (165)
It was difficult to decide which of her unique theatre plays will be analyzed. At last, I selected two of them, called Meg and How I Learned to Drive. Both plays differ in the topic examined, although these plays have one common denominator: gender inequality.
Searching for different sources focused on her work, I finally realized that Vogel’s masterpiece is not easily available in the Czech Republic as I had expected, despite the fact that Vogel is a highly appreciated playwright in American theatre. This fact stimulated my curiosity even more and I definitely decided to get acquainted with some of her plays and get them at all costs. It was really difficult to acquire her masterpiece called How I Learned to Drive that brought her to the top of popularity. This work of art has been saved in the Theatre Institute in Prague. I was allowed to get a copy of that
7 theatre play published in the book called Plays for the Theatre written by Oscar G. Brockett and Robert J. Ball.
This bachelor thesis aims to analyse this gender inequality in selected plays of Paula Vogel, as well as to bring readers closer to the life and work of this still living theatre playwright. It is the position of women in their families that corresponds with the evolution of society, and surprisingly, has not changed much during last four hundred years, as it is documented later in the analysis. Furthermore, this thesis brings readers closer to the author’s opinions and influences that have formed both Vogel’ personality and work in the field of drama.
In conversation with literary critic Linda Winer, Vogel describes herself as a cockroach. “What that means is that I’m having a life struggle, identity struggle. The cockroach theory in playwriting is: If you see one cockroach, there is going to be twenty underneath.” (“Women in Theatre”) This theory precisely depicts the creation and focus of this artistry. Paula Vogel clarifies her attitude. She is deeply convinced that people need to look at things from the different perspective than they are used to looking at because emotional issues are not only black and white but grey in a real life. (“Women in theatre”)
Mansbridge develops this idea and states: “She does not write “about” AIDS, pornography, and domestic violence, however; instead, she examines how they have come to be framed as “issues”- as sensationalized topics – and focuses on the histories and discourses that have gone into defining them, as well as on the bodies that bear their meanings”. (3)
This thesis is composed of six chapters. The first chapter brings readers closer to Vogel’s biography and suggests possible topics inspired by her own life experience. The second chapter focuses on author’s work and provides a chronological list of Vogel’s plays. The next chapter reveals the early influences that formed both her life attitudes and creativity, following by the fourth chapter describing the social background of America that influences the topics chosen for her creation. Then two selected theatre plays are displayed in last two chapters and provide the reader with analyses of selected theatre plays, namely Meg and How I Learned to Drive.
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Vogel’s Biography
Joanna Mansbridge’s book provides the readers with a biographical sketch of Paula Vogel’s life and studies. (2) Paula Vogel was born on November 16, 1951, in Washington, to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Her father, Donald Stephen Vogel, was an advertising executive, and her mother, Phyllis Rita Bremerman, worked as a secretary for the US Postal Service Training and Development centre. When Paula was eleven, her father left home, and she and her brother Carl remained with their mother, while her elder brother, Mark, lived with their father.
Vogel recalls her memories and explains her attitude to her brother by these words: “When my father left home he [Carl] became a father figure. He became a father figure who always paid attention, was always there, giving me books to read. (“Women in Theatre”) Carl’s personality is mentioned in many of her plays. Vogel notes: "In every play, there are a couple of places where I send a message to my late brother Carl. Just a little something in the atmosphere of every play to try and change the homophobia in our world." Carl's likeness appears in such plays as The Long Christmas Ride Home (2003), And Baby Makes Seven, and The Baltimore Waltz. (Paula Vogel: American Playwright”) Her beloved brother died of AIDS-related complications in 1988.
In high school, she fell in love with theatre, took a drama class and also began working as a stage manager for school productions. Vogel also recognized her love for women, “coming out as a lesbian at seventeen years old. (“Paula Vogel Biography”)
After graduating high school, she attended prestigious Bryn Mawr College, where she created her first play, a musical version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” (2) Vogel transferred to Catholic University of America and finished her BA in drama in 1974. She was rejected by the Yale School of Drama and instead attended Cornell University where completed all of the requirements for her doctorate in theatre arts, except the dissertation. “She taught intermittently in the Theatre Arts and Women’s Studies Departments at Cornell from 1977 to 1982. “While she was in school and teaching, she was writing plays. Her first play, Meg, was produced at the Kennedy Center, in
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Washington, DC, in 1977 while she was still in college. . . The next play to hit the stage for Vogel was Apple Brown Betty, which was produced by the Actors Theater of Louisville in 1979 ” ( Paula Vogel: Biography & Plays). In 1985 Vogel began teaching playwriting at Brown University, tutoring there for 23 years. At that time, in 1992, she first “came to national prominence with her seriocomedy The Baltimore Waltz, which won the Obie Award for Best Play in 1992” (“The Baltimore Waltz”) Vogel has also found there her lifelong partner Anne Fausto- Sterling, a professor of biology and women studies at Brown University. They got married in 2004 in Massachusetts. (Mansbridge 3)
The fact that Paula Vogel is considered to be a reputable playwright of the specific genre is confirmed by establishing the prize for young artists called on her behalf. “In 2003, the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival created an annual Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting for “the best student-written play that celebrates diversity and encourages tolerance while exploring issues of dis-empowered voices not traditionally considered mainstream.” (“Paula Vogel: playwright, teacher”) In 2008 Vogel accepted a position as the Eugene O’Neill Chair of the Playwriting Department at the Yale School of Drama. (Mansbridge 3)
Joanna Mansbridge also mentions an important change in Vogel’life. “At the end of the 2011-12 academic year, Vogel stepped down as a chair to focus on new projects, such as One Hundred Years of Vengeance, a co-commision from Yale Repertory Theater and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. . . She continues teaching at Yale as a lecturer in playwriting.”(3) An acclaim and also the acceptance and public recognition of her contribution to the field of drama was confirmed two years later: “In 2013, Vogel was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. In 2015 Paula Vogel’s literary archive was obtained by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, and she became the first female playwright included in the library’s Yale Collection of American Literature.” (“Paula Vogel: American Playwright”)
Vogel continues studying; in 2016 is successfully completing and defending her doctoral thesis at Cornell University: “More than 40 years after she began her graduate
10 work. She was awarded her PhD in Theatre Arts in May.” (Paula Vogel: American Playwright”)
Michael Paulson has summarized her work in The New York Times by these words: “Paula Vogel has won nearly every award her field has to offer, including the Pulitzer Prize. John Simon once remarked that Paula Vogel has more awards than a “black sofa collects lint.” (“Paula Vogel: Playwright, Teacher”). The fact she appears to be a productive author is documented by this list of countries that have shown interest in her work:
“Her plays have been produced in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand as well as translated and produced in Italy, Germany, Taiwan, South Africa, Australia, Romania, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Canada, Portugal, France, Greece, Japanese, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Peru, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil and other countries.” (“Paula Vogel: playwright, teacher”)
One milestone, however, has long eluded Paula Vogel: Broadway. Her dream came true in spring 2017 when “conspicuous absence comes to an end” (Paulson) by staging Indecent at the Cort Theater .” According to Norman, Vogel and Nottage1 while making their Broadway debuts raises again an uncomfortable question for the theatre industry, which season after season sees plays by men vastly outnumber plays by women in the all-important commercial spaces where money can be made. Paulson agrees and adds an important fact that in 2013-14 there were no new plays by women. (“Two Female Playwrights Arrive on Broadway”)
Vogel reaches the top of her fame in 2017 with her play Indecent. “Indecent” and “Sweat” written by Lynn Nottage, are the only new plays by women this Broadway season; by contrast, there are eight new plays by men (none of whom has credentials comparable to those of Ms. Vogel and Ms. Nottage)
When looking back into the past one can see that situation has not changed much since 1980’s when women were considered to be “a minority” like gays and lesbians. How else can we understand these words said by Paulson? “ And not only are they both
1 Lynn Nottage is Afro-American playwright, winner of 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama 11 women but Ms. Vogel is lesbian, and Ms. Nottage is African-American.” (“Two Female Playwrights Arrive on Broadway”)
Vogel’s years of effort was finally evaluated in 2017. This playwright was given the Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement.
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Vogel’s Bibliography
It is worth mentioning that the American stage in the 1980s was more concerned with maintaining convention, rather than challenging or disturbing it. “Vogel’s plays, with this experimental dramaturgy and difficult subject matter, did not fit these criteria” (Mansbridge, 13) Realism was still dominated genre of American theatre, identified as a deeply conservative, reaffirming dominant values, such as masculine and heteronormative values.
Many famous women playwrights also contributed to this era of American theatre, including Maya Angelou, Ayn Rand (a Russian-American novelist and playwright), Mae West, Joyce Carol Oates, Patricia Wettig and last, but not least Eve Ensler best known for her play The Vagina Monologues written in 1996.
Paula Vogel represents a prolific American playwright of the 20th century. Her bibliography counts, according to available sources, 24 works. However, some of these plays have remained on the edge of an interest of both publishers and producers. Her active creations is dated from 1970, her last project was finished in 2017.
The list of her plays contains : Lady of the Maggots ( 1970), The Beautiful Quasimodo (1971), In Her Own Image (1972), The Swan Song of Sir Henry (1974), Meg (1977), The Last Pat Epstein Show before the Reruns (1979), Apple-Brown Betty (1979), Desdemona: A Play about a Handkerchief (1979), The Lady in Black (1980), Bertha in Blue (1981), The Oldest Profession (1981), And Baby Makes Seven (1984), The Baltimore Waltz (1992), Hot’n’Throbbing (1994), How I Learned to Drive (1997-8), The Mammary Plays ( 1998), The Mineola Twins (1992), Common Ground (2000), The Long Christmas Ride Home ( 2004), Civil War Christmas (2008), Don Juan Comes Home from Iraq (2014), Indecent (2017).
These plays vary in the topics examined. The Oldest Profession, written in 1980, deals with the topic of geriatric prostitution. Paula Vogel named every prostitute in the play after her great-aunts and her grandma Vera and included into this theatre play everything she remembered about their personalities. Vogel explains that: “ They were
13 never prostitutes. But they were married women at a time where the line was very thin – it was an economic dependency.” (“Artists in Conversation”) The theatre play The Long Christmas Ride Home examines the topic of an economic dependency on men as well. During the family visit of the Unitarian Universalist Church, Minister who has returned from Japan presents slides describing the art of Edo period in Japan. “Suddenly, a slide flashes of a Japanese prostitute and her client.” (Vogel 28) People start laughing and the little girl asks her father why they are laughing. “Did the Virgin Mary work?” Father replies: “No. She stayed at home. Like your mother.” ( Vogel 29)
The Baltimore Waltz is the matter of heart. Vogel explains: “ The Baltimore Waltz will be for me the greatest play I ever wrote.” The play’s dedication reads, “To Carl – because I cannot sew,” which implies that this is Vogel’s version of an AIDS quilt.” (Mansbridge 148). The quilt is, in fact, a large stitched piece of cloth composed of many pieces of various shapes that make up a mosaic. Vogel confesses her inability to sew but she literally immortalized the story of her brother and his personality in this theatre play.
Paula Vogel’s plays have also appeared in a theatrical production in the Czech Republic. Her masterpiece called How I Learned to Drive was introduced to the Czech public in Prague in 2010. During the second decade of this millennium, the public also enjoyed Vogel’s plays on the stages of regional theatres.
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Early influences
Each artist’s creation is specific. However, it has to be said that it is always shaped and influenced by many other people and factors. Paula Vogel is not an exception.
To the high extent, Vogel was inspired by the technique developed in ancient Greece. This drama technique, described by Thespis, in 534 B.C., uses an advantage of a single actor who could play more than one role and might enter into dialogue with members of the chorus (Allison et al. 2). Vogel implemented this technique into her theatre play called How I Learned to Drive. “Li’L Bit and Uncle Peck, the main protagonists of the play, are the only clearly developed characters. All of the roles in the play are performed by what the script labels “Greek Chorus”- one male and two female actors who change identities quickly to become family members, students, waiters and others needed to make the script function effectively”. (Brockett, 544) It is documented in Vogel’s production notes. For instance, Male Greek Chorus plays Grandfather, Waiter and High School Boys. This technique can be observable also in her theatre play The Long Christmas Ride Home. This approach helped to create the scene with the minimum of actors.
Likewise,Vogel feels to be deeply influenced by Russian formalism. She uses a technique called “defamiliarization” in her plays. This technique is according to Vogel “the purpose of drama” (Mansbridge 9). “Taking up Russian formalist Victor Skhlovsky’s notion of defamiliarization” Vogel foregrounds the forgotten, the habitual, and the ubiquitous, recontextualizing and re-presenting them in unexpected ways. It means that both Vogel and Skhlovsky emphasize and definitely prefer the importance of sensual experience as opposed to rational knowing. Bertolt Brecht adapted the term and renamed it “Verfremdungseffekt” (Mansbridge 7).
Brecht first used the term in an essay on “Alienation Effects in Chinese Acting” published in 1936, in which he described it as “ playing in such a way that the audience was hindered from simply identifying itself with the characters in the play. Acceptance or rejection of their actions and utterances was meant to take place on a conscious plane, instead of, as hitherto, in the audience’s subconscious. (“Distancing effect”)
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According to Mansbridge, not only defamiliarization but also juxtaposition appears to be Vogel’s way to jar her audience into seeing familiar scenes in an unusual way. (7) In order to better approximate the meaning of this term, we can use this explanation:
Any time unlike things bump up against each other, you can describe it as a juxtaposition. Imagine a funeral mourner telling jokes graveside, and you get the idea — the juxtaposition, in this case, is between grief and humour. The juxtaposition of two contrasting items is often done deliberately in writing, music, or art — in order to highlight their differences. (“Juxtaposition”)
Vogel asks her audience – and her students – to look from the edge of things, rather than from the centre (Mansbridge 7). Like Bertolt Brecht, Vogel uses the structure of her plays to disrupt habituated patterns of identification. Unlike Brecht, Vogel cultivates effective engagement and empathy. Specifically, she cultivates negative empathy, which works against conditioned moral responses.”(Mansbridge 7)
Moreover, feminism deeply influenced Paula Vogel’s attitude to the topic of gender inequality. Vogel identifies herself as both feminist and a lesbian. More precisely said “First Amendment Feminist”. She discusses feminism in the Prologue series conversation with UCCS Theatre professor Kevin Landis:
This idea sharply contrasts with the widespread thoughts of radical feminism that rejects the dialogue between men and women and sees the future in the establishment of matriarchy. “Radical feminism views patriarchy as dividing rights, privileges and power primarily by sex, and as a result oppressing women and privileging men. Oppression is primarily manifested in the family. (“What is radical feminism?”)
The prominent representative of this radical stream is, for example, still living author and theorist Ti-Grace Atkinson2. Her idea concerning lesbianism is worth mentioning. Atkinson argues that: “Lesbianism is clearly the buffer between the male and female classes. The “benefits” are, primarily, a relative degree of independence from the institutional alternatives available to women: marriage, motherhood,
2 Ti-Grace Atkinson was a founding member of the New York chapter of N.O.W.; inventor and primary expounder of the concept of radical feminism. 16 prostitution.”(Atkinson 133) It is obvious that lesbianism can be understood as a question of mimicry.
Vogel’s theory is not so radical, she appreciates Chekhov, Williams, and Guare as feminist playwrights for giving their female characters a “complicated desire” and a “psychological complexity equal to the male characters.” (Mansbridge 5) Their influence is observable in the character of Margaret More in Meg where Vogel attributes male character to her heroine. It is documented by these words of Meg: “ William Roper and I became husband and wife in London, far from our village chapel and family priest in Chelsea. In a vast stern cathedral, we stood dwarfed, side by side. We shared our insignificance at an altar consecrated by state funerals - and for a moment - we were equal.”(Vogel 33)
She adds that being a feminist means looking at the things that disturb her and hurt her as a woman. “We live in a misogynist word and I want to see why.” (Mansbridge 10) It is obvious that she does not refuse a dialogue with male gender but she tries to understand and a little bit diminish male superiority by her creation. Evidently, it was really demanding to achieve recognition as an acclaimed playwright in that male world. This is illustrated by this Vogel’s view: “How very few of us as women were in the field in 1975? And I also recognized that was very hard for me to say ‘I’m a writer’ as a woman of this earlier generation. It was easy for me to say ‘I’m a stage manager’, but not easy being to.” (“Prologue Lecture”)
Vogel’s self-assessment not only expresses her own inner feelings, but also reflects a general public opinion on women who were successful in originally “men’s” professions, as it is documented in Helen Hacker’s dissertation that deals with this phenomenon of self- acceptance of women in typically male-dominated professions and confirms: “The pattern of self-hatred or group disparagement is not untypical among women professionals (. . .) I had the impression that, although they (women lawyers) respected themselves, they often had negative things to say about other women lawyers and did not care to be identified with “women lawyers” as a social category.” (Hecker, 5)
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Julia Miles shares the same view. Miles was so concerned with the gender disparity that she founded the Women’s Project & Productions to provide theatre practitioners a staging works by women. Miles pointed out that when she established the Women’s Project, “only 7 percent of all plays produced Off-Broadway and regionally were written by women, 6 percent were directed by women.” (112)
Additionally, not only feminist movement but also Vogel’s love for women influenced her creation. Lesbianism appears to be an issue mentioned in her plays, namely in And Baby Makes Seven and The Long Christmas Ride Home.
Vogel, although being a lesbian, did not appeal to the lesbian public: “Baby’s first production, in 1984, was vehemently criticized by lesbian audience members who were outraged by the representation of a lesbian couple who created imaginary boy children to animate their private life. When it comes to ‘representing’ as a lesbian playwright, Vogel insists: “I don’t speak for all lesbians and I don’t want to.” (Mansbridge 11)
Uninterested in developing a feminist and a lesbian aesthetic, creating an alternative female canon, or idealizing women on stage, Vogel found herself excluded by feminist theatre and theory in the early stages of her career. In the 1980s, when she was writing the first draft of Hot ‘n Throbbing and And Baby Makes Seven, Vogel struggled to find theatres that would produce her work. If her plays were staged, they were not always warmly received, by either critics or audiences. (Mansbridge 11)
The audience finally accepted Vogel as a talented and gifted playwright in 1992. That year marked a big change in her career. “Vogel’s breakout play, The Baltimore Waltz, was praised by critics and audiences for its imaginative, and yet (the) sensitive representation of AIDS. Coming on the heels of Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking Angels in America, Waltz contributed to a new era of plays that dealt with AIDS not as a marginal issue but as a central cultural question.” (Mansbridge 13) In other words, Vogel has been labelled as a courageous, witty and innovative playwright. In 1998 her successful play How I Learned to Drive brought her the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Vogel was “recognized as an important voice in American Theatre.
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Social background of America in 1960 – 1970
The social and theatrical background of America plays an essential role in terms of better understanding of Vogel’s choice of topics. That is to say, her work corresponds to the current topics or issues typical for different decades of American history. She takes this view: “Every new play is a theory, a theory that is posting about the culture in which we live”. (Mansbridge 9)
The 1960s were years of protest and reform. Young Americans demonstrated against the Vietnam war. African Americans demonstrated for Civil rights. Women demonstrated for equal treatment (“1970s and ‘80s. . .”.) In 1972, after years of campaigning by feminists, Congress approved the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution, which reads: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”(net Fighting for Women’s Rights). That is to say, legislation that affected women was and has remained more progressive in Britain than in the United States. Keyssar explains:
While sixties civil right laws cleared some paths for women in the United States, the legality of abortion was left to the courts, reforms in divorce laws occurred slowly at the state level, and the Equal Rights Amendment was defeated in 1982. In contrast, in Britain both an Abortion Act and an act partially legalizing male homosexuality were passed in1967, a Divorce Reform Act was passed in 1969 and the Equal Pay Act set the legal path for a gradual rectification of women’s economic status. (15)
Disappointments like these encouraged many women’s rights activists to turn away from politics. “They began to build feminist communities and organizations of their own: art galleries and bookstores, daycare and women’s health collectives, rape crisis centres and abortion clinics.” (“Fighting for Women’s Rights”)
However, economic equality of the sexes still proved an elusive goal. The effort to delete differences among professions influenced even American terminology. “ The use of gender-neutral terms for certain jobs became part of the American lexicon –
19 policemen became police officers, firemen became firefighters, mailmen are now mail carriers and stewardesses are flight attendants.”(“ 1970s and ‘80s. . .”)
Major changes also occurred on the stage-scene of that time. According to Helene Keyssar, the birth of the feminist drama as a distant theatrical genre in the late 1960s “had its most immediate roots in the political and aesthetic disruptions of the 1960s.” (1) Her opinion corresponds to ideas of the group of authors of Masterpieces of the Drama who claim that: “Dramatic theorizing has more or less followed the changes in kinds of drama and the conditions of theatrical representation. It has seldom been literary theorizing alone but has been mixed with political, religious and practical interests.(Allison et al. 3)
Keyssar suggests Gertrude Stein be the first overtly feminist dramatist, while Megan Terry is considered to be the Mother of American Feminist Drama.(186) Matthew C. Roudané shares the same view. At the same time, he claims that Terry writes for both men and women. (115) He states that earlier plays tended to map out a patriarchal world from fairly traditional perspectives unlike the plays were written since the 1960s when women dramatists have produced works that are much more radicalized in conception and theme.
Since the early sixties, “approximately 300 plays by women have been published in Britain and the United States; more than half of these arise out of an acknowledged and apparent feminist consciousness and many others are illuminating of women’s roles and their relationships to men in society.” (Keyssar 19) Women felt the urgent need to draw attention to themselves and to reveal who they really are. However, Director Julia Miles3 pointed out ‘only seven percent of all plays produced off-Broadway and regionally were written by women; six percent were directed by women.’(Roudané 112)
Megan Terry with her Open Theatre “provided the certain link between the avant-garde in the 1960s and the developing feminism of the 1970s.” (“On Megan Terry”) Focused on “problem of sexual identity, gender stereotypes and systemic sexism in America”,
3 Julia Miles is the Founder and Artistic Director of Women’s Project Productions, which has produced 111 plays and over 400 readings and workshops by women playwrights
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Terry introduced her play Calm Down Mother, first produced in the Open Theatre in 1965.
In 1972 Women’s Theatre Council was established. “A group of six women playwrights dedicated to the discovery and production of new plays by women. The plays they produced would escape the reductions these women perceived in the ‘masculine- oriented theatre’; gone would be the ‘bitch’, the goddess and the whore with the heart of gold.”(Keyssar 20)
The period of the1980’s appears to be an important decade for women, gay, and lesbian playwrights, with Wendy Wasserstein, Beth Henley, and Marsha Norman all being produced on Broadway and winning major awards, including Henley’s Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for Crimes of the Heart, and Norman’s in 1983 for ‘night, Mother. (Mansbridge 12) Apparently, women were still considered to be the minority like gays and lesbians, even in 1980’s!
Mansbridge also points to the emergence of the “culture wars”, characterized by a backlash against feminism and civil rights, a reassertion of family values and traditional gender roles. The American stage in the 1980s was more concerned with maintaining convention rather than challenging or disturbing it. Contrary to this view of Mansbridge, Charlotte Canning in her book called Feminist Theaters in the U.S.A. lists these facts: “Between 1969 and 1986 there was an explosion of feminist theatre activity in the U.S.A.For the first time in history, women had an enormous collective impact on theatre.”( 9)
Mansbridge finally summarizes that all of the successful plays were written in the still- dominated genre of American theatre-realism…..Identified as a deeply conservative genre that reaffirms dominant (i.e., white, heteronormative, masculine) values by reproducing seemingly stable and unchangeable word. Vogel’s plays, with their experimental dramaturgy and difficult subject matter, didn’t fit these criteria.” (13) Theatre scholar C.W.E. Bigsby agrees and claims that “her plays were not offered as an antidote, still less a palliative, but they were offered as an irritant.” (“A Playwright on the Edge”).
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The 1980s have brought fatal disease called AIDS. Gay men were falling sick mysteriously. Alan Sinfield specifies: “Came to notice in New York in 1981 and then in other Western cities; the virus was identified in 1984.”( 314). Anette Sadik suggests that “the question of the relationship among sexuality, death, identity and social visibility was the subject of much work in the theatre during the late 1980s and 1990s.” (163) Not only Vogel but also other great playwrights reflect that current topic in their work. Let us remind the famous Angels in America written by Tony Cushner in 1990-91 or Harvey Fierstein’s Safe sex (1987). Vogel’s contributions focused on the AIDS issue are called The Baltimore Waltz and The Long Christmas Ride Home.
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Meg
In 1977 a young graduate student Paula Vogel introduced her very first theatre play called Meg. Mansbridge states that this earliest work is considered to be the least known of Vogel’s plays (32). Despite this fact, the theatre play brought her first award for playwriting at the Ninth Annual American College Theatre Festival in Washington, DC, a prize that earned her some recognition” (. . .), claims Joanna Mansbridge in her newly published book devoted to and called Paula Vogel (4).
For the novice dramatist, this play meant a great challenge. Vogel decided to offer an opposing view on a traditional position of women in Tudor England. Women in the 16th century were isolated from education, their social and family position was strictly defined by the rooted patterns of patriarchal society. Cynthia Epstein’s states: “The female is, and was meant forever to be, warm, nurturant, yielding, lovable though a bit on the stupid side, willing to accept the rule and domination of the male, a bit fractious but much improved by being beaten once in a while.” (22)
Vogel decided to take this issue differently. Her conception allows women to be dominant and to develop their identity. What is more important to realize is that Vogel literally enjoys playing with a change of gender roles there and that is why her female figures represent strong individuals as opposed to male characters who appear to be weak, mild and governed by women. Vogel saw more value in examining the conflicts within and away from female characters that have learned the conventions of a male- dominated culture (Mansbridge 28).
“The background to Meg, based on the life of Margaret More Roper, is Tudor England, with its political and ruthless male hierarchies of Henry VIII and the Catholic Church.”(Vogel 3) This theatre play is divided into three acts in which the audience follow mainly two-person scenes. Spectators witness character transformation of five different actors, namely Meg, her future husband William Roper4, Sir Thomas More5, his second wife Alice, and Cromwell6.
4 William Roper (c. 1496 – 4 January 1578) was an English lawyer and member of Parliament.
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Act I reveals the relationship between the members of her family. Meg explains her choice of her future husband Will, her alliance with her beloved father, and also introduces the persona of Cromwell and classifies him to be a very dangerous and powerful man. The key idea of this theatre play seems to be the topic of education of women in society, the additional motif appears to be the perception of a dominant and subordinate role in the marriage in general. Last but not least, this theatre play reveals a history’s tendency to either idealize or demonize female figures and cast them as supporting characters to a central male figure. “Vogel saw more value in examining the conflicts within and away from female characters that have learned the conventions of a male-dominated culture.”(Mansbridge 28)
The act starts with the brief introduction of Meg’s personality by her reading of a short part of the text written in their family chronicle. This introduction reveals all the topics contained and later contradicted in the play:
Margaret More Roper was born in 1508, the beloved daughter of the reverent Saint Thomas More, martyr of the true Church-and died the obedient wife of William Roper, Esquire. Her renown as a scholar of Greek and Latin under her father’s tutelage, unusual then as now to the female condition, was restrained and surpassed by a greater modesty becoming to her sex. Four hundred years of sermonizing and reproach to wives, mistresses, mothers, and school girls. (Airily.) Margaret the Modest, Margaret the Meek, Margaret the Mild….(Cynically.) Margaret the Masochist.”( (Vogel, 6)
She calls herself a Masochist because of her strong belief that she is capable of acting and thinking as a dominant person, as a man. Meg is clearly conscious of the fact that her unconventional behaviour is going to cause her troubles but he literally heads against the wall.
5 Thomas More - English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He was also a councillor to Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to 16 May 1532. He wrote Utopia, published in 1516, about the political system of an imaginary, ideal island nation.
6 Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader. He served as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1653 until his death, acting simultaneously as head of state and head of government of the new republic.
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Meg differs from women of her age, representing an atypical woman of the times. Literally, Meg corresponds to Virginia Woolf’s concept of “A room of one’s own”; she is able to write pamphlets, teach children at school and her lifestyle is distant from the expected role of a woman. Her stepmother does not share Meg’s enthusiasm for education. She is convinced that Meg should focus on ideal feminine virtues, as documented by Alice’s words: “ I don’t know why you insist on shaming our family, Meg. You have already called public attention to yourself by reading and writing pamphlets….Had you been mine, you’d been learning to cook, and clean, and care for a decent, honest, intelligent husband.” (Vogel 11) However, writing pamphlets mentioned above is based on historically documented record. Margaret Roper was, in fact, the first non-royal woman to publish a book she had translated into English7.
Meg’s originality and dominant role in her relationship are also demonstrated in the dialogue with her future husband, a village idiot Will. When they meet, he has to tell her his vow, to be trained for their future wedding day.
Will. “ I, William Roper”. . . I don’t remember anymore. Meg. (Patiently.) “ Vow to be guided by my wife, Margaret More” (. . . ) to abide by her council (. . .) to acknowledge her supremacy (. . .) and complete authority in the upbringing of our offspring (. . .) for all our married life” (8).
Meg also decides to change Will’s personality completely, including his religious beliefs. This is documented by these words: “William, I may have you convert back to Catholicism again. (Will hastily starts to cross himself – Meg halts his arm.) – but not until I tell you.”(Vogel 9) Will is presented in a role of a village idiot “So stupid, but oh, so orthodox!!”(9) The author’s intention is to present Will like a weak individuum, meek and mild in a way women were presented and considered to be. It can be deduced that Meg has a very clear conception of her future marriage and life that differs from the rooted gender habits.
Meg is convinced that her father understands her in terms of her choice. Consensus between Meg and her father is confirmed by her father’s statement: “I’m sure you have your reasons for selecting Will…”(13) She claims her father envies her “domestic
7 Translation of a Latin work Precatio Dominica by Erasmus as A Devout Traetise upon the Paternoster 25 peace.” (Vogel 12) Thomas More, Meg’s father, is in the performance governed by his second wife Alice. Vogel intimates that More’s wife represents an authoritarian figure who is described as a harpy. More appears to be satisfied with this state of affairs.
This Vogel’s approach contrasts with historical reality. Erasmus asserts that historical person Thomas More “had a tendency to mock women, regarding them as stupid, foolish creatures.” (“Sir Thomas More”) This fact suggests that his real character, as historically documented, was far from the rendition in this theatre play.
The storyline further focuses on the figure of Thomas More who is required to go to London immediately due to upcoming “discussion of strategy for the petition to His Holiness to annul Henry’s union with Queen Catherine (. . .) His Majesty is impatient.(. . .) So is Mistress Boleyn.”(Vogel 21 -22) Cromwell requires More to discuss this issue without the presence of Meg, unfortunately, More is proud of his clever and educated daughter and reveals the very important information that Meg is, in fact, his “book- keeper, theologian, daughter-confessor, and council member in one.” (Vogel 21) Cromwell recognizes that Meg has a big impact on his father and represents the only weakness of the mighty man of Thomas More. “There is nothing I feel competent to act upon without her advice.” (Vogel 22)
After Cromwell’s departure, More praises cleverness of his daughter and also outlines Meg her options in case she would have been born as Cromwell’s daughter.
“Just think, Meg – no doubt if you were Cromwell’s daughter, right this moment you’d be squinting your eyes over some piece of plain sewing by the fire – pricking your finger on the needle each time your mind wanders to that handsome innkeeper's son, and superstitiously tossing salt over your shoulder. How would you like that?” (Vogel 24)
Meg confesses she is not unhappy, but lonely from time to time. This is confirmed by her words: “ I’m not denying that I’m different from the others (. . .) Because I think – I’m very likely the only woman in the world right now poring over these words – there is no other woman. I’m unique.”(Vogel 25) More claims that Meg, although being born female, becomes his great experiment and devotion of his life. (Vogel 26)
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This dialogue corresponds to historical records with the commentary provided by Professor Barker. John W. Barker reveals that for Sir Thomas, everything is an experiment, including his daughter, who with her advanced education feels like “a freak of nature.” (“Meg”)
Act II begins with the wedding of Meg and Will. Meg and William become husband and wife in London. Cromwell visits their wedding and wants Mr. More to come with him immediately. The Papal legate has arrived and Sir More is expected to organize the documents.
More agrees, but he needs an ally. This ally should be a person who cannot be corrupted. He chooses Will to be his companion in London. He explains his choice by these words: “the line between a village idiot and a solid citizen is very thin.”(Vogel 40) It can be assumed that a village idiot will quickly understand what profit he can get when being given a chance to became a solid citizen. Unlike a real solid citizen, he always remains loyal, and literally never bites the hand that feeds him.) Meg is shocked and feels as if “she has just lost her best hound.” ( Vogel 43) According to her statement, Will appears to be taken as her property.
Both Alice and Meg are longing for their husbands, they talk about the greatness of Mr. More, whose figure will be remembered because of his writings. Alice claims: “ His name will go down in books, and others will read them, and know of his existence.” (Vogel 45) She compares Mr. More to her mother and women in general, whose existence is registered only by “all the clothes she’s knitted for her.” (Vogel 45)
Alice also reveals the truth about Meg’s deceased mother: (Female weakness runs in your family) “ Your mother had her last child too soon. Meg: Yeah, I know. The familiar story of too many too soon But she wanted another child; as it was her choice, it was her risk. Alice. (Questioningly.) Was it?.” (Vogel 49)
Meg does not understand why her father lied to her. However, it was not the only fable her father had told her. The truth is that her father, in fact, fell in love with mother’s younger sister. Jane Colt was eldest and he had to propose her instead of her sister. Meg
27 is shocked but still, she wants to make sure the other facts are true. Meg:” Tell me – was my mother very like me? Father always swears I take after her – in appearance, in intelligence, in temperament..do I?
Alice. … Some say that when Jane Colt left her father’s house she left it as a simple country girl, unlearned and rustic”(66)… and so he tutored her newlywed in reading and made her practise the lute, the Latin and what not. Well, Jane would rather have swept floors than become some dancing dog…. And some say she pounded her head against the floor in fits, rather than read…. I suppose your father gave up his experiments; at any rate, she soon had five children. So much for Latin! (Vogel 67)
Meg realizes that almost everything in her life was a myth, but myth told with love. Her father, in fact, fell in love with her mother’s sister but according to social conventions had to choose the older one. That woman was an opposite of his true love. The question is being offered whether he intentionally educated Meg so that she meets the criteria of a woman he desired for.
More and Will returns home. More continues writing his family chronicle, Will assists him and Meg appears to be redundant and orphaned without books, her father and a husband. She is expected to behave like a wife of an influential man; this entails an obligation to attend to the alms house for the aged. Moreover, she is recommended to prepare herself for the childbirth. Meg is getting confused since she is not used to playing this undiscovered role of a mother and a wife.
Unexpectedly, Cromwell arrives again, announcing that Pope refused annulment, King Henry divorced the Church itself, an Act of Supremacy was placed in front of Parliament. Besides, Mr. More is expected to reign as a Chancellor. Thomas More claims that to him “ the Pope will ever be the Supreme Head of the Church.” (Vogel 62) Meg points out that he should think of his children and not to put them in danger.
More refuses to take the oath, as a result of this decision is immediately arrested. All the family remains friendless, isolated.
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The story culminates when Mr. Cromwell finds a family chronicle written by Thomas More and wants Meg to turn against her father. She is expected to sign a testimony that her father swore against the King Supremacy. He offers some immunity for her and her family and promises that her signature saves her father from burning alive at the stake to death by beheading. (Vogel 71) Meg agrees.
Learned from previous development, Meg realizes the possible danger resulting from her education and decides not to make her children in the future unhappy. Vogel states that education limits women at that time for the reason that position of people in society is predetermined by their sex. Meg, being convinced that education is intended only for men, is not able to understand the reason why her father had exposed her to this possibility restricted only for men. She adds that she would not have chosen this way of life, as documented by her words: “Oh, women of my age – could I have chosen, I would lie with you in your unmarked, communal grave – of silence.”(73)
Meg feels, throughout her life that women are martyred in life. (73) That is why she comes to the conclusion to teach her daughters Catechism…“But I did not teach them Greek. They grew up to be big healthy women, giggling in the chapel, and gossiping at night. They knitted before the fire and dreamed of the innkeeper's son”.(Vogel 73) Meg aims to raise her daughters according to social conventions and not to break them out of social life. She realizes that education limits women at that time. “It was detrimental to the traditional female virtues of innocence and morality.” (“Roles of Women”) Education was considered to be suitable only for specific classes of people. Compared this fact to the research of Tim Lambert, it is clear that the level of education was always determined by the social status of the families:
“That is to say in the 16th century some upper-class women were highly educated, as it was in case of two of Henry VIII’s wives, Catherine of Aragon and Catherine Parr. (. . .) Middle-class girls were taught reading, writing, arithmetic and skills like sewing by their mothers. Of course, most children in Tudor England did not go to school. Boys and girls from poor families were expected to start working from the time they were about 7 years old.” (“Local Histories”)
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Besides dealing with the issue of education of women, Vogel investigates the importance of norms and rooted social habits in her play. Vogel confesses that Meg, in her youth, efforts to change the rooted convention because she believes in her power to change them. Meg also believes in the principles of openness and change which is documented by her words: “The only convention by which we live is fear.” (Mansbridge 31)
Meg’s authority presented in this theatre play does not mean that her story is more valid than the story of her father Thomas More, but points out at the fact that “the version you get depends on who does telling (. . . ) From Meg’s perspective, More is not an idealized hero, a saint, or a Great Man in the conventional sense. He is, rather, a stubborn thinker, and a neglectful husband. We can notice a generational shift between “More’s unrelenting adherence to law and convention and his daughter more pragmatic approach. For her, these laws and conventions need to be malleable enough to account for infinitely variable situations.” (32)
What appears to be a crucial message of Vogel’s play called Meg is an effort to draw public attention to the fact that patriarchal arrangement of society in the 16th century fundamentally has not changed much during the last four centuries, till the 1970s. Vogel’s plan is clear. She intentionally does not criticise the approach of American society to women’s social status, their opportunities and possibilities in the field of education in a direct way, but rather aims to point at this current problem by demonstrating gender roles versus power relations in the context of a historical play. The play implies that the role of women in modern society remains unresolved and is still considered to be a subject of acute debate.
Professor Mansbridge points that Meg also demonstrates second-wave feminism emphasis on reviving forgotten female figures in history and recovering women’s oral histories. She mentions women’s exclusion from canonical history; the need to recover a women’s history and women’s stories; the need to claim canonical and social authority”(27) Betty Friedan agrees, arguing that “women often had no outlets for expression other than “finding a husband and bearing children” and encourages readers to seek new roles and responsibilities, to seek their own personal and professional identities rather than have them defined by the outside, male-dominated society.” (322 )
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According to Epstein, even in the 1960s society legitimated the popular suspicion that women who seek an independent identity outside the home are women with problems and that women who do not feel a strong drive to establish a family first should wonder what is wrong with them. (31)
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How I Learned to Drive
The dramatic piece How I Learned to Drive is undeniably considered to be the most famous theatre play of Mrs. Vogel. Its festive premiere took place at the Vineyard Theatre on March 16, 1997. Only one year later, in 1998, the masterpiece was awarded by Pulitzer Prize for Drama8. The numerous awards followed such as Obie, Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. In addition, it became one of the most produced theatrical plays over the next decade in the United States of America. Joanna Mansbridge says that this play is Vogel’s most celebrated play because it earned her international recognition as an important voice in American Theatre (123).
The author says “You know where it comes from? I stole. Everything great is stolen” (“Artists in Conversation”). Vogel was fascinated by a novel called Lolita written by Vladimir Nabokov and published in 1955. She studied Lolita many times since high school. “ I’ve had an obsession with Lolita since age twenty. I think it is an extraordinary book. I know all of the film versions of Lolita. I asked: ‘Can we do that in theatre? A novelist has hundreds and hundreds of pages to be able to play with words. (“Women in Theatre”)
Not only Lolita, but Oleanna as well influenced her creation. “Vogel wrote Drive, in part, as a response to David Mamet’s Oleanna (1992), an ideologically unbalanced, highly polemical play that was produced amid media frenzy over the Clarence Thomas9 - Anita Hill hearings10 and the national debate over sexual harassment laws” (Mansbridge 22) This socially consequential issue has been masterfully transferred into the theatre play. We can recognize a certain parable among Oleanna, Lolita and Li’l Bit (the heroine of How I learned to Drive). An experienced man in a socially superior position on the one hand, on the second hand younger woman who has respect for her supporter, respect for his knowledge and life outlook. It is obvious that she likes his
8 The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in twenty-one categories in the United States of America. These prizes areawarded yearly since 1917.
9 Clarence Thomas is an American judge, lawyer, and government official who currently serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
10 Anita Faye Hill is an American attorney and academic. She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her boss at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment. 32 interest in her and she does not realize that this interest is directed to the completely different relationship. Lolita has been adapted to the stage and also into the film in 1962. Besides, we can cover up erotic motifs and an obsession with a minor girl there. Unlike Lolita, Li’l Bit had never experienced sex with her seducer. Let us detect (determine) the relationships among the closest ones to better comprehend the reasons why an innocent young girl has increasingly escaped from the reality of everyday life to the unconventional uncle’s armful.
At the beginning of the story is presented this thought: “Sometimes to tell a secret, you first have to teach a lesson.” (Vogel, 5) Paula Vogel explains that it is important for the audience “to see their relationship develop through a different lens, not the one that would automatically stigmatize him as a paedophile or pervert. (. . .) I wonder if I could look at something and make it grey, because to me, in real life, emotional issues are grey and not black and white” (“Women in theatre”)
Linda Winer, the theatre critic, says: “It’s basically about a teenage girl and her uncle. How did you get the metaphor of driving?”(“ Women in theatre”). Paula Vogel explains: “ I saw the image, I saw the original character of Li’l Bit. The original Li’l Bit in my head was driving in the car and just review in the mirror and saw her uncle at the back. And that is it. That is the metaphor.”(“Women in Theatre”). With an uncle sitting at the back of the car, Vogel intimates a good end of the story. There was laid another interesting question in their dialogue: How it is possible to write a play about consensual incest? Mrs. Vogel answers that she has never expected it to be produced. It is one of those challenges, you know…
The play consists of memory lessons and driving lessons as well. “Likewise, her memory lessons teach the audience the social history surrounding LI’l Bit’s adolescence – the sensory landscape, evoked through images, songs, popular culture references, and also the political landscape, evoked through Peck’s service in World War II.” (Mansbridge 125)
The playwright frames the scenes through the use of captions, which Vogel suggests should be spoken in the type of voice heard in driver education films. Most of these
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captions are related to driving lessons such as “Idling in the Neutral Gear”, “Shifting Forward from First to Second Gear”, “You and the Reverse Gear”, and “Driving in Today’s World.” Li’l Bit and Uncle Peck are the only clearly developed characters. All of the other roles in the play are performed by what the script labels the “Greek Chorus” – one male and two female actors who change identities quickly to become family members, students, waiters, and others needed to make the script function effectively. (Brockett, Ball 543).
Basically, using a metaphor, the author intimates the development of a whole story. “Further defamiliarizing the action is the voice of the driving instructor who guides us through the lessons, telling us what gear is being used, the direction in which we are moving, and the precautions we should take.” (Mansbridge 131) Vogel metaphorically expresses driving lessons as an act of manipulating not only with a car, but with Li’l Bit’s life as well. Mansbridge states: “The metaphor of driving lesson reinforces that gender is not something that originates in the body, but something that is taught”(132). Another metaphorical comparison is that between the car and a woman. Peck refers to his car as “she”: “It doesn’t have to be a ‘she’ – but when you close your eyes, think of someone who responds to your touch.”(Vogel 51) Mansbridge notes that while looking back, Li’l Bit sees Peck’s love of cars as his own heterosexual training, preparing him to love – and assume control over – women.
The analysis of the play is based on the text of this play, although performance clips publicly available are taken into account. Especially, the way of rendering the scenes that take place in a car has been examined. The fact that the car itself does not appear on stage suggests that emphasis is placed on the emotional bond between the protagonists rather than on environment where the plot takes place.
The titles of the driving lessons’ chapters indicate the development of the relationship between Li’l Bit and her uncle. The first chapter has a fitting title, it is called “Safety first”. This title suggests safety of Li’l Bit during her childhood. Later, when she is getting old, Li’L Bit admits her emotional dependency on her uncle that is caused by the lack of attention from her mother and absence of a father.
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The family of Li’l Bit is mostly described as depicted and sarcastic. That is to say, the relationship between mother and her daughter is striking. The ambiguity of mother’s relationship to Li’l Bit is given by several facts. After birth, her mother exposed her daughter’s naked body to provide the family with the evidence the baby is really a girl. Later the mother explained the origin of Li’L Bit’s name, it was chosen by the family according to the appearance of her genitals. That is to say, almost all family members have acquired their names in a similar way:
LI’L BIT: In most families, relatives get names like “Junior,” or “Brother,” or “Bubba.” In my family, if we call someone “Big Papa,” it’s not because he’s tall. In my family, folks tend to get nicknamed for their genitalia. Uncle Peck, for example. My mama’s adage was “the titles wonder,” and my cousin Bobby got branded for life as “B.B.” [In unison with Greek Chorus:] LI’L BIT: For blue balls. (Vogel, stanza 100)
This description of the origin of their nicknames reveals that the topic of this play is sexually centred. Saddik expresses her opinion with this comment:” The lack of sexual boundaries in the family fuels the action in this play.”(165) The family is led by patriarchal grandfather. Women in this family are used to accepting this way of life. Li’l Bit wants to be different – educated and not dependent on her family. That is why she learns how to drive a car and why she I going to go to university.
Additionally, the concept of driving lessons functions as the personality – formation lessons as we, as explained later in this thesis. “Through Peck‘ driving lessons, Li’l Bit learns to take a masculine position, both in the driver’s seat and in broader social interaction.” (Mansbridge 31)
The story itself starts with this scene: Uncle Peck and his niece are sitting in the car, it is 1969 and Li’l Bit remarks that she is very cynical of the world, maybe because she is seventeen and sitting in the car with a married man. Their dialogue is mutually ambiguous and sexually-centred. Peck is constantly making sure they do not do anything wrong.
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The story continues with daily-life episodes. The author’s intention is to bring the audience near to the situation in the family so as they are able to understand the ties among the members of the family. Li’l Bit’s mother does not leave any opportunity to emphasize the girl’s merit. In the episode describing typical family dinner, the mother says grandmother that “ Li’l Bit’s getting to be as big in the bust as you are”(Vogel 110). The girl is shocked because her grandmother immediately decides to show her own busts and starts to open her blouse. Li’l Bit cannot stand it. She explains this is a typical family dinner and adds that Big Papa – her Grandpa, will chime in next with … There a big conflict arises, Li’l Bit screams that she hates them; the topic of conversation is changed with the help of uncle Peck.
Paula Vogel explains why she has chosen the “breast topic”. “I’m interested in when we feel uncomfortable. Breast jokes is one area where women feel uncomfortable. Behind the breast jokes. She adds: “Look in 1960’s and look at laughing. Look at breast jokes and who did the jokes. This is a surface below. This is a very much part about kind of cultural knowledge.” (“Women in Theatre”) When Li’l Bit introduces her wish to go to college, Grandpa asks: “What does she need a college degree for? She’s got all the credential she’ll need on her chest“ (146). Li’l Bit answers she would like to learn things, to read Shakespeare and Grandpa asks her “How is Shakespeare going to help her lie on her back in the dark?”(155)
Vogel chooses this topic of education on the basis of her own experience. Vogel explains, “I was the first generation in the family that had graduated high school and the first generation to go to college. . .” (Mansbridge 3)
After a sharp exchange of views, the girl is running out of the house, crying. Female Greek Chorus as Aunt Mary wants Peck to go after Li’l Bit because he is the only one she will listen to. “ Peck’s so good with them when they got to be this age”(175). Then, during the Peck’s and Li’L Bit’s conversation, they both agree on their meeting alone. It is obvious that her uncle is the only person willing to listen to her and willing to hark.
The only intimate moment that the girl, mother, and grandmother spend together is the one where three generations of women sit at the kitchen table. Women are discussing sex. Mum tells Li’l Bit that men want only one thing and once they have it they lose all
36 interest, then the mother reveals a shocking truth about her grandparents. The Grandpa took her Grandma at her 14 years of age (. . .) Grandma says “It was legal, what Daddy and I did! I was fourteen and in those days, fourteen was a grown-up woman”(475). The conversation also deals with the topic of first sex. Li’l Bit’s mother wants to tell her daughter the truth, while her grandmother resolutely rejects such an approach. Their conversation turns into a quarrel.
FEMALE GREEK CHORUS: (as Mother) Mother! If you and Daddy had helped me – I wouldn’t have had to marry that-no-good-son-of-a- TEENAGE GREEK CHORUS: (as Grandmother) – He was good enough for you on a full moon! I hold your responsible! FEMALE GREEK CHORUS: (as Mother) – You could have helped me! You could have told me something about the facts of life! FEMALE GREEK CHORUS: (as Grandmother) – I told you what my mother told me! A girl with her skirt up can outrun a man with his pants down! (590)
This dialogue reveals the truth that through generations there is a certain taboo in this family. Men are considered to be the bulls. The women in this family have always been sceptical of the full and loving relationship between men and women in general. Rather than an effort to change or diminish patriarchal approach, women’s life appears to be the struggle for power.
The whole quarrel mentioned above merge into the buzz and change into the melody that both uncle Peck and Li’l Bit are listening in his car. Peck turns the volume down. This act symbolizes he is the only one who is able to stop quarrelling and brings calming. He serves as a masculine protector.
Apparently, uncle Peck substitutes the missing father in this family. Edward Kruk PhD points out that fatherless children are at greater risk of suffering physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and emotional maltreatment. (“Father absence . . . ”)
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In Fatherless America, David Blankenhorn11, the author of the book, calls the crisis of fatherless children “the most destructive trend of our generation.” Although this book was written in 1995, it seems this topic was really actual in the 1960s as well.
Uncle Peck confesses that he does not have any sons. Li’l Bit is the nearest to a son and he wants her to drive like a man, defensively, with aggression: He knows that in the men’s world she must learn masculine skills to endure:
Peck. When you are in control of the car, just you and the machine and the road - that nobody can take from you. A power. (. . .) There’s a lot of assholes out there. Crazy men, arrogant idiots, drunks, angry kids, geezers who are blind- and you have to be ready for them. (Vogel 675)
Peck names his car as “she”. He explains: “ when you close your eyes and think of someone who responds to your touch – someone who performs just for you and gives you what you ask for – I guess I always see a “she”. (Vogel 695). Li’l Bit argues that she closed her eyes and decided not to change a gender. It means Li’l Bit realizes the value of her own personality and does not want to adapt to the male gender. Saddik agrees: “The construction of identity, especially female identity, in terms of sexuality and the body is key in this play.” (165)
The whole story culminates, when Li’l Bit is given a Cadillac for her birthday. Peck proposes Li’l Bit to marry him. She is shocked, refuses him and he asks her to lie on the bed next to him and listen to her body. He is convinced that she must feel the same strong feeling as he does.
Li’l BIT: - I’ve got to get back. Peck: Wait – Li’l BIT. Did you . . . feel nothing? LI’L BIT: [lying] No. Nothing. Peck: Do you – do you think of me? LI’L BIT: No
11 David Blankenhorn is the founder and president of the Institute for American Values 38
Li’l Bit faces a difficult situation. Peck wants to protect her, but at the same time, he violates her. The girl is reluctant to lose the closeness they shared together with her uncle but clearly realizes the necessity to cut ties with him. Li’l Bit decides to breach their communication and their contact definitely. Her act demonstrates the fact that the issue of gender remains unsolved and still acute, as testified by Li’l Bit’s narrative. Finally, she summarises:” I never saw him again… It took my uncle seven years to drink himself to death.
The last metaphor which is worth mentioning can be found at the end of the story when Li’l Bit is to drive her own car, sitting there she remembers all Peck’s instructions. She sees him in the rearview mirror: “She smiles at him, and he nods at her. They are happy to be going for a long drive together” (1290). She accepts everything that happened in the past, and finally, she feels reconciliation. Although dead, Peck became an integral part of Li’l Bit’s present and future life. Vogel clarifies: “ It’s about the gifts we receive from the people who harm us. In the end, freedom comes, ultimately, from forgiveness”. (“Artists in Conversation”)
Additionally, these driving lessons function as her gender formation as well. “Through Peck‘ driving lessons, Li’l Bit learns to take a masculine position, both in the driver’s seat and in broader social interaction.” (Mansbridge 31) We can observe connections between the lessons of sexual development and gender training as well.
Teaching audiences to identify with a female protagonist is a part of Vogel’s ongoing strategy as a playwright. As she points out,“ women have been trained to empathize with male subjects, whereas men have not learned how to empathize directly with a female character.” (interview with Savran,272) According to Mansbridge, to retrain both men and women to identify with a female character is an opening of new ways of seeing gender and being in a relationship. That is to say, this provocative theatre play divided the audience into two camps. It means that not all critics commented on this play positively. John Heilpern, the New York Observer’s, claims:
“Ms. Vogel would like us to be turned on by child molesters like Uncle Peck . . . . Come on in, folks! See the safe paedophilia.” At the same time, he admits that Vogel
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“hasn’t written the provocative drama she claims; she has neutralized the issues making them more or less harmless.” (Mansbridge 144)
Michael Toscano of the Washington Post was disturbed by a lack of “clear moral messaging”. (ibid.)
On the other hand, some of the critics have defined this theatre play as a sensitive depiction of “child abuse” and even “a love story”, Vogel describes Drive as a comedy and states: “ Of course it’s not, but the first half very much functions as a comedy.(. . .) Maybe it’s a survival strategy.”( Mansbridge 123)
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Conclusion
This bachelor thesis aims to reveal gender inequality in the male-dominated society in selected plays of a still living American playwright and teacher Paula Vogel. Paula Vogel represents gifted, highly educated woman who considers herself to be a lesbian and The First Amendment Feminist. She uses theatre stage to provoke the people in the audience to look at things from the different angle, because in Vogel’s words, the real life is not only black or white but grey.
What Vogel is trying to achieve through her theatre plays, is the highlights of the topics that had been tabooed in society for many years. Vogel also intentionally places women in this theatrical processing to the positions of winners. Her heroines do not figurate there as weak individuals but finally appear to gain power over the men. They gain the ability to learn a lot of skills important for survival in male-dominated culture and finally manage to find and define themselves as strong and rationally humans, being able to use their female weapons in a power-struggle with men.
This bachelor thesis first focuses on the life and work of Paula Vogel‘s. The second part of the thesis offers a complete list of her theatre plays, following the chapter that provides the readers with data mentioning early influences, forming both Vogel’s creation and personality. Ancient Greek Drama, Russian Formalism, Defamiliarization and Feminism are the features that marked her work in the field of drama. Vogel confesses she follows and rewrites ideas from many different authors, for example, Nabokov’s Lolita and Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons. Vogel is also responding and rewriting works by William Shakespeare, Edward Albee, Sam Shepard, David Mamet and Ambrose Bearce, she rearranges their plot and revises their conflicts, explaining that “everything great is stolen.”
Social background of America that influenced her as well became an important part of this work. It covers the period from the 1960s to 1980s and describes the important social events that shook American fundamentals, helped to change the position of women in society and enabled women to engage in literature and drama.
Finally, the analysis of two theatre plays is provided. First theatre play described in this thesis is called Meg and was written during Vogel‘s studies in 1977. This play, awarded
41 by the Ninth Annual American College Theatre Festival in Washington, DC, examines the topic focusing on an appropriacy of women’s education, the rooted pattern of patriarchal society in terms of a woman’s subordinate and expected position in the family, as well as deals with the mental suffering of the heroine to express her political opinions freely. She asks a question of an appropriacy of women’s education and realizes it was not her choice, to become a “freak of nature.” Meg is proud of her knowledge, but social conventions do not allow her to express her opinions without consequences. She behaves in a manly way, and together with her stepmother, represents a dominant person in her family, unlike her husband who is introduced to be a mild and weak individuum, easily influenced and formed by her personality and also the personality of Meg’s father.
The only dominant male figure described in the play is the persona of Cromwell. He represents the patriarchal system in the play. He can be understood as a symbol of power in male-dominated culture. It is him who finally dictates conditions and Meg is forced to obey his suggestions, to decide about the way of her father’s death in exchange for a peaceful life in safety for her children. As a result, Meg accepts vanity of her effort and decides to teach her children only Catechism.
Second theatre play analysed in this thesis is called How I Learned to Drive that is considered to be the most famous play of Vogel’s. This masterpiece was awarded by many awards, including Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Obie, Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics Circle Awards. Vogel rearranged the plot of Nabokov’s Lolita and Mamet’s Oleanna and created a controversial play that caused a wave of criticism.
The story describes driving lessons with Uncle Peck playing the role of a driving instructor and also the role of a seducer of her niece Li’l Bit. He loves her and molests her at the same time. The girl finds a guardian in his person because her family is sexually centred which is demonstrated by their style of communication. Li’l Bit hates her Grandfather who teases her with inappropriate jokes and in consequence of his behaviour the heroine is literally driven into Peck’s armful. Li’l Bit at the end of the story realizes she is not safe in his proximity.
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During driving lessons, Peck teaches her his own style of driving because according to him, in the men’s world she must learn masculine skills to endure. Meg decides not to change a gender but instead, to find her own identity.
Li’l Bit is able to escape his influence, she realizes the value of her own personality and finally becomes psychically stronger than her seducer. More or less, she accepts everything that happened in the past and feels reconciliation.
Both these theatre plays analysed appear to have the same intention. Vogel offers audiences the opportunity to identify themselves with a female protagonist and think about new ways of seeing gender. Vogel does not intend to criticize the society directly, she chooses this indirect way to point out to an eternal clash between male and female gender.
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List of References
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Brockett, Oscar G., Ball, Robert J. Plays for the Theatre. Eleventh edition. Student edition, Boston, 656 p., 2014
Vogel, Paula. Meg: a play in three acts. New York: Samuel French, 1977.
Vogel, Paula, Vogel, Carl. The Long Christmas Ride Home: a puppet play with actors. New York: Theatre Communications Group, 2004.
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Allison, Alexandr W., et al. Masterpieces of Drama. Third Edition New York. Macmillan Publishing Company,1986.
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Meeting of the Southeastern Theatre Conference. Nashville. 16 p. March 1980.
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Watson, Jeri. "1970s and '80s Were a Period of Change in American Society." American History: 1970s and '80s Were a Period of Change in American Society (VOA Special English 2007-07-04). American Society, 30 Nov. 2017. Web. 14 Mar. 2018.
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