University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2015-06-29 The New Woman and Comedy: Form and Function on the Modern British Stage Flynn, Rebecca Flynn, R. (2015). The New Woman and Comedy: Form and Function on the Modern British Stage (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28257 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/2326 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The New Woman and Comedy: Form and Function on the Modern British Stage by Rebecca Flynn A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN DRAMA CALGARY, ALBERTA JUNE, 2015 © Rebecca Flynn 2015 Abstract This thesis focuses on female comic characters in modern drama as they relate to the emergence of first-wave feminism in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Britain. More specifically, it examines the position of the figure of the new woman within the conventions of traditional comedy. Analyzing specific character traits and elements of dramatic composition that allow this figure to exist within the comic form, I consider how select playwrights deploy comedy in order to shape the reception of the new woman. Using three case studies that include parodies of Henrik Ibsen’s plays, suffrage comedy, and the work of George Bernard Shaw, I explore how comedy was used in different contexts to both empower and diminish the complexity of the new woman. I conclude that the comic new woman was defined by her reassessment and re-inscription on the modern stage as well as the social, political, and cultural change she facilitated. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Penny Farfan for all her help and support over the past two years. Without her constant guidance and encouragement, this thesis would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the University Research Grants Committee for awarding me a Thesis/Dissertation Grant, funding that allowed me to conduct essential research in London, England this year. Without the collection of these key archival documents, my thesis would have been incomplete. I would also like to extend my thanks to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Graduate Students’ Association, the Centre for Research in the Fine Arts, and the University of Calgary’s Drama Division for their consistent funding and support of my research. Furthermore, I would like to thank my fellow graduate students Jackie Faulkner, Anton DeGroot, Tim Sutherland, and Fasyali Fadzly for their moral support and friendship. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family in Ontario for always supporting me and for incurring many long-distance phone charges. iii For my mother and grandmother iv Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….….…...ii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………..……………..…....iii Dedication……………………………………………………………….…………………...….iv Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………..v Introduction…...………………………………………………………………….…..………….1 Chapter One: The Quintessence of Antsey-ism: Ibsen’s New Woman and Parody.………..8 Rosmersholm……………………………………………………………….……………11 Nora; or the Bird Cage…………………………………...……………………………..16 Hedda Gabler.…………………………………………………………………………...20 Pill-Doctor Herdal………………………………………………………………...…….24 Chapter Two: Votes Over Kisses: Suffrage Comedy in Britain………………….…………29 Preferring Votes to Kisses: Pro-Suffrage Comedy…………………………………...…38 “I really do think the Antis are our best friends”: Anti-Suffrage Comedy….….…….…60 Chapter Three: Getting Married: Shaw and Comedy………..…………….……………….75 Candida………………………………………………………………….………………77 Getting Married………………………………………………………………………….81 Misalliance………………………………………………………………….……….......86 Conclusion…………………………...….…..……….…………….…………………………....94 Bibliography……………………………………………..……………………….….………….97 v Introduction This thesis focuses on female comic characters in modern drama as they relate to the emergence of first-wave feminism in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Britain. More specifically, it examines the position of the figure of the new woman within the conventions of traditional comic form, which, as Susan Carlson notes, simultaneously “liberates and limits women” (1). By identifying and analyzing specific character traits and elements of dramatic composition that allow this figure to exist within the constraints of comic form, I consider how select playwrights deployed comedy in order to shape the reception of the new woman and the social and political oppression she strove to overcome. Furthermore, I examine how specific adaptations of conventional comic form, and the female character within it, redefined both the new woman and the genre itself. Broadly speaking, modern drama sought to challenge pre-existing social norms and theatrical traditions. Modern plays often incorporated conventions of realism, a theatrical movement that attempted to more accurately represent “reality” on stage. Depicting ordinary characters in ordinary settings, realist playwrights began to stage people in their natural environments, focussing primarily on issues of class, morality, gender, and sexuality. Another notable trait associated with the onset of modern drama was a concentration on character psychologies. In his preface to Miss Julie, August Strindberg described the modern character, and his or her psyche, as “torn and divided,” a mixture of the “old and the new” (2). Moreover, while modern playwrights like Henrik Ibsen predated Sigmund Freud, Ibsen’s texts anticipated the psychoanalyst’s idea that humans are implanted with repressed desires that drive them subconsciously (Finney, Women in Modern Drama 39). The idea of internalized oppression, both 1 created and fostered by the modern character’s environment, is best synthesized by Raymond Williams who stated: “Ibsen had to make rooms on the stage in order to show [characters] trapped in them” (1172). Finally, and most relevantly, modern plays often focused on the physical and mental entrapment of female characters by oppressive social conventions. Tackling issues such as political inequality and sexual double standards, modern playwrights attempted to understand and challenge women’s social and psychological positions. One particular subset of women in modern drama is the “new woman,” a striking character who rejected conventional womanhood and embodied the growing need for social reform. The new woman emerged in tragedies and dramas of the late nineteenth century, representing a shift where female characters “changed from being primarily an element in the plot, to being primarily an element in the thought of the play” (Watson 3). Tracing the origin of this modern female character, Max Beerbohm remarked that the new woman sprang “full-armed from the brain of Ibsen” (qtd. in Ardis 30). In his essay the “The Womanly Woman,” from The Quintessence of Ibsenism, George Bernard Shaw describes this new woman as an empowered and disillusioned female character who rejects “womanliness, her [duties] to her husband, children, society, the law, and to everyone but herself" (43). Addressing social issues that frequently oppressed women, Ibsen’s heroines challenged expectation through their tireless pursuit of equality on the stage. Although he repeatedly refused the title of “feminist,” Ibsen’s new women characters are undoubtedly one of his greatest contributions to modern drama. Among Ibsen’s most notable new woman characters is Nora Helmer, the protagonist of A Doll’s House. Disillusioned, Nora rejects her role as the “ideal” wife and mother, abandoning her family by play’s end. In Women, the Family, and Freedom: The Debate in Documents, 1880– 1950, Susan G. Bell and Karen M. Offen state that “when Ibsen’s Nora first slammed the door on 2 domesticity in 1880, the specter of women’s individualism as the arch-enemy of marriage and of the patriarchal concept of womanhood announced itself as a major theme in the debate on women” (17). Nora’s seemingly abrupt departure generated mixed reactions from early audiences and critics alike. Ibsen’s bold and unprecedented representation of the new woman— and the key issues she represented—carried over into feminist politics of the period, prompting many women to reconsider the social conventions that dictated their lives. My thesis on the new woman and comedy builds on and contributes to key research in the field of feminist-modernist theatre studies. Gail Finney’s book Women in Modern Drama: Freud, Feminism, and European Theater at the Turn of the Century (1991) examines the representation of female characters within modern drama with a focus on male playwrights. Julie Holledge’s Innocent Flowers: Women in the Edwardian Theater (1981) and Sheila Stowell’s A Stage of their Own: Feminist Playwrights of the Suffrage Era (1992) examine the new woman figure in social dramas arising from the suffrage movement in Britain. Susan Carlson’s Women and Comedy: Rewriting the British Theatrical Tradition (1991) analyzes female characters in comic drama ranging from Shakespeare to contemporary women playwrights.