THE CONSTANT WIFE by w. Somerset Maugham A Production Thesis Presented for the Degree Master of Arts BY \i\ :(..~··.d../; l Hubert ,. Morehead~ B.S. II THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY 1946 Approved by: I The Constant Wif'e by w. Somerset Maugham is fundament­ ally a comedy of' manners on the social level of', what has come to be lmown as, "drawing room" comedy. Mr. Maugham's play came to the stage bound in English playwrighting tradition begun almost 350 years earlier by Shakespeare's contemporary Thomas Middleton, when he wrote A '!'rick 'l'o Catch The Old One. From that time forward the comedy of' manners has been an important part of' the English theatre tradition, and perhaps, as Mr. Maugham says, " ••• it••• may be supposed to have something in it that peculiarly appeals ~1) to the English temper. '.rhis tradition, passed on by Middleton to the later Elizabethans, Beaumont and Fletcher particularly, and more important to the Restoration, through Sir William D'Avenant, came finally in one f'orm or another to the twentieth-century English playwrights. ltr. Maugham adm.1 tted.ly wrote his play 'l'he Constant Wife • ••• 1n the tradition which flourished so brightly in the Restoration Period, which was carried. on by Goldsmith and (2) Sheridan••• " The play tn>e was g1ven new lif'e by Mr. Maugham (1) The Summing US' (Doubleday, Doran & Company, Incorpor­ ated, Garden1 ty, Bew York, 1938), p.121 (2) Ibid., ~· .21:!?.!. l and his contemporaries, Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, George Bernard Shaw, Granville Barker, St.Joba Ervine, and :man.y others as a result ot the awakening of' a new socially­ conscious public at the end of' the nineteenth century. As Kr. Thomas H. Dickinson wrote: •••A public with the vision of' a new social organization••• In this general movement the drama now began to take its place. It had been drawn into the social arena through emphasis on its social connections by Matthew Arnold, (3) H. A. Jones, William Archer and others ••• The "new" attitude toward drama, and the developing interest in social problems as the drama reflected them was also the product of': ••• that victory scored by the Nat­ uralists in the Free Theatres; the Independent Theatres, the Repertory companies, and the Art theatres which mush-roomed into existence over the whole spread of' :&irope~4) Because of' these new theatres, drama could again become a vehicle f'or ideas, and by ao doing appeal to a thought­ tul, educated audience which had heretofore remained aloof' f'rom the theatre. And since much of' the comedy of' the new moTem.ent in the drama was social in its nature, it was of' course intimately concerned. with manners. In this respect the new intelligent, educated, circumscribed audience was (3) 'fh• Oont8i)ora17 Drama of' England~ (Little, Brown & OOillPan7, ston, 1920), PP• 133,l 4 (4) Brown, John Ka.son: "Introduction" to: Sixteen Famous Br1 ti ah Plays by Cerf', Bennett A., and Cartmell, Van !., (Garden df ty Publishing Company, New York, 194~) 2 very important and is a factor I will elaborate later. I think it not possible to have a discussion of this period of English drama. without mentioning the obvious influence Kr. Henrik Ibsen had on the theatre of the time. It does not take much imagination to see immediately the connection between Ibsen's A Doll's House, and The Constant Wife. As Kr. Harlan Hatcher says: It is the natural end point of the long series of plays that began with A Doll's House, and included Pinero•s Mid-dhBmiel, Shaw' a Candida, Houghton' s Hind.le Wake, and a thousand others. (5) A Doll's House was first produced in London in 1889. It created a stir, of course, among playwrights and critics. Ibsen's other plays followed, coupled with a great increase of interest in play printing and play reading. It was told by Kr. Dickinson that: ••• Archer reported that within a year after the publication of the play, Hedda Gabler was as well known as Becky Sharpe ••• (6) Mr. Dickinson goes on to say: ••• after 18901 English playwrights can be divided into those which have felt the impress of the Ibsen spirit and those who have not ••• (7) (5) Hatcher, Harlan, Modern British Dramas,(Harcourt, Brace & Company, New York., 1941), p.120 (6) .Qi?.• ~· p.139 (7) Ibid., p.140 3 Tb.us we come, finally, upon Somerset Maugham, " ••• a drama.­ tist ••• happily and firmly placed in the great tradition of English comedy ••• "(8) As Mr. Newell Sawyer said: With the name of w. Somerset Maugham the 20th century English Comedy of manners, is most closely linked..(9) And so, on the night of November 29th, in the sixth year of the 1920's, " •••with its exaggerated concern oter problems of marriage, sex, and individual treedom••• :(10) an expectant audience at the Elliot Theatre in New York, (the first of 233 audiences in New York and 121 audiences in Chicago) , watched the curtain open for the first time on the initial act of The Constant Wife. It may be of interest to note, in passing, that in his criticism of the play, Mr. Stark Young wrote, in part: ••• The play, ••• is more or less enter­ taining for the average New York aud­ ience, partly because it flatters them with the idea they are taking part in something brilliant and out of the smart world ••• (11) (8) Hatcher, .QE.• ~' p.118 (9) The Comed of Manners From Sheridan to Mau ersi ty o ennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, (10) Hatcher,~ cit~ p.120 (11) 'l!he New Republic, December 15, 1926, p.108 4 II In this section of my paper I will elaborate on why The Constant Wife is the type of drama it is, and why the recognition of this type by the prospective director is important in so far as it affects the production and direction of the play. At this point, for the purposes of this paper, I would like to clarify certain terminology I have used: by "comed.7- of manners" I mean any play which has unique character­ istics, the most pertinent being that social types are rev­ ealed with characteristic attributes which have significance in contemporarr society (that is, the period in history in which the play was written). The comedy of manners also has the element of criticism directed at some existing social condition, code, or pattern of life. It can take place on any level of society, and!like fashion, can be quickly out­ dated, or revived later. By "drawing room" comedy I mean a comedy of manners which deals w1 th social types on a highly codified level (sophisticates) who are, conventionally, of the well-to-do class, or the upper middle class. In this paper I apply both terms to The Constant Wife. As I briefly mentioned. before, the comedy of manners usually has in it the element of cri tieiam, and in this criticism debate lies inherent. It usually has as its theme 5 the discussion of some aspect of the social code whose validity has finally become debatable because some portion o:f' the code seems not to be .:f\mctioning efficiently. The efficiency o:f' the code is of primary importance. because the in1 tial theory on which the code was set-up was that it be utilitarian. Thus. in The Constant Wi:f'e, we :f'ind Mr. Maugham pre­ occupied. with putting under the microscope for cr1 t1cal analysis the existence o:f' the "double standard." and the valid1 ty o:f' the well-to-do woman• s economic dependence on her husband. In Act III. John. (Constance's husband} baa just d1a- covered that Constance is leaving him :f'or six weeks to go on a holiday with Bernard Kersal. who loves her. The follow- ing dialogue takes place: John ••• I:f' a man• s unfai thfi1l. to his rl:f'e she 1 s an object o:f' SJDlPathy, whereas i:f' a woman's unfa1thtU.l to her husband he's merely an object o:f' ridicule. Constance That is one of those conventional pre­ judices that sensible people strive to ignore. (13) Later on in the last act Ill's. CUlver (Constance•s mother) has entered and takes part 1n the argument: Mrs. Culver ••• Men are naturally polygamous and sensible women have always made allowances :f'or their (13) Director's script o:f' 'lb.• Constant Wife, p.89 (From now on all. references to the actual script o:f' The Constant Wi:f'e will be based on the director• s script which can be?ound in the production book o:f' the play, which is available in the Department o:f' Speech. The Ohio State University. ) 6 occasional lapse from a condition which modern civilisation has forced on th.em. Women are monogamous. They do not nat­ urally desire more than one man and that is why the comm.on sense of the world has heaped obloquy upon them when they have over-stepped the natural limitations of their sex. Constance It seEID8 rather hard tbat what 1s sauce tor the gander shouldn't also be sauce for the goose. Mrs. Culver ••• It's quite different w1 th women. It l'llina their character. They become untruthful and dissipated, lazy, shift­ less, and dishonest ••• Constance They were dishonest because they were g1 ving away something that wasn' t theirs to give. They had sold themselves tor board, lodging and protection. They were dependent on their husbands and when they were unfai thf'ul to them they were liars and thieves.