The Women of August Wilson’s Plays

Ula Gaha

The F Word

What is feminism?

1) “Advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes” (OED)

2) “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes” (Auckland)

3) The radical notion that women are people

Patriarchy

• “System of society, government, etc., ruled by a man or men and with descent through the male line” (OED)

• Implications for feminism:

What are the social consequences

when men rule society’s institutions?

What Feminist critics do*:

• Examine representations of women in literature by men and women

• Challenge representations of women as “Other,” as “lack,” as part of “nature”

• Examine power relations which obtain in texts and in life, with a view of breaking them down, seeing reading as a political act, and showing the extent of patriarchy

• Raise the question of whether men and women are “essentially” different because of biology, or are socially constructed as different

*Peter Barry Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory

Womanism

Alice Walker“Womanist is to Feminist as Purple is to Lavender”

• “Not a separatist”

• “Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female”

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens

Womanism

“Excluded from and alienated by feminist theorizing and thinking, women of color insisted that feminism must account for different subjectivities and locations in its analysis of women, thus bringing into focus the issue of difference, particularly with regard to race and class.”

Why the need for distinction?

"I don't choose womanism because it is 'better' than feminism … I choose it because I prefer the sound, the feel, the fit of it; because I cherish the spirit of the women (like Sojourner) the word calls to mind, and because I share the old ethnic-American habit of offering society a new word when the old word it is using fails to describe behavior and change that only a new word can help it more fully see" (p. 94).

New York Times Magazine, 1984

Spectrum of African American Womanhood

Matriarch

Aunt Ester

Maretha ZoniaLoomis

Martha Loomis

Pentecost

BerthaHolly

MattieCampbell Berniece

MaRainey Dussie

May

Black Mary

Molly Cunningham

Grace

Matriarch: Aunt Ester

• Gem of the Ocean

• Immediately introduced to a woman who acts as a spiritual leader of her community

• Wilson does grant her sexuality:

To Solly: “I done had four husbands I might as well have five” (18)

Infuses her with humor and realism

Gender NormsJoe Turner’s Come and Gone

Bertha Holly

• Loyal wife to Seth

• Anchor of the boardinghouse

• Attempts to mentor Mattie

• Keeps things in perspective: exposition of Rutherford Selig (42)

Mattie Campbell

• Wants to be reunited with estranged husband, Jack Carper

“I just can’t go through life piecing myself out to different mens. “I need a man who wants to stay with me” (29).

*loses Jeremy to Molly

Strong Female Characters: An Unexpected Pair

BernieceThe Piano Lesson

• Refuses to marry Avery

• Female Head of Household

• Heroine of The Piano Lesson: the Priestess

“You trying to tell me a woman can’t be nothing without a man…” (67)

Molly CunninghamJoe Turner’s Come and Gone

• Refuses to be tied to one man

• Suffers no repercussions for her affair with Jeremy

• “I done found out the harder you try to hold onto them, the easier it is for some gal to pull them away” (61).

Berniece

• Doaker defers to Berniece

• She exorcises the ghost

• Granted sexuality:

Questioned by Avery (66)

Confirmed in scene with Lymon (80)

Molly CunninghamJoe Turner’s Come and Gone

“I don’t trust none of these men[…] They wait just until they get one woman tied and locked up with them…then they look around to see if they can get another one.[…] I ain’t never met one that meant nobody no good.” (60)

Molly Cunningham

• “Molly don’t work. And Molly ain’t up for sale” (63).

• Overt sexuality addressed in Wilson’s double entendre:

“Molly ain’t going South” (63).

• Reference to abortion:

“I make sure I don’t get no babies. My mama taught me how to do that” (60).

Implications

• Does Molly’s attitude empower her?

• With no male figure to answer to, Molly is empowered to do as she chooses and go where she wants

• Uses relationships as commodities

Gender and Sexuality

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom:

Dussie May and Levee

CUTLER: Nigger, don’t you know that’s Ma’s gal?

[…]

“…you ass gonna be out there scraping the concrete looking for a job if you messing with Ma’s gal” (89).

Another Unexpected Pair

Ma Rainey

• Keeps Dussie May dressed well because she is a reflection of Ma Rainey and her success (60)

• Dussie May as opportunistic

“gold-digger”

DoakerThe Piano Lesson

“These women these days ain’t gonna fall for that kind of stuff. You got to buy them a present. That’s what they looking for these days” (65).

Empowerment and Autonomy

Ma Rainey

• Respected within her community

• Exploited by her managers

• Enters the play with police incident (48)

CUTLER: […]she can’t even get a cab up here in the North (95).

“whores” or “gold-diggers”

Grace and Dolly

The Piano Lesson

Molly Cunningham

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

Women who work within the system to get what they want

Martha Loomis PentecostJoe Turner’s Come and Gone

• Estranged wife of Herald Loomis

• “Anti-mother” figure: made the decision to leave her child

To Herald: I wasn’t gonna carry you with me no more. So I killed you in my heart. I buried you. I mourned you. And then I picked up what was left and went on to make my life without you. (82)

Martha Loomis Pentecost

• At the end of the play, she takes back her daughter, but not her husband

• Evangelical occupation: concern for Herald’s soul

• Important element at work here: The women of Wilson’s plays do not break due to rejection

Younger Generation

Zonia

• Imitates the relationships she sees around her with Reuben

• The kiss they share ends with Reuben labeling her as “my girl” (77)

Maretha

BERNIECE: Be still, Maretha. If you was a boy I wouldn’t be going through this.

[…]

BOY WILLIE: Telling her you wished she was a boy. How’s that gonna make her feel?

(90)

Patriarchy, Race and Gender

In 1866, the 14th Amendment to the

federal Constitution was passed, guaranteeing citizenship to the former slaves and changing them in the eyes of the law from 3/5 of a person to whole persons. Then, in 1869, the 15th Amendment guaranteed the right to vote to black men, with most women of all races still unable to vote.

http://www.openelections.org/recount/history/

Women’s Voting Rights

In 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote

50 year gap in basic civil rights based solely on sex

Critical Thinking

• How are women and men portrayed in the plays?

• Are gender stereotypes reinforced or challenged?

• What are the relationship dynamics at work in each play?

• Are these representations accurate?