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Responses 3B
Strindberg & Wharton
Topics: Among the four women in The Stronger and Roman Fever, who is the most clever, the most devious, or the strongest? ❧ If you were to situate the women on a spectrum from self-knowing to self-deluded, where would you put them, and why? ❧ Creative option: Change or add an element to one of the pieces so as to make a point about trust, friendship, power, self-knowledge, or some other theme.
X & Y - When in Rome - Four Women - Creative Option
I won’t be commenting on the following responses, since I want you to come up with your own views on the manipulations and mind-games in these two texts. In your second essay (due Week 8), you need to come up with an insightful, meaningful angle from which to compare the mind-games in Strindberg or Wharton with the mind-games in Hamlet (which I explore in my videos for Weeks 5, 6, and 7).
If you find a helpful idea in the following responses, feel free to use it. You don’t need to cite it if it is general. If you use a fairly specific phrasing, or if you quote it, make sure to acknowledge it in the following way: (from the Week 5 responses).
If you find an idea that differs from your own, you can use it to clarify a counter-argument or a different interpretation that you might want to keep in mind. In making arguments, it’s often effective to bring in another point of view and then say why your point of view makes more sense or provides more insight into the text.
On this page I haven’t followed the previous general order for responses — i.e., from good to better — since that would pre-judge what I want you to judge for yourselves.
X & Y
Miss Y is the cleverest among the four since although Miss. Y has never talked during her conversation with her rival unlike others, Miss Y had a strong control over her rival’s (Mrs. X) emotions and reactions with her silence. Miss Y’s quietness provoked Mrs. X who appears to have a perfect life at the start to throw baseless accusations at Miss Y and her constant silence caused Mrs. X’s trust in her husband’s faithfulness to slowly waver, which then led Mrs. X to reveal her imperfect life caused by her own insecurities of being treated as a substitute by her husband or the subconscious fear of the unknown truth of her husband’s infidelity.
Miss Y is an exceptional character that originated from the 1980’s The Stronger. She is an unmarried woman who portrays a great amount of strength within her personal character. The scene includes another individual verbally attacking her in multiple ways, stating that she is lonely as she is unmarried. However, Miss Y remains exceptionally calm and collected during these jabs at her personal life. She consistently responds with laughter to showing that she is unbothered by the cruel words. This shows personal strength and maturity of her character because words such as these can be exceptionally harmful to an individual. (100 words)
The very essence of conflict within the sketch is Mrs. X's constant shift between internal and external dialogue. She does not stop to connect with Ms. Y, because she is afraid of any response she could give. She pours out her feelings, but they are filtered, targeted at inward and caused by her insecurities as a wife. Mr.s X needs to treat Ms. Y as a person, not as an symbol of her failure. By telling her about her fears about Ms. Y, she paves the way to a healthy dialogue and friendship between the two.
In “The Stronger,” the strongest woman is Mrs. X because she has the courage and strength to accept the ugly truth and confront her husband’s mistress, Miss Y. While it is ironic that Mrs. X wants to imitate Miss Y to gain her husband's attention, it instead shows Mrs. X’s resilience. Mrs. X took the silver lining from the situation by finding the things that her husband likes and finally won her life back. On the other hand, Miss Y gain nothing and found herself alone in a crowded place.
When the passage had introduced Miss Y, her exterior had shown no semblance of being a materialist in contrast to Miss X, who covers herself in expensive clothing and jewelry. As Miss X grows more confrontational as the passage goes when her negativistic approach to get a reaction out of Miss Y sends her over the edge when Miss Y remains silent. Miss X had completely changed her character due to her insecurities when comparing herself to Miss Y, directly admitting her paranoia and hatred towards Miss Y, while Miss Y remains silent during the passage representing her independence. Miss Y would be the strongest out of the four characters.
Even though Miss Y lost her “so called” lover she did not lose her true sense of self. It is immoral to fall in love with your friends’ husband; however, she is the stronger woman. Miss Y did not try to transform herself to be like another woman in hopes to keep her lover. She will not be the one frightened that her spouse will cheat again, constantly shoeing away other women the rest of her married life. After all, “X” and “Y” names are just letters down the alphabet and can always be replaced by a deceitful husband. (Word count 99)
While Mrs. X’s one-sided conversation seems as though she is confronting Amelia, she is trying to convince herself of her inner strength. If Amelia was her friend, she would teach her strength through self-love, and that being alone doesn't equate to loneliness.
When in Rome
In Roman Fever, we learn about the two main characters differing personalities throughout the story. Ansley is described as “far less sure than her companion of herself and her rights in the world,” while Slade is portrayed as higher class and more devious. This deviousness ultimately culminates in Slade revealing she was behind the writing of a letter that led Ansley to believe Slade’s fiancé was interested in her. We are led to believe she is the more crafty of the two and thus gained the upper hand because of it, however this is subverted by the end when it is revealed Ansley had her daughter by Slade’s fiancé as a result of Slade’s scheming.
The strength of Mrs. Ansley in Roman Fever is outstanding: she maintained such a “controlled mask” with every “depreciating” look, gesture and “interrogating” word of Mrs. Slade for years. To live “opposite” of the man she potentially loved that was married to her frenemy, and she herself thrust into a marriage to save scandal, takes strength. Mrs. Ansley still never said an “unkind” word even after learning of Mrs. Slade’s devious scheme. Her selflessness to tolerate such venomous “jealousy” speaks to her strength as a mother, thus her daughter could have a relationship with her biological father and siblings. (100)
Mrs. Slade is the only woman of the four who actually acts in a devious way. Mrs. Slade wrote a false letter to deceive her longtime friend into proving adultery, while the other women just used confrontation and verbal tactics in manipulating the women opposite themselves in the plays. While Mrs. Slade not only uses devious actions but also verbal tactics as when commenting on Mrs. Ainsley’s daughter saying she was surprised that Mrs. Ainsley and her husband could produce anything quite so dynamic. (109)
In Roman Fever, the deviousness of Alida Slade is contrasted by the strength of Grace Ansley. Clearly ruled by insecurity, Alida’s thoughts reveal that she is focused on thinking herself to be better than Grace. Alida reveals that in their youth she was driven by jealousy to lure her friend to a meeting in the cold night, which she expected would result in a deadly cold, or even death (as heard in a cautionary tale). Meanwhile, Grace showed strength of character by keeping her secret for many years, as she knew the truth would destroy her friend. (97 words)
Of the four women, Mrs. Ansley is the most devious as she kept the secret of Delphin being Barbara's real dad for all those years without Mrs. Slade finding out. Mrs. Ansley was fortunate enough to have Mrs. Slade accidently help her in which Mrs. Slade was the reason Mrs. Ansley and Delphin got together. Mrs. Ansley proves she was not the person she seemed to be and was able to outsmart the other women as she was the only one who knew the truth. (85 words)
Four Women
In Roman Fever Alida Slade is definitely not the clever one of them all. She sent a fake love letter from her fiancé to Grace Ansley as a joke, however her plan backfired when Mrs. Ansley admits to an affair. This shows how Mrs. Slade is the devious one. Mrs. Ansley is the strongest because she only needs her daughter to be happy and not a man. Mrs. X is the most clever one of all, she found out that Mrs. Y was having an affair with her husband without Mrs. Y saying a single word.
On a spectrum of self-knowing to self-deluded I would place these women in the following order; Miss Y because she doesn’t feel the need to add herself to the situation. She doesn’t speak much or argue or anything. She is at peace with herself and she has a mindset where its better to not speak if she doesn’t need to. Next would be Grace Ansley because she is comfortable in her life, she knows what shes doing and what needs to be done but she can get flustered here and there. Third would be Miss X because she is pretends to be stronger than she is and she also discreetly tries to be more like Miss Y even though she makes fun of her. The most self-deluded woman is Alida Slade because even though she is successful, she is insecure and constantly thinks she is less than Grace. She cant understand the people around her, or even herself. She is a lost soul.
Both plays hold one element that, if added, would drastically change relationships. Mrs. X has passive jealousy and resentment for Miss Y; Mrs. X is prideful and wishes to be strong. Mrs. Slade is a parallel of sorts to Mrs. X and shares in these traits as well. These women wallow in memories of their counterparts, carrying with them envy and anger. All that these two, in effect, four women need in order to have true friendship (born of respect and not spite) is the simple element of closure; they must understand and accept the past, from all perspectives.
On a spectrum from self-knowing to self-deluded, Mrs. Ainsley would be placed far left on the self-knowing end, while Mrs. Slade and Mrs. X would be far right on the self-deluded side. Mrs. Y would be in the neutral area, due to her not speaking. The unresponsiveness of Mrs. Y leads Mrs. X to monologue, where she finds the truth about her husband and the affair that he had. And while Mrs. Slade thinks she was clever to trick her friend into thinking she’d meet with her husband, Mrs. Ainsley reveals that her daughter is born out of an affair with said husband.
The four women each have unique advantages over each other. All four are very strong women. Mrs. Ansley is the most clever because she remains more collected throughout her exchange with Mrs. Slade. Mrs. X is the most devious by choosing to remain silent and aggravate Mrs. Y even though the right thing to do would be to participate in the conversation. Mrs. Y is the strongest Because even though she's a lot more fearful she has the ability to speak her mind and either attempt at repairing the Friendship but ultimately having pride in herself and moving on.
Mrs. Ansley, Miss. Y and Mrs. X, I believe, are self knowing because they are all able to acknowledge their situations. Mrs. X throughout the play has a revelation of what her entire marriage has led up to and though Miss. Y never spoke Mrs. X painted a picture of Miss. Y, she rears away from Mrs. X family because of her past with Mrs. X husband and throughout the play is very content with her life even if she is sitting alone in a restaurant on Christmas eve. Mrs. Ansley is similar to Miss Y in the way that she is content, she knows her history with Mrs. Slades husband but holds no grudges. Mrs. Slade on the other hand seems to only play a role in her life, the role of a higher status wife. She deludes herself with the idea that her life is perfect compared to Mrs. Ansley and because she took her husband she is the better person.
The character of Mrs. X in The Stronger is completely self-deluded. Entirely reshaped by the expectations of her spouse, she still feels accomplished with the 'healthy' family life she has attained in contrast to her counterpart Miss Y, an independent and self-aware lady. Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley in Roman Fever conceal their actual animosity behind pretentious friendship. Mrs. Slade, apparently the most devious, is fixated upon degrading her friend. She gives up her façade of politeness to destroy Mrs. Ansley’s only loving memory of Delphin; oblivious to the secret it was going to unravel.
The most devious of the four women in The Stronger, and Roman Fever is Grace Ansley. She, like Mrs. Y had an affair with another woman’s wife—in her case resulting in a daughter, but she also successfully avoided suspicion while living across from the Slade’s for years, even though, "[of] all the movings, buyings, travels, anniversaries, illnesses--the tame chronicle of an estimable pair[,] [l]ittle of it escaped Mrs. Slade.” Now, she’s using Babs' friendship with Jenny to enable the young Ansley's courting of the Marchese, as Slade herself admits that, “Jenny has no chance beside her,” in such matters.
Mrs. X is at the extreme end of self-deluded while Miss Y is self-knowing. Mrs. X is at the extreme end of self-deluded because in the play where there is supposed to be two people having a dialogue, it instead is just Mrs. X making assumptions of Miss Y’s non-verbal responses. I place Miss Y firmly as self-knowing because her silence is almost like she does not have to justify anything and just lets Mrs. X ramble and make her assertions based on nothing. Mrs. Ansley and Mrs. Slade are both in the self-deluded category, but I would put Mrs. Slade further into it because she’s more unable to come to terms with trying to adjust to being a widow, whereas Mrs. Ansley is aware of being unsure of “herself and her rights in the world”.
Creative Option
The change I would make in The Stronger, A Scene, 1890 is to have Miss Y reading a book or illustrated magazine that is on marriage. I would do this to show that that she also has self-knowledge about married life just like Mrs. X. Mrs. X evidently tries to show off and express that she has more knowledge over Miss Y. Adding this element would also shift the power of knowledge equally between the two women as Mrs. X would not dominate as much as she does in the original scene. (92 words)
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