To be honest, this play confused me a bit to where I had to go back and read certain parts of it multiple times to try and understand what was going on. It seems as though Hetty and Maggie are the personifications of Harriet and Margaret's inner thoughts, which gives is an interesting perspective on their characters.
Without the aid of Hetty and Maggie, it would seem like these two women we're friendly to each other while competitive at the same time.
It seems as though the rules for this play world are as strange as the personifications of the characters inner thoughts. Margaret and Harriet cannot see Maggie and Hetty, but at certain points, Maggie and Hetty can see each other and interact. For most of their contact, it seems that Maggie and Hetty don't address each other directly because they're behind their respective people acting as this inner voice. But once they rip their veils off, they approach each other and directly address each other. I think the writer used the veils over Maggie and Hetty's faces to keep them disconnected from each other, as well as symbolizing the deceit between Margaret and Harriet.
I think it is pretty obvious to the audience the points in which Maggie and Hetty actually interact, other than once or twice during the course of the conversation between Margaret and Harriet when they make some snide remark to each other.
For the most part, it seems that they absolutely stick to the rule that Maggie and Hetty aren't seen by Margaret and Harriet, and that Maggie and Hetty only interact after their veils have been removed (for the most part). When they do interact with the veils on, it gives us more of a sense of how much Margaret and Harriet actually hate each other.
I have to fully agree with you. I was confused and it moved so quickly for me that I thought it was a little sloppy though in their concept because there is essentially "two" of the same character. I think they might have broken their rule at times and to be honest I think this would also be better in a movie to make their inner selves not so...human.
ReplyDeleteI think some of the reason for confusion is that the playwright breaks her own conventions that she tries to set up in the beginning. It seems that if maybe the script kind of took on a mind of its own because the rules between whom can see and talk to whom are blurred as it goes on. I don't mind this though, I like the sloppiness of the battle of our conscious and "trained selves"
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