‘And Women Must Weep’ Summary

Set in Australia around the turn of the 20th century, “‘And Women Must Weep’” is about an adolescent girl’s first ball. Dolly is thrilled to be attending her first grown-up event. As she prepares for the dance, which her Auntie Cha is bringing her to, Dolly delights in her beautiful dress and her own prettiness. She waits for Auntie Cha to finish getting ready, ignoring Miss Biddons’s advice to sit down because she’s too nervous for the ball and concerned that she might crush her dress.

Finally, Dolly and Auntie Cha are ready to leave. Dolly’s spirits are slightly dampened when Miss Biddons warns her not to forget her steps in the waltz and Auntie Cha scolds her for looking too serious. Dolly accidentally tears a ribbon off her dress while stepping out of the wagonette, and Auntie Cha chides her for clumsiness. Dismayed and self-conscious, Dolly enters the public hall and hides behind Auntie Cha, noticing that other women’s dresses are even prettier than hers.

Auntie Cha makes Dolly sit in the front row of seats and display her program to show she wants to dance. Dolly obeys, but no one asks her to dance. Through Auntie Cha’s interventions, Dolly dances with the Master of Ceremonies and the son of her aunt’s “lady-friend,” but Dolly is embarrassed that she has only been invited to dance out of pity. She is also partnered with a rude gentleman who dances badly and worsens her humiliation. Afterward, Dolly sits out of the dancing and tries to look agreeable, as Auntie Cha reminds her to do. She smiles at young men in the hopes that they will choose her, but she is ignored. She grows upset at the unfairness of the ball and wishes she were an old woman or at home in bed.

The rest of the evening goes poorly as well. Dolly’s mouth is too dry to eat, and her only other dance partners are the lady-friend’s son again and a young boy. Dolly and Auntie Cha leave early. On the way home, Auntie Cha stays silent, and Dolly tries not to cry. As soon as they arrive home, Dolly shuts herself alone in her room and throws her crushed dress on the floor. She overhears Auntie Cha declare to Miss Biddons that she “didn’t take.” Dolly feels horribly ashamed of her failure to attract any gentlemen at the ball, a failure that will follow her all her life. Yet she also feels like this failure is not her fault, because she tried her best to do everything right. She realizes she didn’t even want to be chosen at the ball; she was only pretending. Dolly cannot hold her tears back anymore and cries.