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Dolly’s Dress
Dolly’s program symbolizes the social expectations that dictate how she should act at the ball. At formal dances, programs are booklets or cards that women carry for listing dance titles and recording their dance partners’ names. Auntie Cha instructs Dolly to hold out her program to signal her availability and willingness to dance. In the same way, Dolly is supposed to put herself on display—not just her program—so that she appears ready and eager. Just as the program is meant to draw attention to Dolly, Dolly herself is expected to attract gentleman with her outward appearance and demeanor. However, Dolly’s program doesn’t get filled with names, and Dolly doesn’t fulfill social expectations. That her program remains empty symbolizes Dolly’s failure to conform to a woman’s customary role at a ball. When staring at the blank card becomes too embarrassing, Dolly lets it slip onto the floor out of sight. By letting go of the program, Dolly symbolically acknowledges that she hasn’t been able to live up to the pressures placed upon her by Auntie Cha, Miss Biddons, and society.
Dolly’s Program Quotes in ‘And Women Must Weep’
The ‘And Women Must Weep’ quotes below all refer to the symbol of Dolly’s Program. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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‘And Women Must Weep’
Quotes
At first she made a show of studying her programme; but you couldn’t go on staring at a programme for ever: and presently her shame at its emptiness grew till she could bear it no longer, and, seizing a moment when people were dancing, she slipped it down the front of her dress.
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She had tried her hardest, done everything she was told to do: had dressed up to please and look pretty, sat in the front row offering her programme, smiled when she didn’t feel a bit like smiling…and almost more than anything she thought she hated the memory of that smile (it was like trying to make people buy something they didn’t think worth while.)
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Get the entire ‘And Women Must Weep’ LitChart as a printable PDF.
Dolly’s Program Symbol Timeline in ‘And Women Must Weep’
The timeline below shows where the symbol Dolly’s Program appears in ‘And Women Must Weep’. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
‘And Women Must Weep’
...Dolly for hiding; she makes Dolly sit in the front row and hold out her program to show she wants to dance. But no one invites Dolly to dance, and Auntie...
(full context)
...evening wears on, Dolly sits in the front row, feigning enjoyment. She studies her empty program until shame drives her to let it slip onto the floor. Dolly resents the young...
(full context)
