Gender and Expectations Theme Analysis

Despite the very different lifestyles that the four female characters lead, it's important to note that none of them are fully achieving what Esther suggests is the pinnacle of womanhood, which she defines as being a married lady who is closely involved in her church community and society at large. By comparing the ways that the play's female characters collectively fail at this idealized vision of womanhood, the play ultimately proposes that this vision is fundamentally flawed. While Esther's trajectory in particular can be read as tragic proof that she and her counterparts are destined to fail at society's idea of proper womanhood, it's also possible to argue that it's simply not useful for a woman to tie her success to a man. Independence and rejecting the expectations of femininity, the play proposes, can be freeing and generally lead to better success.

Mrs. Van Buren is held up as the pinnacle of perfect, successful femininity. She's beautiful, has money to throw at exquisite undergarments to entice her husband, and is a part of New York's high society—a "Fifth Avenue lady," as the play's poorer characters call her, and both Mayme and Esther aim to emulate her mannerisms, lifestyle, and fashion. Mrs. Van Buren's "success," however, is shown to be a front almost immediately: while she may have successfully transformed herself from a Southern belle to a cosmopolitan socialite, her husband is disappointed with her because they haven't been able to conceive a child—which is, according to her husband, Mrs. Van Buren's fault. As far as Mrs. Van Buren is concerned, she's not a good wife or a good woman, and she's reminded regularly of her "failure" when, at parties, people ask over and over again when she and her husband are going to have a baby. This is proof for her that being a perfect woman isn't just achieving class status—it also means properly using one's body to both serve one's husband (even if the husband in question isn't interested, as Mrs. Van Buren says is the case) and subsequently becoming a mother.

Like Mrs. Van Buren, Esther sees success as a woman as something that's tied to her relationships with men and not necessarily to her own actions or skills. The play introduces Esther as she feverishly sews a camisole for a young woman from the boardinghouse who just got married. Esther is extremely sensitive about the wedding festivities going on downstairs, since she's the only woman who hasn't yet gotten married and moved out in her eighteen years at the boardinghouse. Other women, whom Esther suggests are flighty, desperate, or easily hoodwinked, have gotten married left and right.

It's worth noting, however, that Esther idealizes married life to an extreme degree; there's no room in her fantasy for a man who isn't a regular churchgoer, interested in the same things she is, or is unwilling to work for their marriage. Because of this, George proves himself a major disappointment for Esther. She questions his Christian beliefs when she learns that he's been seeing Mayme, and when he expresses interest in clothing styles worn by "dandies," he belittles her dreams for the beauty shop and he to get a job and support either himself or Esther. George's failures to behave "properly" mean that Esther fails at being a wife by association, as they seldom have sex and George refuses to accompany Esther to church or to social events—events which is only receiving invites to because she's now a "proper," married lady, no matter how dysfunctional her marriage is behind closed doors.

Esther's choice to trust George with her life's savings so he can buy twelve draft horses shows just how desperate she is to make her marriage work and somehow end up with a husband of whom she can be proud. He tells her that with the draft horses, he'll be able to find work and make a name for himself. In actuality, Esther ends up not just giving away her dream of a beauty shop along with her money, she also gives up George and everything he represented in terms of her ticket to acceptable womanhood, as he wastes the money gambling and drinking, and ultimately leaves her.

While this certainly represents a setback for Esther in a variety of important ways, it also offers some hope that Esther can take the lessons she learned from her marriage to George and carry them into the future in which she begins to recognize her successes for what they are and focus more on that than on the places where she believes she's lacking. Though marriage and a family may not be in the cards for Esther, the play leaves room for Esther to rebuild her savings doing a job she enjoys, unencumbered by a man who doesn't take her work or her aspirations seriously. Alone, the play suggests, Esther may not embody society's ideal woman, but she has the potential to be a far more successful and personally fulfilled one.