Race, Class, and Exploitation Theme Analysis

Except for Mrs. Van Buren, the characters in Intimate Apparel are by no means wealthy and are overwhelmingly black. Mrs. Dickson, the owner of the boardinghouse where Esther lives, is the only black woman who is truly doing well for herself. Simply by virtue of telling a story that's primarily about people who are members of marginalized groups—black, poor, Jewish, and female—Intimate Apparel explores how society's exploitation of these different identities traps characters and keeps them from achieving success in their personal and professional lives. It also goes to great lengths to explore how "low" society—that is, black society—is fetishized, exploited, and turned into entertainment for white people, thereby making the position of someone like Esther even worse.

Intimate Apparel goes to great lengths to show how difficult life is for all its poor characters. Though Mayme fortunately still has a sense of humor, she's resigned to what she believes is her unchangeable fate to work as a sex worker for the foreseeable future, something that pays the bills but does nothing else for her. Esther, meanwhile, has been shut out of any upward mobility because she's unmarried and black, while the Romanian Jewish fabric seller Mr. Marks clearly sleeps in his shop and watches his customers defect to other sellers. For all of these characters, their identities are a major, if not the defining factor of their poverty and their status in society: as a Jewish immigrant and a fabric seller, Mr. Marks would have suffered from widespread anti-Semitism from white Americans upset about immigration and suspicious of Jewish shopkeepers. Esther notes that while she's doing relatively well for herself, she can't expect to do much better on her own as a black woman. Similarly, Mayme can clearly pay the bills, but to do so must embody the stereotype of the hyper-sexualized black woman, and she believes she has no room for advancement. All of this gives the impression that without major change in the lives of any of these characters, they're effectively stuck in the status quo and, for the most part, shut out of reaching their goals and seeing their dreams come true. These marginalized identities, in other words, keep them from advancing in meaningful ways.

This state of affairs becomes especially apparent in George's case, as his letters to Esther allow the reader or viewer to get a more complete sense of how his life and his perception of his identity change after coming to New York to marry Esther. While George admits that in Panama he was treated like an animal and as though he was expendable, he also notes after coming to New York that there was dignity afforded to him in Panama that he can't achieve in the U.S. In New York, he understands that aspiring to do more than carry luggage or shine shoes makes him "uppity" and above his station as a black man in a society that's racist in a different and, for George, less bearable way than Panama was. Just as with Esther and Mayme, George is denied any possibilities for advancement because of his skin color, making it seem to him as though his only options are to gamble and see sex workers, including Mayme, to attempt to recreate some of the agency and control he for which he feels nostalgic.

Mrs. Van Buren, the white woman Esther sews for, demonstrates a variety of ways in which affluent white society fetishizes and idealizes lower-class, black society for its own entertainment. In her boredom and desire for intimacy of some sort, Mrs. Van Buren helps Esther—who is illiterate—write love letters to George. Though it's important to keep in mind that Esther truly seems to enjoy her job and especially loves the fabric she works with, through these letters, Mrs. Van Buren helps to further idealize Esther's job as a seamstress, thereby glossing over the less savory facts of Esther's life, such as her poverty and her marginalized position as a black woman and a spinster. Further, Mrs. Van Buren also orders corsets modeled on those that Esther makes for Mayme. For Mrs. Van Buren, wearing "naughty," sexy corsets like those that sex workers wear is something exciting and a thing she can do from the safety of her lavishly furnished boudoir, without having to grapple with what it's actually like to be involved in sex work.

The stage notes also make it clear that Mrs. Van Buren, in her loneliness, has romantic feelings for Esther, which culminates in attempting to kiss Esther during Esther's final visit to her home. When Esther rejects this advance, Mrs. Van Buren insists that the two of them can still "just be friends," a suggestion that Esther says is indicative of all the ways in which Mrs. Van Buren isn't actually her friend and has no idea what Esther's life is like—in Mrs. Van Buren's eyes, Esther is paid entertainment and emotional fulfillment, not a friend on equal footing.

Esther then returns to Mrs. Dickson's boardinghouse, having presumably lost Mrs. Van Buren as a customer and George to gambling. This may mean that Esther is returning to a life in which she continues to have few prospects for upward mobility, but by refusing to allow Mrs. Van Buren to fetishize her, Esther is able to create a sense of dignity and control over her situation, something the play suggests is all she can reasonably expect.