Machinal Characters

In the story of Machinal by Sophie Treadwell, the portrayal of the young woman is unlike the other female characters we have encountered. Unlike the other characters, she is not named, but rather referred as the young woman and at a point, just a woman, but then the male characters like her husband and her lovers are all named. In the part of the representation of modernity in the naming of the characters, we can see that although the setting of the story is advanced and progressive in the sense of a woman having a job, the advancement in technology and so much more, the part and the role of a woman is still backward. In Melanctha, the story was set around the character, her background and her society while in Machinal, the story revolves around …show more content…
We see this view in the young woman decision to marry her boss whom she doesn’t love and is also repulsed by but goes ahead to marry him. The young woman goes along with the marriage due to the financial security and her mother's persuasion who convinced her to go ahead and marry her boss even though she was going into ending up in a loveless marriage. For her mother to ask her if love was going to pay the bills, feed or clothe her, shows not only her mother's mentality, but also the society. Rose Johnson behavior and finally the rejection of Melanctha also shows the culture mentality towards womanhood because again, Rose uses Melanctha for her benefit and cast her aside when she no longer fits the narrative or helps her. Rose was all right with Melanctha giving birth to her baby, nursing her and cleaning her house, but rushes her out her house when her husband is on his way back home while the young woman husband only sees her as a wife. I believe this is so because Melanctha is not the ideal woman and either does not want and trust Melanctha not to seduce her husband and does not want to be placed in the same narratives as Melanctha while the young woman mother just wants her daughter to fit into the …show more content…
We saw that in the objectification of women, with emphasis on the women’s body and the comparison of their body to nature. In Melanctha and the Machinal, we see the narrative starts to change. This is so because these characters are beginning to question the society image and the role of them as just the baby makers and keeper of the home. The characters introducing sexuality, feminism, and independence to the world perspective of womanhood and the role of women in the society. Finally, the young woman felt suppressed and imprisoned by not only the society but also by her husband objectification of her and the role of women which ultimately drove her to commit an egregious crime of murdering her husband Rather than seeking a divorce. Killing her husband was a way of doing her husband a favor. Not only does she not want to put him through the pain of divorce but also possibly want to save him the pain of possibly going through the cycle of going through of another loveless