Ann, claire, and helen-from mammies to killers : three successive rounds in females' struggle against fettering patterns

Abstract EN

This paper seeks to investigate the crises of Ann in Rachel Crothers's He and She (1911), Claire in Susan Glaspell's The Verge (1921), and Helen in Sophie Treadwell's Mechinal (1982) in their confrontation with the society's dogmatic paradigms.

Such paradigms that hinder the females' independence and creativity.

The three female figures, in their attempt to protect their identities, arouse in us Arthur Miller's concept of tragic emotions.

This paper presents the three targeted females as having a tough conflict with close people to whom they have personal or emotional relations.

As Ann must confront both her father and husband, Claire must challenge her sister, her husband and her lover and Helen must defy her mother and her husband.

In their ferocious challenge against the fettering patterns and institutions, the three heroines offer three successive, complicated rounds in one battle.

Ann's timid struggle passes through Claire's affirmative self-creation and closes with Helen's realistic fight for economic independence.

More tragic than Ann and Claire, Helen faces the multiple agents of the oppressive system: a dependent mother, a cold husband, a lover who convicts her, a prosecutor, a judge, a jailer, a priest, a senseless barber, guards, an electrocuter, and before all, miserable economic conditions.

Despite all the conspiracies on the three heroines, the three plays carry a glimpse of hope and optimism for all females.