betty as wife

        The disparity of this play truly amazes me. Perhaps it is because it centers around the idea that all the characters in the show live to try to please the other, just as faulty humans. Betty says it most clearly in act one, "I live for Clive. The whole aim of my life is to be what he looks for in a wife. I am a man's creature as you see, and what men want is what I want to be." This statement is grossly ironic and complex. As we find out, Clive expect's Betty to be the stereotypical weak and dominated house wife and describes her as being "delicate and sensitive" He also continuously talks down to his wife, playing with her like a kid, he says to describe Harry Baglegy, "With an H and a B. And does conjuring trick for little Edward." Clive doesn't even give Betty the decency of treating her like a competent adult, and Betty certainly doesn't demand self-respect. When Clive catches wind of her kiss with Harry, he demeans her and Betty begs his pardon and doesn't even justify herself saying in repentance, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Forgive me. It is not Harry's fault, it is all mine...It is my wickedness, I get bored, I get restless, I imagine things. There is something so wicked in me Clive" (Act One, Scene 3). Betty dismisses the fact that perhaps she is repressed and unhappy and in another country separated from home and society and practically isolated from the world and instead blames solely her self-deprciating spirit. After Betty pleads guilty and begs forgiveness, Clive takes the dominant role and cast her and her kind down like dirt, "You are thoughtless, Betty...Women can be treacherous and evil. They are darker and more dangerous than men." That Clive says Betty's mere repentance kiss is worse than men, and perhaps the "savages" that threaten their immediate safety is a low blow. What's even worse if the fact that he is cheating on his wife with Mrs. Saunders who is staying in their home and Betty is expected to be a hostess for.

         In Act Two when Betty decides to leave her husband, we see her flirt around life, trying to find her true identity after being repressed for so long. She still feels the need to please, as she gives her earrings, scarf, and hat for bratty and demanding Lin to wear. After she leaves, she confesses her fears to Vic, "I'll never be able to manage. If I can't even walk down the street by myself. Everything looks so fierce" (Act two, scene three). Betty had been told she was the weaker sex and her place so many times by Clive, as an older lady she can barley mentally survive in the public sphere without a man. The play ends with her giving her address to a Edwards sort of on and off boyfriend in attempt to have some sort of company over. She is lost, without friends of male or female kind. It is a painful end, as her next thought of moving in with her daughter who dislikes her and Lin and Edward. Betty is even more alone at the end, without an Ellen to be her friend or a mother to bug her. Betty drifts as an old woman, starting again, and trying to understand life at a different age.