Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HON 494
3/8/18
Stephen Sondheim. I am analyzing the texts using traditional theatrical text analysis methods
based off of those outlined by Aristotle in Poetics as well as through a materialist feminist lens
as described by Sue Ellen-Case, Elaine Aston, Laura Mulvey, and other feminist scholars. In
comparing these two analyses, we can see the ways in which these works of theater considered to
be superlative markers of one of the greatest theatrical composers in the history of the American
sexism, given that he explicitly states in his work that women are sub-par protagonists of
theatrical works because they do not have the same mental and physical capacities of men.
Because our culture places such a high value on the classics and continues to teach from these
methods, these ideas have seeped into the cultural consciousness of contemporary society, and
therefore into these theatrical works. In Gypsy and Follies, our featured protagonists are women,
and as is typical of an Aristolean tragedy, they meet their demise due to their own hamartia, or
tragic flaw. In Company, we are presented with a male protagonist surrounded by women and
their husbands, with the women functioning not as characters Bobby, the protagonist, can engage
with and learn from, but as potential sexual conquests, neurotic messes, and cold bitches.
Through a materialist feminist analysis of these shows, we get a richer view of these
women that exposes the flaws in their creation, but also provides a more complex view of why
they behave the way that they do. Specifically, when analyzing Company through a materialist
feminist lens, we view these women in the context of their own lives rather than filtered through
that of Bobby, and can begin to understand their actions as deeper than the tropes they are
painted as. With Gypsy, we see Rose not as an overbearing stage mother projecting her failed
dreams onto her children, but as a woman fighting to break through a male-dominated society for
both herself and her daughters at whatever costs possible. Similarly, Sally in Follies should be
viewed not as a lovesick and immature girl, but as a woman who was robbed of her sense of
stability and thrust into a world that took advantage of her looks and talent without providing her
with the structure she needed to grow and mature into the woman she is.
My thesis will culminate in a cabaret performance on April 29th featuring songs from
each of these shows performed in drag. This cabaret performance aims to deconstruct the
notions of gender placed upon these women and their actions, and expose the patriarchal bias in
their portrayals. While all of the women in these shows present problems to a feminist
theatregoer, there are ways to fight against these problems, acknowledge them, and even work
with them to create a layered and complex performance that goes beyond gender stereotypes.