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Miss Lulu Bett | Introduction

Zona Gale’s Miss Lulu Bett was produced in 1920, less than a year after publication of its genesis, the bestselling novella of the same name. New York producer Brock Pemberton telegraphed Gale that she should adapt her novella for the theater, and she immediately set to work. ‘‘I’m almost ashamed to say how quickly it was done,’’ she told a friend, as Harold P. Simonson noted in his study Zona Gale. ‘‘I finished it in a week, but as I wasn’t satisfied with the last act I held it over from Saturday to Monday to revise it.’’ That new ending would prove to be the play’s greatest source of controversy.

The novella’s original ending—which saw Lulu wedded to a neighbor after her first ‘‘marriage’’ was voided by her ‘‘husband’s’’ prior marriage—was changed so that Lulu went off in the world on her own, telling her family, ‘‘I thought I wanted someone of my own—but maybe it was just myself I wanted.’’ Gale asserted she had changed the novella’s ending because it would stretch the audience’s credulity to have one woman marry two men in the course of two hours. However, the second ending caused an uproar among theater-goers, who craved a happy resolution. Obligingly, Gale wrote a new ending in which Lulu’s first marriage turns out to be legitimate and she and her husband are happily reunited. The audience, if not the critics, were thus satisfied, and Miss Lulu Bett went on to enjoy a successful run and immense popularity. For this play, Gale became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Despite the controversy over the ending, Miss Lulu Bett shows a woman who makes the choice to assert her identity and independence. As such, the play conveyed Gale’s feminist politics, which she made an important part of her fictional work. The play also is significant in Gale’s body of work, marking her transition from sentimental works of fiction to more realistic, sharp-edged works of fiction. Miss Lulu Bett can be found in Plays by American Women, 1900–1930 (1990), edited by Judith Barlow.

Miss Lulu Bett Summary

Act I
Miss Lulu Bett opens in the Deacons’ dining room, where most of the family is gathering for the evening meal. Over the course of the meal, Mrs. Bett appears, then Di’s friend Bobby, who is looking for a job mowing the lawn, and finally Di accompanied by Mr. Cornish, who is carrying her party favors. After dinner, when Di and Mr. Cornish have already left, Dwight notices a letter on the shelf, which both Ina and Lulu forgot to tell him about. The letter is from Dwight’s brother Ninian, who lives in Oregon, and announces that he will arrive for a visit sometime the following week. Dwight teases Lulu that Ninian would have come sooner had he known how pretty she was. Then he and Ina leave for their study group. Soon thereafter, Bobby comes in from having cut the grass and Di returns home. Di flirts with Bobby, then tells him to leave, and she gets a snack to bring to Mr. Cornish, who is waiting on the front porch. Mrs. Bett and Lulu talk about how easily Di manipulates Bobby and wonder if Ina knows about this romance.

Scene ii opens a week later in the dining room. Di is talking tenderly to Bobby through the window. Then Lulu and Monona come into the room. Monona tells Lulu that Ninian had been talking to Dwight about her; Ninian said hers was the best cooking he had ever tasted. Lulu is disgusted because men only notice her for her cooking. When Ninian comes into the room, he asks Lulu if she has ever married, and she says, no, from choice. Ninian tells Lulu that her family treats her like a slave and that she should have a life of her own. Although Lulu protests that the Deacons treat her well, she eventually admits that she would rather live under different circumstances, perhaps get an education or obtain a job where people appreciate her. Ninian hits upon the idea of taking Lulu to a show and dinner in the city, along with Dwight and Ina. Lulu protests that she should not go, but Ninian will not hear of it. He goes off to arrange the excursion, and he invites Mr. Cornish and Di as well.

When Dwight comes home, like his wife, he is surprised that Ninian convinced Lulu to make the trip. As Ninian explained to Ina, it is simple: he invited her. Lulu comes back, dressed for the theater, and soon the entire party has assembled. It is too early to leave yet, and Dwight jokes that they must find something amusing to do, otherwise ‘‘They’ll begin to read the funeral service over us.’’ Ninian asks, why not the wedding service, and says he would not object. Then he asks Lulu if she would. Ninian says, ‘‘I, Ninian, take thee, Lulu, to be my wedded wife,’’ and over Dwight’s protest, Lulu says her part. Dwight informs... » Complete Miss Lulu Bett Summary