Miss Lulu Bett | Realism and Feminism in the Progressive Era
In the following essay excerpt, Schroeder explores how ‘‘Miss Lulu Bett uses the conventions of realism’’ to criticize the lack of fulfillment in the lives of women.
Domestic Entrapments
One play that offers a serious critique of women’s familial entrapment is Zona Gale’s Miss Lulu Bett (first performed in 1920). Miss Lulu Bett depicts an unmarried woman’s domestic enslavement to her unappreciative and demanding family. However, it also scrutinizes the plight of the other women in the household—those with ostensibly more ‘‘enviable’’ positions—and ends with the suggestion that autonomy and self-support may offer the only escape from enforced domestic roles.
Gale’s three-act play focuses on the...
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