Introduction
By his own admission, Doug Wright wrote Quills in response to conservative opposition to the arts. The play was completed in the mid-1990s, on the heels of the very public battles over the “NEA Four.” The case involved four performance artists whose National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants were revoked based on the content of their pieces. The opposition to these government-funded grants let to countless debates about the borderline between art and obscenity. While the NEA Four sued and eventually were awarded the funds promised, the scandal forever changed how the NEA granted monies and reverberated throughout the artistic community.
In researching the Marquis de Sade, Wright found an apt parallel to these culture wars. After all, here is a character whose entire function in this play is to fight an establishment that seeks to suppress his artistic work. While at its heart Quills is a character study, the weapons these characters use to fight each other are ideas. The marquis represents no physical danger to anyone, even the young maid Madeleine. Yet when Coulmier’s ideas fail him in his contentions with the marquis, he uses physical means to suppress Sade. Indeed, the marquis’s perseverance despite the loss of writing instruments, his clothes, and ultimately his own body only underscores the ideological nature of the conflict. Despite the strong contributions of Madeleine and the doctor, the real fight is between the marquis and Coulmier. Despite the physical “treatments” used to quiet the marquis, it is Coulmier who ultimately changes, not the marquis. In Coulmier’s descent into madness and violence, Wright seems to suggest that anyone is capable of the atrocities committed in Quills and none of us are as far removed from the depravity of the Marquis de Sade as we would like to think.
Extended Summary
Act I
In the opening scene, Dr. Royer-Collard, the chief physician of the Charenton
Asylum, is in the midst of a meeting with Monsieur Prioux, a well-regarded
architect. Royer-Collard states his desire to have a house built and decorated
according to his wife’s preferences. Prioux points out the extreme cost of such
an undertaking, but the doctor brushes this aside. He explains that his wife
has an adulterous nature, and he hopes a home designed to her every whim will
keep her from straying again.
In the second scene Renee Pelagie bursts into the office demanding to speak with the doctor. After Prioux politely steps out, Pelagie bemoans the many hardships she encounters due to her estranged husband, the Marquis de Sade. She informs the doctor that the marquis still writes from his cell at Charenton, and the dispersal of these writings outside the asylum continues to blemish her reputation. The doctor counters that he will require additional funds to pay for the marquis’s tightened security. Reluctantly, Madame Pelagie obliges.
Scene 3 finds the doctor calling Abbe de Coulmier before him to interrogate him about his methods of disciplining the patients. Coulmier balks at torture and beatings, instead praising kindness as a means to rehabilitation. The doctor then shows Coulmier a manuscript the marquis wrote and surreptitiously smuggled out of the asylum while under Coulmier’s watch. At this point, we meet the marquis, who recites selections from the work, a tome about pedophilia amongst clergy. Coulmier is shocked and vows to work harder at restraining the marquis.
Scene 4 shifts to the cell of the marquis, as a laundress named Madeleine LeClerc begs the author for a new story. He agrees to provide it at the cost of one kiss per page. She agrees and earns quite a few...
(This entire section contains 1179 words.)
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pages. When the marquis pushes for more substantial rewards, she slaps him and leaves as Coulmier enters to talk to him. Scene 5 continues with Coulmier chastising de Sade for writing behind his back. He debates the marquis on both the literary merits and moral content of his writings. When the marquis refuses to relent, Coulmier orders his quills and paper to be removed.
In scene 6, Monsieur Prioux meets briefly with the doctor for an update on the progress of his house. Prioux extols not only the house’s attributes but those of the doctor’s wife as well. Prioux is hurriedly dismissed by the doctor as Coulmier arrives.
In the seventh scene, the doctor relays more misdeeds by Sade. Intercut with his conversation with Coulmier is the confession of Madeleine and another writing sample from the marquis. With Madeleine’s help, the marquis wrote on his bed linens using wine. The doctor again urges Coulmier to use force to tame the marquis.
In scene 8, Coulmier informs the marquis that his wine will be removed as well as anything that might be fashioned into a makeshift quill. The marquis begs, accuses Coulmier of being the doctor’s toady, and ultimately vows to continue his work. Scene 9 shows how the marquis honored his promise as Coulmier and Madeleine are again confronted by the doctor. As the marquis unveils his latest composition, the doctor reveals that the marquis has been writing his latest stories on his clothing using his own blood as ink.
In scene 10, Coulmier confronts the marquis and demands that he strip himself of his clothing and wig. The marquis agrees, taunting Coulmier sexually as he does so. Left bare, he still promises to persevere in his writing. Scene 11 finds Madeleine secretly meeting with the marquis to devise a plan to continue his writing. He decides to whisper his tale to the lunatic in the next cell, who in turn will tell it to the inmate next to him. The chain will continue cell by cell until it reaches the laundry room, where Madeleine will transcribe it. As prepayment, Madeleine bestows a host of kisses upon the marquis.
The last scene of the first act culminates in the marquis relating his story to an unseen lunatic in the next cell. In the midst of the escalating violence of the story, screams ring out. A brief glimpse of the mangled, lifeless body of Madeleine is revealed in the laundry. The marquis is anguished.
Act II
The second act begins with Madame Pelagie meeting with the doctor, rebuking him
for the riot at Charenton, accusing him of using her money to build his new
house, and threatening legal action unless he stops the marquis. In scene 2,
the doctor admonishes Coulmier for Madeleine’s death, revealing that an inmate
burst through the wall to the laundry room, presumably inspired by the
marquis’s dark tale. The doctor urges Coulmier to unlock a torture chamber and
use its devices on the marquis. Reluctantly, Coulmier agrees.
In the third scene, Coulmier meets with the marquis and confronts him about Madeleine’s death. Uncharacteristically, the marquis breaks down and shows true remorse. Coulmier informs the marquis that his tongue will be cut out. The very brief fourth scene shows the doctor reading a letter from Monsieur Prioux in which the latter reveals that he has run away with the doctor’s wife.
In scene 5, Coulmier delivers the marquis’s tongue to the doctor only to find out that the writer has been using his own excrement to write stories on the wall of his cell. Though the tale is relatively tame by Sade’s standards, the two read into it for more disturbing metaphors. The doctor recommends further discipline. This leads to the sixth scene, a brief confrontation between Coulmier and the still-defiant marquis, followed by offstage sounds of torture and pain. Scene 7 has Coulmier delivering boxes containing the marquis’s hands, feet, and penis to the doctor, who urges Coulmier to go further and deliver the marquis to the afterlife.
In scene 8, while Coulmier is praying over her body, Madeleine suddenly comes to life and details her sexual exploits with the devil. Coulmier states his repulsion, but eventually begins to force himself on Madeleine only to discover that she is once again a lifeless body. As a counterpoint, scene 9 depicts Coulmier praying in front of the marquis and announcing his intention to behead the writer.
In the tenth scene, Madame Pelagie meets with the doctor and denies that she ever implied that the doctor should have the marquis executed. She vows not to sue, and instead revels in her glittering social life. In scene 11, as Coulmier announces his intent to resign, the doctor reveals that Coulmier has been implicated in the torture and death of the marquis and denies ever approving it. He then states his intent to publish the marquis’s works to earn money desperately needed by the asylum. The twelfth scene finds Coulmier, now incarcerated in the marquis’s cell, begging for writing supplies to tell his story. In the final scene, the boxes of the marquis’s head and hands break open and the marquis himself begins writing Coulmier’s story. The play ends with Coulmier still begging for a quill.
