Thornton Wilder“The Skin of our Teeth”-The female characters of the play
...ant to focus on the female characters of the play, their attitude and their relationship amongst themselves. I will deal with them in their order of appearance within the play: Sabina, Mrs Antrobus, Gladys, and the Fortune Teller. 2.1 Sabina In Act I “Lily Sabina” – “straw-blonde, over- rouged” – is introduced as the faint-hearted house maid of the Antrobus family and, whilst she is dusting the room, she lets “the audience in on the manners and means of their employers” . As her name suggests she was abducted home like the Sabines in Roman mythology, but she is also Lilith, Adam’s first demonic wife. She is evil, but in a less serious fashion than Henry/Cain, because her sins are generally domestic and venial ones. Both feisty and witty, she nevertheless personifies all the stereotypical faults of her kind: she is vain, petulant, materialistic and immoral. Moreover, she is self-righteous and lacks both conviction and courage in the face of adversity. The pleasures that she lives for may be fleeting “a new hat – or a plate of ice-cream – or a ticket to the movies” , but the desire for them is enduring enough to give the pessimistic Sabina a reason to survive. She is the opposite to Mrs Antrobus, in that she is the woman who looks after men’s desires, but someone to whom Antrobus only turns to in “fair weather” , when no disaster is currently threatening him and when he doesn’t need help and guidance. Her “anti-intellectualism” is also shown in her alter ego Miss Somerset, the actress that plays the role of Sabina, who has taken the “hateful job” , because there was no other available. She “hate[s] this play and every word in it” , and she doesn’t “understand a single word in it, anyway” , but she doesn’t have to, because after all, she plays herself. Of all characters Sabina brings in most of the comic elements of the play, especially with her frequently dropping out of her stage role. For example in Act II when she refuses to finish playing the scene where she seduces Mr Antrobus, because she doesn’t want to upset a friend of hers in the audience who lost her husband in a similar way, and she doesn’t think the “the theater a place where people’s feelings ought to be hurt” . 2.2 Mrs Antrobus Mrs Maggie Antrobus, Eve, the “charming and gracious president of the Excelsior’s Mothers’ Club” and the inventor of the apron, is the perfect American mother and the “eternal home-maker” . She is the embodiment of selfless motherly love. “If you want to know more about Mrs. Antrobus, just go and look at a tigress, and look hard” She is more interested in the health of her children, even her wicked son Henry, than culture, she would “burn ten Shakespeares to prevent one child [of hers] from having a cold in the head” . She is practical and behaves instinctually. Although she is humiliated by her husband and the “eternal wicked woman” Sabina more than once, she stubbornly tries to hold her family together. When Mr Antrobus in Act II announces the catchphrase for the future “Enjoy Yourselves” , she fears this could lead to misunderstanding and changes it to: “Save the Family” . However, maybe there is more in her than just the “anti- intellectual and narrow” mother hen. When Mr Antrobus is about to leave the family and get divorced to marry Sabina and the family seems to fall apart, she throws a bottle into the ocean. A bottle with a letter, where “is written all the things that a woman knows” . “We’re not what books and plays say we are. We’re not what advertisements say we are. We’re not in the movies and we’re not on the radio. We’re not what you’re told and what you think we are. We are ourselves.” But the message itself remains a secret, hidden in the bottle, maybe for a new generation to come. Only in Act III do we get a glimpse of the actress that plays Mrs Antrobus, when she comforts the actor playing Henry after his emotional breakdown. Like Sabina, she is dropping out of her stage role, yet remains in her mother role: “Come. Come and put your head under some cold water.” 2.3 Gladys Antrobus Gladys is the daughter of the Antrobuses. She and her brother Henry, who was called Cain before he killed his brother Abel with a stone, represent Antrobus’ hope for human perfection and at the same time the proof that this hope can never be fully realised. Within the play she grows from a child and “Papa’s little gopher” to an unmarried mother. Where Henry/Cain represents violence, she represents sexuality. In Act I she outrages her mother by using make-up, something that would make her imperfect in the eyes of Mr Antrobus. “Don’t you know your father thinks you’re perfect? Don’t you know he couldn’t live if he didn’t think you were perfect?” In Act II she symbolises the moral corruption, when Mr Antrobus gives in to Sabina, ready to leave his family for her. She refuses to take off their red stockings, which match in colour with Sabina’s dress, because “Papa liked the color” . But as imperfect as she is, she is still the d...