THE OUTSIDE by Susan GLaspell April Abbott

Themes  Feminism: The women chose to move out to The Outside to forget their troubles. They are not aided by men and the men in the beginning of the play even judge them for their lifestyle choices.  Isolation: The women are alone. All they have is each other. They successfully isolated themselves from the rest of the world. The abandonment by men left a mark in their lives and is a deciding factor in their choice.  Feminism: The women chose to move out to The Outside to forget their troubles. They are not aided by men and the men in the beginning of the play even judge them for their lifestyle choices.  Isolation: The women are alone. All they have is each other. They successfully isolated themselves from the rest of the world. The abandonment by men left a mark in their lives and is a deciding factor in their choice.

Style of Composition  Susan Glaspell seems to be known for one act plays as most of her plays, including this one, were. The plays were short and got to the point. This play however is the shortest of all plays written by Susan Glaspell.This play also focused on her more feminist views and the play had a lot of feminist themes.

Language  The play is written in a very old-time language. This is obvious considering the first performance was by the Provincetown Players in The play reads similar to Glaspell’s play Trifle’s and it makes me believe that she wrote her plays in context to whatever time period she was experiencing as far as the language goes.

Characters  Captain: Operates the Life-Saving Station  Bradford and Tony: Workers at the Life-Saving Station, critical of the women that live at the old Life-Saving Station  Mrs. Patrick: Lives in the abandoned station. Her and her husband constantly visited they station and planned on one day purchasing it to bury the things that hurt them.  Allie Mayo: Servant to Mrs. Patrick. Used to speak quite often but refuses to say an unnecessary word after the death of her husband.  Captain: Operates the Life-Saving Station  Bradford and Tony: Workers at the Life-Saving Station, critical of the women that live at the old Life-Saving Station  Mrs. Patrick: Lives in the abandoned station. Her and her husband constantly visited they station and planned on one day purchasing it to bury the things that hurt them.  Allie Mayo: Servant to Mrs. Patrick. Used to speak quite often but refuses to say an unnecessary word after the death of her husband.

Comparison to Trifles  This play had a lot of similarities to Trifles. The first one that caught my attention was that the play started off with the death of a man. I feel like that is an important theme that emphasizes the importance of the woman because the woman can’t be important if the man is in the picture in that time period.  Both plays also emphasized women being free. In Trifles, Mrs. Wright had to free herself by killing her husband. But in this play the women were freed because of their husbands.  This play had a lot of similarities to Trifles. The first one that caught my attention was that the play started off with the death of a man. I feel like that is an important theme that emphasizes the importance of the woman because the woman can’t be important if the man is in the picture in that time period.  Both plays also emphasized women being free. In Trifles, Mrs. Wright had to free herself by killing her husband. But in this play the women were freed because of their husbands.

Contrast to Trifles  The main difference in the two plays lie in the fact that in this play, the male was not the stifling, oppressive character. Instead, in this play, the males were loved and the women missed them dearly whiched caused them to exile themselves to try to bury the pain.

Question of Diversity  This play questions women’s rights at the time. At the time, two women living together, alone and isolated was unheard of.

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