Intimate Apparel
Table of Contents
1 Questions
How are the themes explored ? How do class and hierarchy affect characters ? What is each character looking for freedom from & to ? What would hester's quilt represent for each character ? How is the title developped in each scene ?
2 Themes
- Identity
- Freedom / independence
- Influence of past / tradition on present
- social hierarchy
- isolation and loneliness
- intimacy vs secrecy
- dreams vs reality
3 Freedom
Find the freedom that each
3.1 George
Freedom from: harsh labour
wondered how a place so beautiful could become a morgue
3.2 Esther
Freedom from the hard work that she has, from
4 Presentations
4.1 Identity
- Race and Gender:
- Locked in poverty: combination of woman + african-american
- Relationships are restricted by her social identity: only interacts with Mayme + Dickson as equals, only others are clients (Van Buren) → can't be friends with van buren
- Dreams: cannot achieve because of identity
- Perception: Appearance vs Reality
- Letters vs Marriage
- Physical appearance != character
Self description, perception of reality
- present their ideal identity in the letters
- Esther worked by herself, all her way
Changing identity after marriage ⇒ impossible
Society:
- "Fifth Avenue Bird" → reference to Van Buren, social model
- "Have you ever been to the opera ?" Van Buren's
- Customs reveal identity
Dependance on marriage → no place unkess married
4.1.1 Links
- Interpreter of Maladies: hard working, Shoba & Shukumar
4.2 Intimacy and Secrecy
- "Intimate Apparel" → the higher class people need her, she knows about Van Buren's intimate secrets
- Mayme, doesn't have any intimçacy
- Appearance of intimacy with the letters - yet neither write their own letters, no intimacy
Mrs Van Buren → suffers from loneliness despite her class & money
Mayme: prostitution creates isolation, sees too many people and knows too few - none actually
Marriage doesn't solve any of these problems
Mr. Marks: close relationship with Esther, yet unspoken and impossible to complete
- Is already fiancéd from someone he doesn't know, restrictions by his religion
Mayme + George: Mayme falls in the trap she's been warning Esther about for the whole time
- How easy it is to fall into an illusion when vulnerable / alone
4.3 Dreams vs Reality
4.3.1 George
- His dream is to get to the US
- "Your America sounds like a wondrous place"
- His idea of the dream is that America is the utopic place: no more work, no more discrimination, etc.
- This contrasts with Esther's hard working spirit
4.3.2 Esther
- Dreams of marrying: illusion with the letters
- Disappointment, relationship is not natural ("she stiffens at his touch")
4.3.3 Mayme
- Realism: knows that her dreams aren't possible
- Yet even though she claims to be impossible, she's the one who gets seduced by George
4.3.4 Mrs Van Buren
- Not an ideal marriage, despite her status and wealth
- Her husband has a mistress, they cannot have any child, etc.
- Dreams of liberty and a "new" relationship (not sure if there was an old one)
- However divorce is unacceptable
4.4 Social Hierarchy
- Racism
- Classism
- Sexism
- Through the character of Esther & George
- Comparaison: Streetcar Named Desire, Gatsby (social class), Whuthering Heights (Social class)
5 Stranger in the village
- Seen as an outsider, children calling him "nigger"
- Strange "complaisance" from the bartender