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Gender Inequality as a Theme in Treadwell’s ‘Machinal’

Introduction

For these past decades, people have been very vocal in terms of gender inequality.
Gender inequality, or gender discrimination, in other words, refers to unequal rights for
men and women on several gender roles, resulting to discriminatory treatment in life.
Throughout the modern world, the subject of gender inequality appears to be an endless
problem which is still widely discussed. The cultural, spiritual, and social preference gaps
of human beings make this issue everlasting. The social construct of a woman in history
is restricted to family, childbearing, and sexual relationship.

The portrayal of gender inequality has already been heavily emphasized in the past
theatre, music, dance, as well as other performance activities. One of the groundbreaking
plays that subtly depicted gender equality is Machinal by Sophie Treadwell. Written in
1928, Machinal successfully portrayed how women in that era were treated in such a
discriminative way. In a patriarchal society tied by the phenomenon of forced marriage,
Helen, the central heroine of the play, is caught while love is perceived as something
meaningless. In order to free herself, Helen decided to kill her husband and got electrified
in the end.

With background above, this paper will discuss about how Treadwell depicted
gender equality as the theme in Machinal. Using first wave feminist movement
perspective, this paper will describe how the beginning of 20th treated women.

Discussion

Gender inequality is indeed a problematic phenomenon which encourages

discriminatory practices toward different genders in society. These distinctions, mainly
from different reproductive values in society, are distinct from biological and anatomical
variations. This misconception derives from the incorrect understanding of the role of
each gender in life. And we all see the dilemma from every aspect of life which makes
women suffer pressure and placed women in an awful situation.

In the past, males are expected to get more opportunities to do stuff like education.
Women have seemingly lesser education options than men. Men were always the
dominant group for far too many decades and women were the minority. The
"homemakers" were men, and women only stuck home to take care of the household
chores and kids. Women had hardly any freedom at all. Their husbands could harass them
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and pretty much get away with it. Against this understanding, women started to rebel
against the gender inequality and started the first wave movement of feminism.

Feminism is a progressive campaign with the underlying aim of equal rights for
men and women. Throughout the late nineteenth and early of twentieth centuries, the first
wave of feminism fought for rights we take for granted today; the right to vote (suffrage),
to own property and capital, to borrow money, to inherit, to keep money earned, to
initiate a divorce, to retain custody of children, to go to college, to become a
professionally certified physician, to argue cases in court, and to serve on a jury (Lorber,
2012)

Machinal is a heartbreaking tale in New York City that corresponds to the 1920s.
The focus of this play is on the life of the young stenographer Helen, who is oppressed
and strangled by the expectations of society and her mother. She gets married and has a
child to her boss, whom she considers unappealing, has an affair, and finally kills her
husband, which leads to her execution by electric chair. This play was written by
American playwright and writer Sophie Treadwell, influenced by the real-life case of
Ruth Snyder, who was executed in 1928, the exact year that the play was written, after
her husband Albert Snyder was murdered in 1927. This production is rewarded for its
contribution to the Expressionist Theater movement of the early 20th century and has
been influenced in several respects over the last 90 years since its establishment.

In the early 20th century, Machinal was created for the stage where the interaction
of romantic relations was determined by patriarchal rules. Women were forced to submit
to their husbands during this male-focused era, suppressing their own identity and
freedom in order to protect appropriate marriages. The theme of gender equality is found
everywhere in this play. For instance, it’s perfectly depicted when Helen's coworkers, and
even her mother, are pushing her to marry her employer, George H. Jones, because he's
wealthy. In this way, financial considerations also become excuse to embark into an
unfulfilling marriage, and everyone refuses to acknowledge the impression that Helen has
no intention to wed Mr. Jones—in fact, even Helen herself opposes of her doubts at first
but then agrees to say yes to Jones' proposal ignoring the fact that she can barely endure
his touch.

Although suffrage was the main purpose in first wave of feminism movement, the
issue about economic independence on women also has come to the surface. Rights
concerning property, earnings, and higher education were granted by the end of the
nineteenth century, presented women with an opportunity for economic freedom. These
rights were important for improving the status of married women from juvenile reliance
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on a husband as well as for providing a means of life on their own to widows and single
women rather than as a miserable connection in the family of their father or brother or
son.

At the beginning, Helen's economic outlook was very poor. In her relationships
with her mother, we see this. Her mother's best news for the day is how much money she
saves on potatoes. Her mother decides that Mr. J can be married to Helen so he will take
the financial care of them. She doesn't care if her daughter likes him or not. Her mother
addresses her own issue by asking, "He's a decent man, isn't he? . . He's a Vice President
—of course he's decent"

At this time, the concept of marriage has impacts far beyond the problems of
marriage and happiness. Instead of dwelling on whether or not Helen has feelings for
Jones her colleagues are turning their attention to the facts she's going to get by marrying
him or failing by rejecting him. Likewise, wondering what Helen's life is going to be like
if she says yes, her colleagues claim, "She’ll come to work in a taxi!,” “breakfast in bed,”
and “lunch in bed!” Helen's colleagues prove that there will be significant advantages
whenever it comes to getting married with a powerful man by describing the rewards of
accepting Jones' proposal throughout this context.

The woman discovers herself in a terrifying relationship with a man she feels
sickening, forced into marriage by the need for money and a severe lack of alternatives.
Her husband feels free to have sexual intercourse with her anytime he wishes to do so
even without her permission. He talks to her mostly in the urgent tone, giving commands,
and demanding them to be obeyed.

For example, where she appears to be frightened about him on their wedding
night, he said, "Nothing to be scared of ... You got to learn to relax, little girl." Later in
the play, he bought a piece of land and brag about how it's his now. Not all that is
mine,"It's not all that's mine," This shows that he still sees his wife as his personal
property. His sound is sarcastic, as if he wants her to joke at the thought of being viewed
as an object owned by someone else. He also claims that when she used to flinch at his
hand, he enjoyed it and called it a symbol of her "purity."

A further form of 19th-century Feminism based not only on equal rights, but even
on a woman's choice to ‘own’ her body and to plan her pregnancies. Treadwell spends a
significant amount of time developing the discomfort of the marriage of the young Helen.
In Machinal, not only Helen got dissatisfaction from how his husband treated her, but
also how Jones forced Helen to had a pregnancy. It depicted when Jones pretends that a
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marriage ceremony has changed the fact that she doesn't like him or feel at ease in his
presence. Although they really don't know each other quite well, Jones thinks he deserves
greater intimacy.

However if she fought to get away from him it is likely that Jones also liked the
intimidation of physically constraining Helen. In general, Helen is represented as a
female who must submit to others at all times of her life emotionally and physically. He
seems so connected to her as compared to Helen's insecurity of Jones, that he doesn't see
that she doesn't think for him in a certain way. He distorts the basic reality of his
connection to her with his real awareness of her encounters with this ignorant attitude.

When she is distressed after delivering a baby, he states thoughtlessly that he

knows what she had to do to bring the baby, a claim that she refuses by shaking her head.
Oh, yes I do!” he says. “I know all about it! I was right outside all the time!” Helen again
attempts to refute that but he persists. “Oh yes! But you’ve got to brace up now! Make an
effort! Pull yourself together!” Of course, it's ridiculous to believe that a man—who
never could feel the hardship of child labor in his life—would be capable of
understanding the stress his wife has been through only by remaining outside the room
and listening her cries.

She's subjected to collective perceptions regarding the actions of the mother and
the patient at the hospital. Throughout the play, Helen fights against these ways of
oppression, but is constantly prevented. For example, when she asks her mother for
support, she encounters a complete lack of consideration and finally breaks down into
unstable frustration. Then, as she refuses to speak, eat, or keep her child in the hospital,
everybody around her condemns her negligence.

Treadwell specifically shows that one of the strategies used by patriarchy to

manipulate women is the insistence that they act with sexual constraint. Through her
affair with Mr. Roe whom she met one day in a bar, Helen faced another social norms
constructed by society to control how a woman should behave. Roe and his mate, the
second one, explore their multiple affairs comfortably, without discomfort whatsoever,
meanwhile when Roe welcomes Helen to his place, Helen concern depends heavily on
her image. After Roe says, "No one will see you—coming or going." Nevertheless,
neither of them expresses any worry for the people who see him. This contrast in
expectations appears to limit the rights of female characters while encouraging male
characters to do what they desire.
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He faces not as many challenges, though, since he is a man. He led a wandering
adventurous life. All about Roe and her friendship with him is much more fulfilling than
any Helen has ever been in. His trips allow Helen to journey; escape her small life's
boundaries. Her intercourse makes her feel loved and desirable and her feelings come
with marriage she assumed. He tells Helen a story of how he was forced to abandon and
kidnapped by bandits once. This story inspires the belief that freedom is so essential that
an individual has to kill to do so.

Leading up to rebelling against the patriarchal rule of her husband by killing him,
she emotionally reacted to gender discrimination and mostly permitted herself only to
convey her frustration in private through drifting monologues. Only after Jones was
murdered did she seem able to speak about herself. It was portrayed when she finally
shouts, “Oh my God am I never to be let alone! Always to have to submit—to submit! No
more—not now—I’m going to die—I won’t submit! Not now!” Unfortunately, just
minutes before she dies on the electric chair, she speaks those words.

The definitive declaration on the submission of women to the laws laid down by
men is made in the courtroom. Although Treadwell does not state that the jury is all male,
it was almost unheard of for women to participate on the jury at the time. The
Prosecution Attorney frequently points to the "Jury Gentlemen," which supports the
belief that Helen's fate was decided by an all-male jury. In the trial, Helen is isolated in a
room of men, and although her own confession inevitably leads to her prosecution, the
jury sends her to death by electric chair. In this context, a woman who rebels against the
laws of a male-dominated society is disciplined in the most extreme way. Helen was no
longer submits and thus condemned.

Conclusion

Sophie Treadwell's feminist philosophy strongly influenced Machinal's theme: the

gender inequality in a male-dominated world. The experience of Helen helps the public to
explore the injustice felt by many women in a society which determines how their lives
can be. In a culture where people were expected to follow a profession and to make
choice in every part of our lives, from family to the world, Treadwell gives a very strong
point regarding of equality. Through the use of the Helen’s story, the public brings into
question the truth and justice of gender discrimination in the 1920s, which still stands to
discuss today.

Treadwell, on the other hand, casts the misogyny as desperately ever present in
female experience, although this pessimism is perhaps more overcome by the idea that
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Helen may have prevented such painful situations if she had spoken about herself
initially. If somehow Helen had stuck up for herself when Jones first proposed to her—if
she had believed her judgment and rejected his offer—she would not have been obligated
to murder him, and her first real expression of freedom and agency ("I'm not going to
submit! Not now!") would not be such a hollow utterance made too close to the end on
her way to the electric chair. Taking it into consideration, Machinal shows that while
discrimination and injustice are common in society, it's worth fighting inequality before
it's too late.

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