A Woman Is Only A Woman

THE WOMEN
Clare Boothe Luce, 1937, Random House

"There is a tide in the affairs of women which, taken at the flood, leads Lord knows where." - Lord Byron

"L'amour, l'amour ... where Love leads I always follow. So here I am, in Reno." - The Countess

Discussion Questions:
1. In her introduction Clare Boothe Luce implies that her play is a simple satire of a particularly "vulgar, silly and futile" set of women. Is there more to it than that?

2. Is Mary "too damned nice"?

3. "Creatures like Edith and Sylvia and Crystal can breed no 'worthy antagonists'. A 'nice' stupid woman is victimized by their nonsense; a 'nice' intelligent woman ignores them completely." - CBL.

4. What do we make of 'high society' as thus reported? Was it simply because they could afford it that upper-class women were the first to jump at divorce?

5. While CBL, and most others, concede that "not all women are like that", she does not make the same comment about men. Does the play paint a realistic portrait of men?

6. "Keeping still, when you ache to talk, is about the only sacrifice spoiled women like us ever have to make." - Mrs. Morehead. Let's talk tactics ...

7. Every character shows signs of confusion but any shred of common sense is relegated to the older generation or to the lower classes. Is this a literary device or does it reflect reality (after all, 'common sense' is supposed to be common)?

Of Interest:
- The Women, 1939, George Cukor's fabulous film starring Joan Crawford (pictured above), Norma Shearer, Rosiland Russell & many others.
- The Philadelphia Story, 1940, another Cukor film starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart & Ruth Hussey
- High Society, 1956, a musical remake of the above starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby & Frank Sinatra

Omar Revisited

The Old Omar:
Omar Khayyam

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread - and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness -
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!

The New Omar:
G.K.Chesterton

A book of verses underneath the bough,
Provided that the verses do not scan:
A flask of wine, a loaf of bread and thou,
Short-haired, all angles, looking like a man;

But let the wine be unfermented, pale,
Of chemicals compounded, Lord knows how,
This were indeed the Prophet's Paradise -
Ah Paradise were wilderness enow.

The Newest Omar :

Frank Sheed

A jug and a book and a dame,
And a nice shady nook for the same.

from The New Guest Room Book, Sheed & Ward, 1957

Wodehouse on Omar:

"And I was tooling along a mossy path with the brow a bit wet with honest sweat, when there came to my ears the unmistakable sound of somebody reading poetry to someone, and the next moment I found myself confronting a mixed twosome who had dropped anchor beneath a shady tree in what is known as a leafy glade. ... I thought it odd that a chap like [Cream] should be doing such a thing. Limericks, yes. If he had been reciting limericks to her, I could have understood it. But this was stuff from one of those books they bind in limp purple leather and sell at Christmas. I wouldn't care to swear to it, but it sounded extremely like Omar Khayyam."

from How Right You Are, Jeeves, P.G.Wodehouse, Harper & Row, 1960