"How to Be the Other Woman"
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The subject matter of Lorrie Moore's "How to Be the Other Woman" is clearly feminist in nature, but the way the story is structured is also a feminist statement, placing the reader in the mind of the protagonist in an immediate way and forcing the reader to share the pain and humiliation of being "the other woman." This is accomplished through direct experience of the different aspects of the issue rather than through any direct rhetoric on the part of the protagonist. That is, the speaker does not denounce the male involved or even discuss openly her own feelings. Rather, the woman recounts events and makes them personal by placing them first in the present tense and second by using the pronoun "you" to involve the reader as she speaks of herself through this pronoun. That not only makes the experience more immediate, but it also generalizes the events and the feelings involved. The use of "you" in this fashion makes this seem to be a recounting of what always happens in such relationships, as indeed it is intended to so.Many of the events of the relationship have certainly been told before, but here they are collected in one consciousness and made to seem fresh by the way they are presented. The way the story is told is episodic, a series of interactions between the woman and her lover, or between the woman and her situation. The woman is subservient to the man. She is "the other woman," and the use of that terms conjures images of a femme fatale intent on stealin
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rms, standing as wives first and individuals second, and also being treated as something that needs to be protected when in fact they do not, at least not in the classic sense of male paternalism. Women are seen as having less important interests than men and as being given to the "trifles" of the title, but as the play shows, these women see and comprehend more than do the males and have a deeper understanding of the problems and pressures of life. The title becomes an ironic commentary in the context of the play.
Two of the men in the play are officials with a belief in their own professionalism, but their attitude extends beyond that when they are confronted with the question of the attitudes and ideas of women. Then, these males see much of their power and ability deriving not from their professional status as such but from the fact that they are male. The truth is that the males are very puzzled by the death they are investigating and by the role of Mrs. Wright, but they believe fully that they as males will be able to discern the truth. On the other hand, they see the women--Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale--as doing no more than pawing through the "trifles" of Mrs. Wrights' life. Those "trifles" tell a story the males canno
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Moore's Woman, Peters Hale, Carolyn Forché's, Susan Glaspell, Peters Hale--as, , county attorney, own feelings, story told, story woman, loyal sex, killed husband, women understood, emerges story, understanding women, idea woman,
Approximate Word count = 1773
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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