ith the glamor which by birth and breeding and performance they do not possess." So much for the beautiful people. (Buckley, 1987, p. 21)
The archness of the play was translated to film, which is a curiosity in that--without recourse to the four-letter-word vulgarisms that leave nothing to the imagination--The Women presents a set of characters remarkable in their departure from received wisdom about ladies' comportment and sensibility. There is none of the romantic spirit of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind or the ethereal decorum of Wuthering Heights. The characters that are the chief subject of the play are, for the most part, captured in a speech delivered at a pivotal moment of the action by Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford), the social outsider whose behavior is implicated in the point of attack of the action: "There's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society--outside of a kennel" (Loos, Murfin, & Cukor, 1939).
Two rhetorical approaches can be taken in explaining/evaluating The Women. The first temptation is of course to turn to
...