Plot Summary
Act 1 scene 1
The Women begins with a group of high-society friends playing bridge at Mary Haines’ Park Avenue apartment in New York City.
When Mary exits the room, Sylvia informs her that she has discovered from a manicurist named Olga that Mary’s husband Stephen is having an extramarital affair. As Mary returns, Sylvia pushes her to schedule a manicure with Olga.
Act 1, Scene 2
A few days later, Mary visits Michael’s beauty business to have Olga do her nails. Olga, who is unaware that Mary is Stephen Haines’ wife, spreads rumors that he is having an affair with Crystal Allen.
Mary introduces herself as Mrs. Stephen Haines and stands to go, requesting Olga not to continue chattering about the situation.
Act 1, Scene 3
Mrs. Moorehead (Mary’s mother) arrives in Mary’s bedroom an hour later and Mary tells her about Stephen’s affair. Mrs. Moorehead tells Mary to do nothing and say nothing.
She claims that all married men, including Mary’s father, have such affairs and that it is preferable for the wife not to notice.
Mrs. Moorehead convinces Mary to accompany her on a trip to Bermuda in order to go away and let the affair blow over. Stephen then phones to say he’ll be working late again and won’t be home in time for supper.
Act 1, Scene 4
Mary returns to New York after a two-month holiday in Bermuda with her mother. She finds herself trying on clothes in a Fifth Avenue women’s apparel store, just next to one where Crystal Allen is trying on clothes.
Mary enters Crystal’s dressing room, encouraged by her companions, and confronts her about Stephen. Crystal acts unconcerned about Mary and informs her that Stephen intends to marry her. Mary goes out, humiliated by Crystal
Act 2, Scene 1
Two weeks later, in Elizabeth Arden’s beauty salon, Mary’s friend Edith tells her friends Sylvia and Peggy that she unintentionally told a well-known gossip columnist about Stephen’s affair with Crystal and Mary’s argument with Crystal at the clothing store.
Act 2, Scene 2
A few days later, Mary’s maid and chef discuss Stephen’s affair with Crystal, which was revealed in a gossip column of a tabloid newspaper, and that Mary and Stephen are embroiled in a feud over the affair. Stephen claims to have ended the affair, but Mary will never forgive him.
Act 2, Scene 3
A month later, Mary is planning to travel to Reno, Nevada, in order to divorce Stephen. Mrs. Moorehead (Mary’s mother) attempts to persuade her to return Stephen, but she refuses. Mary informs her daughter, Little Mary, that she and Stephen are divorcing.
Act 2, Scene 4
Mary’s friend Peggy pays a visit to her friend Edith, who is in the hospital with a newborn baby, a month later. Peggy says she and Sylvia will both go to Reno to get divorces. Sylvia is aware that her husband wishes to marry another woman, but she is unaware of who that woman is.
Act 2, Scene 5
A few weeks later, while staying at a Reno resort, Mary and some of her friends discuss their divorces. One of Mary’s acquaintances, the Countess de Lage, announces that she is thinking about marrying Buck Winston, a young cowboy.
Sylvia and Miriam get into a hair-pulling argument after learning that her husband is divorcing her in order to marry Miriam, which Mary tries to break up. Stephen contacts Mary to tell her that he and Crystal have married.
Act 3, Scene 1
Crystal is having a lengthy bubble bath in her New York apartment, where she lives with Stephen, two years later. While bathing, she calls Buck Winston, with whom she is having an affair. Buck Winston is now married to Countess de Lage, who has assisted him in his career as a film star.
Little Mary, Mary’s daughter, enters and overhears Crystal’s talk with Buck, though she is unsure what it means. Sylvia comes to see Crystal in her bathroom while she is still in the bathtub. Sylvia discovers a key to the Gothic Apartments, a popular spot for extramarital affairs.
Act 3, Scene 2
One night, Mary hosts a dinner party with her friends and their various new husbands to commemorate the two-year anniversary of her divorce from Stephen.
The Countess expresses her suspicion that Buck Winston is cheating on her. Mary declines an invitation to a late-night party on the Casino Roof from her friends.
Once the guests have left, Little Mary unwittingly informs Mary that Crystal is having an affair with Buck Winston. Mary instantly dresses to go to the Casino Roof party, where she knows Crystal, Buck, and Stephen will be there.
Act 3, Scene 3
Mary and her friend Miriam discuss how to go about revealing Crystal’s affair with Buck Winston so that Stephen finds out about it and decides to divorce Crystal late that night in the lady’s lavatory of the Casino Roof.
Mary and her friends lure Crystal into admitting to the affair when she enters the ladies room. Mary leaves to inform Stephen of Crystal’s affair, confident that she will reclaim him for herself.
Characters in The Women
Aarons, Miriam
Mary’s social circle includes Miriam Aarons, a twenty-eight-year-old theater actress who appears in musical comedies. Miriam begins an affair with Sylvia’s husband, Howard Fowler, early in the play.
When in Reno, Sylvia discovers that Howard divorced her for Miriam and that he intends to marry Miriam after the divorce.
When Sylvia hears this, she physically assaults Miriam, and the two women engage in a furious hair-pulling struggle. Miriam becomes the second Mrs. Fowler after marrying Howard.
Miriam assists and encourages Mary near the end of the performance to deceive Crystal Allen into revealing she is cheating on Stephen.
Crystal Allen
Luce plays Crystal Allen, a working-class lady who improves her socioeconomic level by being the mistress, then wife, of a wealthy man. Crystal is a teenage shopgirl who is having an affair with Stephen Haines, Mary Haines’s husband.
Crystal originally met Stephen while working at Saks Fifth Avenue’s perfume counter. Crystal had been living as Stephen’s mistress in a luxurious apartment in the Hotel Waverly for some months when the play begins.
One character describes Crystal as a “terrible man-trap.” She first appears in the play in a women’s clothing store, where she is looking on things that Stephen will pay for.
As Mary confronts Crystal in the store’s dressing room, Crystal is unapologetic about being Stephen’s mistress. She informs Mary that Stephen intends to divorce and marry her. As a result, Crystal succeeds in embarrassing Mary.
Once Crystal marries Stephen, she laments that he is no joy to be with since he is filled with remorse and regret at the loss of Mary. Crystal has an affair with Buck Winston and is unfaithful to Stephen.
When Little Mary overhears Crystal on the phone with Buck being “lovey-dovey,” she informs her mother. By compelling Crystal to admit to her affair with Buck, Mary is able to undermine Crystal’s marriage to Stephen.
Blake, Nancy
Nancy Blake, 35, is the only woman in Mary’s social group who has never married. Nancy is a financially independent woman who supports herself as an author, despite the fact that her works are not widely read.
She is above all of the in-fighting that occurs among the other women over rivalry for husbands because she has never been married and does not appear to be looking for one.
Mrs. Peggy Day
Peggy (Mrs. John Day), the youngest member of Mary’s social circle, is twenty-five years old. Peggy is a friendlier persona than most of Mary’s pals. Whereas the other ladies are indifferent to each other’s marital problems, Peggy is really empathetic to her friends’ marital problems.
She is shocked to find that Mary’s marital issues have been revealed to a gossip columnist. Similarly, Peggy sobs after learning that Sylvia’s husband has kicked her out and wants a divorce.
Peggy later informs her friends that she and her husband are divorcing. Peggy discovers she is pregnant by her husband while in Reno pursuing her divorce.
Her friends persuade her to phone John and make amends, which she does. Peggy then packs her belongings in order to return to New York and reconnect with her husband.
Countess De Lage
Mary’s social circle includes the Countess de Lage, a wealthy middle-aged woman. The countess has had four divorces. She attracts younger guys who want to marry her for her money because she is so wealthy. While in Reno, she considers marrying Buck Winston, a cowboy.
After marrying Buck Winston, the countess assists him in becoming a Hollywood movie star. She confesses to her pals near the end of the play that she suspects Buck of cheating on her. Buck had an affair with Crystal Allen, it was later revealed.
The countess appears to have a different perspective on marriage and divorce than the other ladies in Mary’s social circle.
She expresses a more lighthearted view on the marriages and divorces she has experienced. She does not appear to be upset when one marriage fails and is eager to move on to the next.
Sylvia Fowler is a woman.
Sylvia (Mrs. Howard Fowler), a married woman in Mary’s social circle, is thirty-four years old. When Sylvia announces to her friends in the opening scene that Mary’s husband is having an affair, she sets off the initial incident that sets off the core conflict of the play.
Sylvia does not tell Mary directly, but suggests that she get a manicure from a woman named Olga, who will undoubtedly pass on the rumor to her. Sylvia suggests Mary have her nails painted “Jungle Red,” the same color she is wearing.
Sylvia causes another big issue in Mary’s life when she pushes her to confront Crystal Allan in a clothing store dressing room. Mary’s marriage suffers greatly when this episode reaches the hands of a gossip columnist.
Eventually, Sylvia’s husband fires her for having an affair with a young man who works for him. Sylvia’s husband divorces her so that he can marry another lady with whom he had an affair.
While Sylvia is in Reno to get her divorce, she discovers that her husband wants to marry her friend Miriam.
Miriam is also in Reno, in the process of divorcing her husband in order to marry Sylvia’s now ex-husband. When Sylvia learns about this, she and Miriam have a physical altercation.
Sylvia unwittingly offers evidence that Crystal Allen is having an affair with Buck Winston in the play’s final scene. Whereas Sylvia’s talk in the first act attempts to undermine Mary’s marriage, her chatter in the last scene works to further Mary’s objective of reuniting with Stephen.
Mrs. Mary Haines
The principal character of The Ladies is Mary (Mrs. Stephen Haines). She has a son and a daughter from her twelve-year marriage. Towards the beginning of the play, Mary’s attitude toward her marriage is romanticized and based on traditional ideas about love and fidelity.
Her pals speculate that she is “living in a fool’s paradise.” At the end of the play, she has realized that in order to keep her husband, she must embrace a more realistic, modern perspective on marriage.
Mary is happily married to Stephen Haines as the play begins. She feels herself to be in a good marriage with a husband that loves and respects her.
When Mary learns through a gossipy manicurist that her husband is having an affair with a shopgirl named Crystal Allen, her entire world is thrown upside down.
Mary requests that the manicurist refrain from chatting about her spouse. She then follows her mother’s advice and says nothing about the affair to anyone and simply waits for it to end.
But, because of the uproar generated by the affair being revealed in a gossip column, Mary believes she has no choice but to divorce Stephen.
Mary finds that Stephen has married Crystal when she is in Reno getting her divorce. Mary had been hoping that Stephen would ask her to return to him up until this point.
Mary, on the other hand, accepts the fact of her husband’s remarriage. She relocates to New York and lives in an apartment with her children.
Mary’s acceptance of having lost her spouse to another woman is shattered when she discovers Crystal is cheating on Stephen.
Mary’s reaction to this revelation is very different from her reaction to previous situations involving Stephen. Initially, Mary did not attempt to reclaim Stephen from Crystal, but by the end of the play, she has learnt to utilize whatever means she has available to compete with other women for Stephen—even if this includes spreading cruel rumor.
Mary proudly declares in the final words of The Women that she has “sharpened her claws,” implying that she has learnt to actively battle to maintain her husband.
Mary claims to have painted her nails “Jungle Red.” “Jungle Red” comes to represent the jungle’s merciless regulations, which require Mary and her friends to battle fiercely in order to compete with other women in the struggle to capture and keep husbands.
Mary and Stephen Haines have a daughter named Little Mary. Mary is an intelligent and sharp-witted child who understands how social conventions limit the lives of women. She expresses her dismay at the thought of being a woman and confides in her mother about her many bad feelings about what it means to be a woman.
Little Mary’s governess informs Mary in an early episode that her daughter has punched her son. The governess suggests that Mary begin teaching Little Mary at a young age that men will always have more power and status than women.
Little Mary’s behavior of beating up her brother demonstrates both her rage at the other sex and her superior power to the male child, despite the fact that the male child is accorded higher prestige in the family structure.
In a moment near the end of the play, Little Mary enters into her father’s bathroom, where Crystal Allen, his new wife, is relaxing in the bathtub. Crystal’s phone call with a man with whom she is having an affair is overheard by Little Mary.
Later that night, Little Mary informs her mother about Crystal’s talk, unaware of the ramifications of what she has heard.
This gives Mary the information she needs to reveal Crystal’s betrayal of Stephen and reclaim him for herself. Little Mary thus serves as a communication link, resulting in the reunification of her parents.
Lucy
Lucy works as a caretaker at the Reno resort ranch where Mary and her friends are staying while awaiting their divorces.
Lucy gives the wealthy society women a working-class woman’s perspective on marriage and divorce, noting that economic circumstances make it more difficult for poorer women to divorce.
Mrs. Moorehead
Mrs. Moorehead, Mary’s mother, is described as a fifty-five-year-old bourgeois aristocrat. She informs Mary of the harsh realities of marriage, including the reality that all men, including Mary’s father, cheat on their wife.
When Mary tells her mother that Stephen is having an affair, Mrs. Moorehead advises her to ignore it because it will eventually cease on its own.
She also encourages Mary not to bring the subject up with any of her friends. Mrs. Moorehead proposes that Mary deal with the affair by taking a long trip, hoping that Stephen will miss her and be inspired to cease the affair. Mrs. Moorehead takes Mary to Bermuda for a two-month vacation.
Mrs. Moorehead later tries to persuade Mary to reconcile with Stephen instead of going to Reno for her divorce. Unlike Mary’s acquaintances, who divorce and remarry, Mrs. Moorehead believes that women should stay married even if their husbands are unfaithful.
Olga Olga is the gossipy manicurist who initially informs Sylvia that Mary’s husband, Stephen Haines, is having an affair with Crystal Allen. Crystal’s buddy Olga used to work with her at Saks Fifth Avenue’s perfume counter.
Sylvia later proposes that Mary get a manicure from Olga, knowing that Olga will reveal her husband’s infidelity to Mary.
As Mary sits down for her manicure with Olga, the manicurist is unaware that she is Stephen Haines’ wife. Like she would with any other customer, Olga tells Mary about Stephen’s affair.
When Mary learns about this, she informs Olga that she is Mrs. Stephen Haines and orders her to stop spreading such talk to others.
Potter, Edith
Edith (Mrs. Phelps Potter) is a member of Mary’s social circle who appears to be pregnant at all times.
When Edith confides in a well-known gossip columnist about Mary’s husband’s affair and Mary’s encounter with Crystal Allen in the clothes store changing room, she plays a key role in undermining Mary’s marriage.
Edith claims she forgot the woman she was chatting to was a columnist while telling her this gossip. The assumption is that Edith knew who she was talking to all along and maliciously spread this news about Mary’s personal life.
Despite the fact that Edith already has a large family, she is either pregnant or has recently given birth in every scene in which she appears. Edith, on the other hand, dislikes being pregnant, caring for babies, and having children.
She moans about every aspect of the pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting process. Luce’s character, Edith, represents a severe, romanticized perspective of women’s roles as child-bearers and child-rearers.
Themes of The Women
The Modern Lady
In The Women, Mary Haines transitions from an idealistic lady who believes in traditional marriage ideas to a modern woman who sees the hard reality of marriage.
In The Women, Luce refers to the “Modern Woman” to underline the disparities between Mary’s traditional, idealistic perspective of marriage at the start of the play and a more modern, cynical notion of marriage as a game of power, money, and rivalry.
Mary is idealistic about her marriage at the start of The Women, believing that her husband would never be unfaithful to her because he loves her and is happily married.
Throughout the play, she gets disillusioned with marriage and eventually realizes that accepting the hard reality of the institution of marriage is the only way she can effectively battle to reclaim her husband.
By the end of the play, she realizes and is able to function well in a brutal modern world in which women must compete fiercely for men. “Modern life is difficult,” Mary says near the end of the play, summarizing what she has learnt.
Divorce and Marriage
The Women is mostly concerned with marriage and divorce as they effect women’s lives. Marriage, according to Luce, is a societal institution defined by power, position, and money rather than genuine love and faithfulness between husband and wife.
Chronic adultery characterizes the marriages shown in The Ladies. In Luce’s universe, all husbands cheat on their spouses, and many wives cheat on their husbands.
When Mary tells her mother about Stephen’s infidelity, her mother answers by saying that many men cheat on their wives and that the best way for a woman to deal with it is to ignore it.
Mary, who is idealistic about marriage, believes she has little choice but to divorce Stephen due to his adultery.
By the end of the play, Luce has conveyed a very cynical message: women are better off accepting the truth of male infidelity and learning to live with it than hoping for their husbands to remain faithful.
The majority of marriages in The Women end in divorce. Mrs. Moorehead bemoans the fact that modern laws have made divorce easier to acquire, destabilizing the institution of marriage.
Mary travels to Reno to divorce Stephen and finds herself in a “reunion” with several of her New York acquaintances who are also undergoing divorces—either because their spouses cheated on them or because they cheated on their husbands, or both.
By the end of the play, Mary has decided that it is more necessary for her to remain married and tolerate her husband’s infidelities than to divorce her spouse and lose the blessings of marriage.
Female Friendship in Women
Luce depicts female friendship as a toxic mix of nasty gossip, competitiveness over men, backstabbing, and ruthless self-interest. Luce offers a very poor picture of female friendships as being characterized by cattiness. The majority of Mary’s “friends” do more harm than good in her life.
It is a friend that convinces her to visit the manicurist who gossips about Stephen’s affair. A buddy convinces her to confront Crystal in the clothing store. And it is a buddy who casually discloses Mary’s marital issues to a gossip columnist.
Mary is optimistic about her friendships at the start of the play, seeing everyone in the best light she can. Mary, on the other hand, has learned not to trust her female pals at the conclusion.
In the play’s final lines, Sylvia tells Mary, “What a disgusting female trick you pulled!” Mary has learned to use harsh techniques to battle other women and protect her own self-interest.