Society and Sexuality in Lilian Hellmans Play

Diese Seminararbeit behandelt das Thema:

The Role of Society and its Influence on Sexuality in Lilian Hellman's Play "The Children's Hour".

Inhalt:

- Intro

- The Role of Society

- The Representation of Society

- Society's Construction of Sexuality

- Martha and Karen in Society

- The Role of Sexuality

- Heterosexuality vs. Homosexuality

- Conclusion

1) Introduction

In this work I will analyse Lillian Hellman’s play The Children’s Hour. My aim is to show the influence which society has on sexuality by investigating on the meanings of both terms and showing how society is represented and how it constructs the topic of sexuality. Furthermore I will take a look at how Martha and Karen, two of the main characters of the play, behave and live in a patriarchal society while being accused of having a homosexual relationship with each other and their motives. To guarantee an all around view, I will develop on the contrast of hetero- and homosexuality at the end of my work.

I had to compare theories about society with Hellman’s interpretation of it including my personal opinion. Concerning sexuality I again took into consideration Hellman’s thoughts and writings, again several works on the topic and my own view on it.

One of the basic problems doing the research for my paper was that both sexuality and society are topics which have been discussed a lot, so that I had to face an immense amount of complex information to find something useful for me, like Gender, Culture and Society: Contemporary Feminities and Masculinities. But in the end I got clear results which I will present in my following essay.