30 pages • 1 hour read
Sophie TreadwellMachinal
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1928A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Episodes 2-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Episode 2 Summary: “At Home”
In these two episodes, the story moves quickly from the young woman’s wretched life at home with her nagging and stereotypical mother to the woman’s honeymoon. We hear sounds of offstage voices that echo the young woman’s fears and concerns. She moves from trying to oppose her mother’s insistence that she marry to, in Episode 3, to trying to survive her honeymoon, in Episode 4. We do not see her accept the marriage proposal or get married, and are instead moved directly to the honeymoon itself, where the woman’s husband takes on a similar, nagging role to the woman’s mother.
Voices of mothers and children introduce “At Home,” giving context to the cramped feeling of the young woman’s domestic life with her mother. From the outset, the mother nags her daughter about everything from what she is eating to the prospect of getting married. The mother objects to the young woman’s nervous energy, taking offense at her movements and telling her she isn’t too good to take out the garbage: “If it weren’t for garbage cans where would we be?” asks the mother angrily (461-462). At one point, the voices of a mother and little boy, from offstage, interrupt, presenting another modality of parent and child.
The young woman tells her mother that her boss, Jones, has fallen in love with her. She says, “I got to get married”(478). After, she says she isn’t pregnant to her mother, adding, “All women get married, don’t they?” (481).
Offstage voices again interrupt; first, there are the voices of a boy and girl, and then the voices of a man and woman, arguing. The mother nags at her daughter to accept the marriageproposal of Jones and accept the role of wife, generally. Her mother asks, “What would you become if I didn’t nag?” (475-477). She suggests that the young woman must marry, despite her feelings; love is irrelevant to marriage, in the mother’s view. However, the young woman is still romantic and has hopes of love. The mother refuses to listen to what the young woman says and continues to harp on the marriage opportunity. Finally, the young woman says, “I can’t marry him. I don’t love him” (520).Her mother responds “Love!–what does that amount to! Will it clothe you? Will it feed you? Will it pay the bills?” (521).
The young woman asks her mother to tell her about love. Offstage voices of a husband and wife break in. The wife tells the husband that she doesn’t want a silly kiss. The young woman asks her mother if one gets used to it, being touched by a man she doesn’t love, saying that her boss’s “hands are fat” (545).Helen describes the type of man she thought she’d marry and her wistfulness and feelings of being trapped merge into the humdrum existence she leads:
I can’t go on like this much longer–going to work–coming home–going to work–coming home–I can’t–Sometimes in the subway I think I’m going to die–sometimes even in the office if something don’t happen–I got to do something–I don’t know–it’s like I’m all tight inside (555-56).
The mother’s response is to call her crazy; in reply, the young woman says, “Ma, if you tell me that again I’ll kill you” (568-569).
Episode 3 Summary
The young woman and Mr. George Jones are already married and on their honeymoon. Aside from being married, little has really changed in the young woman’s life. Her husband nags exactly as her mother did and doesn’t listen to her at all. Further, Helen’s expectations are dashed when she can’t see the ocean from the hotel room, something Jones, her husband, had promised her: “I was counting on seeing it!” (620-621). Her husband repeatedly talks to her as if she were a child, saying, “Don’t you want to wash up,” “That’s the girlie,” and “You got to learn to relax, little girl”(633-636).
The husband tries to get the woman to sit on his lap, but she resists. He starts to tell her off-color jokes. She breaks in again and again, telling him she’s already heard the joke. He doesn’t listen. He tries to get her to take her clothes off. She wants to go out, “fresh air, walk, talk” (640).Jones’s response underlines how little he cares for anything but himself: “We can talk here–I’ll tell you all about myself” (665). She wants to undress alone in private, but he keeps nagging her and talking about himself: “I’m going to enjoy life from now on–I haven’t had such an easy time of it. I got where I am by hard work and self-denial–now I’m going to enjoy life–I’m going to make up for all I missed–aren’t you about ready?” (640-642).
When Helen comes out of the bathroom, she is wearing a plain white nightgown. The directions tell us that her eyes are “wide with animal terror” (698). We hear a girl crying: “I want my mother…Somebody” (700).The episode ends with the sounds of this crying.
Episodes 2-3 Analysis
Episodes 2 and 3 illustrate the course and structure of Helen’s life. Essentially invisible and unheard, she is forced into a series of untenable strictures. From her role as a child to her role as a wife, there is nothing she wants from what she is handed. For her, there is no escape, which is underscored by the fact that no one listens to her. The sound of her voice on unhearing ears creates a cloying and claustrophobic feeling in both episodes. This result brings the reader into her claustrophobia. The frequent interruptions from outside—offstage voices and dialogues—shrinks the spaces Helen inhabitsfurther and reduces the power of the young woman’s words. That both her mother and her husband have much to say and take the liberty to say whatever they want saps her power even more.
Treadwell’s frequent use of the em-dash, or long dash, is worth noting, as it provides a locomotional quality tothe dialogue. We see this in passages such as this one, from Episode 2:
I can’t go on like this much longer–going to work–coming home–going to work–coming home–I can’t –Sometimes in the subway I think I’m going to die–sometimes even in the office if something don’t happen–I got to do something–I don’t know–it’s like I’m all tight inside (555-56).
Here, the em-dash functions as machine, effectively providing a figurative rail for the young woman’s words. This visual aspect of the language on the page is reinforced by the woman’s mention of the subway, a mode of transportation that runs on rails. Again and again, the woman’s words are interrupted by the dash, so much so that the dashes themselves seem to provide the pace and meter to the woman’s words, as opposed to the woman herself having any control over the pace and meter herself. Not only will no one listen to the woman, but the very words that come from her mouth seem to be controlled by something else.
While Treadwell by no means seeks to elicit sympathy from us for the despicable character of Jones, it’s worth noting that his speech, too, runs on this same figurative rail. The subtext of this can be perceived as that even those in positions of power are also no more than a cog in the larger machine of society.
