Female Characters: The Broken Jug vs The Beaver Coat

Though both of these works have important female characters, the way they are portrayed are different, and I find that really, really interesting.

In The Broken Jug, there were 3 women in the entire play: a young woman with a secret, an outspoken mother, and a woman who believed that the Devil was to blame for the issue at hand. Though their roles were important, they were not really shown as “strong” females. Shoot, I wouldn’t really count them as leads. Sure, a lot of the mystery of the play surrounded Eve, but the main character was clearly Adam. And sure, Eve’s mother was an outspoken character, but outspoken does not necessarily equate “strong.” And, even though she provided the last piece of information that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Adam was guilty, the woman at the end was still a little coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs for believing that the answer to the mystery was that the Devil himself did it.

Moving on to this week’s play, The Beaver Coat, we are given a much stronger female lead. Maybe not all of the female characters are as progressive as Mrs. Wolfe is written, but there’s no denying that she is one of the strongest characters either of these plays, female or otherwise. Sure, the character’s actions are a bit over the top at points, and it’s not necessarily good that such a strong female lead is being portrayed as manipulative and conniving as Mrs. Wolfe is, but there is still a huge jump from the three women in The Broken Jar to a character like Mrs. Wolfe. This character is able to think on her toes, hold her own in any situation, and knows the inter-workings of her family and the town well enough to get what she wants done.

Sure, the other female characters in The Beaver Coat are nowhere near as strong as Mrs. Wolfe (though her younger daughter seems to be following in her footsteps), but there is still a huge gap from one of these plays to the other that was just too glaring to not acknowledge.