The Children's Hour

I think the biggest departure of the well made play would be the scene when Martha kills herself.  That was totally unexpected.  In the obligatory scene in this case, you would expect Karen and/or Martha to admit to their feelings for each other.  Martha does admit that she had the kind of feelings she had been accused of.  That was expected, however I didn't expect she would kill herself over it.  It is a good dramaturgical because when Mrs. Tilford comes to confess and apologize to them about Mary’s lying, the news of Martha’s death further makes Mrs. Tilford feels guilty.  Now she wants to help Karen and says, “Take whatever I can give you. Take it for yourself and use it for yourself.”   She is trying to justify her mistake in believing Mary.

As far as the other question goes as to whether it should be performed today or not, I would say yes.  I don’t think it has to do with the subject of lesbianism as much as a mis-communication between the characters.   Mary was a very spoiled and manipulating. She is the one that causes all the problems.  It doesn’t matter if Martha and Karen are in a relationship or not.  The fact that a spoiled child could get so much control over people is a good topic for today’s society.   Most of the play is about how Mary uses people and their emotions.  For example, she arrives late to class and brings flowers to the teacher to cover up her unwillingness to go to class.  She “faints” to get attention, talks Rosalie into lying to hide the secret about the bracelet.   As far as the suicide goes, I think it was more of Mary’s manipulation that could cause Martha to commit suicide.   Mary’s accusations put the idea of the women kissing into Martha’s head.  Yes, maybe that brought out the feelings that Martha had, but Martha may have never even thought much about that until Mary’s accusation.