Intimate apparel summary PDF

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Intimate apparel summary. Essay on the play....

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Theatre 2380 September 2017 Intimate Apparel Summary Lynn Nottage’s play Intimate Apparel is about an illiterate African American woman who makes, like the title itself intimate apparel for women. It takes place in Lower Manhattan, New York in 1905. Nottage’s play gives many circumstances that help one understand the play. She conveys a story of an African American woman who’s worked since her early teens and has yet to be married. The woman has many relationships one with a woman, not of color who speaks to her like a friend, a Jewish man who sells her fabric, a prostitute, the woman who gave her a home and a man working on the Panama Canal. The play starts off by showing Esther, the main character as pessimistic, jealous and having low self-esteem. She doesn’t care for Mr.Charles' job promotion because as she says he’s still fetching luggage. She shows her sarcasm by saying “and is high-class luggage easier to carry?” (Scene 1, Act 1). From this the viewer can tell that Esther feels being a bellhop is not a good job, she would want something more. Ms. Dickinson an optimistic woman owns the boarding house in which Esther lives in and works from. She is a widow as her husband died but he left her at the boarding house. When Ms. Dickinson speaks of the party downstairs and the men there we learn why Esther is upset. Esther has low self-esteem, this is shown when she says “if I had your good looks I'd raise a bit of dust myself. Ain't nobody down there interested in me” (Scene 1 Act 1). She has turned another year older and has yet to meet a man and be married. Ms.Dickinson has known Esther since her late teens and tells her not to give up hope.

Right on time, Esther receives a letter from a man named George. He speaks on the horrors he sees every day as many men die every day due to disease and exhaustion. He writes Esther so he will have someone to speak to and they become quite fond of each other. Poor Esther being illiterate cannot write back herself or read the letters so she asks Ms.Van Buren, a client, for help. Ms.Van Buren is not a woman of color, this is known when Ms. Van Buren “tenses slightly at the sensation of being touched” (Act 1 Scene 2). Ms.Vanburen cannot get her husband's attention and worries she is not fertile. She hates speaking to guests at social gatherings as they always ask when she’ll have a child. As the play goes on Ms.Van Buren writes for Esther and really starts to enjoy it. They become good friends although being in separate social classes. Ms.Van Buren thinks it’d be scandalous and a good laugh if her friends learned that she wrote for Esther and especially writing to an African American man. Another character who comes into play is Mr. Marks. He is a Jewish man who sells fabric to Esther. They both love their work, Mr.Marks likes Esther's taste and always has her touch new fabric. When Esther and Mr. Marks touch and he pulls back one sees how proud Esther is to be African American. She tells Mr.Marks “the color won't rub off on you” (Act 1, Scene 2). It was not racism that made Mr. Marks pull away it was his religious belief. Later in the play knowing that he cannot touch a woman who is not his wife or relative he and Esther sit down for tea and have a moment. Clearly, there is chemistry between them but winter comes and as well as another letter from George. Esther visits her friend Mayme, a prostitute who drinks a lot. She doesn’t approve of her job. Mayme plays piano and we see her rebellious side when she says “my daddy gave me twelve lashes with a switch for playing this piece in our parlor” (Act 1 Scene 3). By Esther

mentioning Mr. Marks, Mayme thinks Esther likes him. Esther asks her to write for her as George wants to know what Esther looks like. Mayme says it does not look that matter it’s body jokingly and here one learns that Esther is a virgin. Esther has a dream of owning a beauty salon one day and she has been saving for it. She and Mayme joke around about it but Mayme doesn't think Esther can actually own a salon one day. This lets one know that women of color do not own businesses yet. Mayme writes for Esther, a sensual letter and sends it to George. His reply is that picturing her keeps him under control. As the play goes on Ms.Dickinson rips up the next letter from George. She worries for Esther and thinks it’s silly. She tells Esther she’s a stubborn country girl showing her hostility. George opens a letter from Esther and different fabric comes out. Esther meets with Mr.Marks to buy fabric and asks to sow the button on his shirt but he refuses. She asks him why he is complying to marry someone he doesn’t know. He says it’s traditional and follows it even though his family is very far away. He finally gets the button replaced towards the end of the play. Esther visits Ms. Van Buren again, she is upset and feels bad for getting her period and not being pregnant. She wishes she were bohemian and didn’t need a man or to be married “not bound by convention” (Act 1 Scene 4). Ms.Van Buren says it’s easy to be with Esther, she enjoys their time together and their letter writing. George writes that he loves Esther and asks her to marry him, she agrees. Esther asks Mayme to attend the ceremony, she’s not on good terms with God so she doesn’t want to go. She never meets George until he starts paying her visits and they have an affair. Marks is surprised that Esther is getting married and compliments her smile

making things awkward. He gives her beautiful fabric for her wedding as a gift and George appears. When they are married and Esther feels as though nothing has changed and three months later George has no job and is asking her for money. He does not like the way she looks and says she’d look better with makeup. George wants to use her salon money for horses. Marks and Esther become very close and for the sake of her relationship, she tells him she can't go there anymore. She confesses to Ms. Van Buren that she does not love George or feel loved. Ms. Van Buren kisses Esther which starts a discussion about race. Esther says “if we was really friends you'd have a first name and I'd have a last” ( Act 2 Scene 3) meaning that they don’t know much about each other they just exist as client and designer. Ths brings back the race issue and how in these times racism was very alive. Faithful as she was George wasn’t. Mayme wants a gown made my Esther Mayme has met someone but he has a wife. Speaking of George she says he complains about Esther a lot. He gave Mayme the jacket Esther made for him out of Japanese silk. Esther gives George her money and tells him that she didn’t write the letters. He didn’t write his letter. With the truth out Esther goes to Mayme and as a good friend she tells her the truth. She keeps Mayme from a bad man and returns to live and work in Ms. Dickinson’s boarding house. Esther gives Mr.Marks the jacket she made for George which he gave to Mayme. She fixes it on him and he doesn’t move knowing he’s not allowed to touch or be touched by her. Esther goes back to her old life but this time carrying a child. The play is Esther's journey of falling in love with someone she couldn't be with, marrying a man who didn't love her and saving her friend who was having an affair with her

husband. All of this with her dream of owning a salon as an African American woman in a time where racism was still alive. With an unfair life, Esther shows her strength and bravery....