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A review by divsies
Angel Street by Patrick Hamilton
5.0
Strange as it is, there's something very powerful in all the women-being-driven-crazy narratives that I've read so far. It's tiring to see women being driven insane by patriarchal societal and marital norms, because characters can be independent and powerful without being insane, and it's also sad to see almost nothing has changed since the publication of these works, but it's a very intriguing genre in the first place. Ophelia in Hamlet, Nora in A Doll's House, "Bertha" in A Wide Sargasso Sea, the Woman in The Yellow Wallpaper, Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire -- all of these women have been pushed to their absolute wits' end. Redemption is always some wild act of intense catharsis, or a harrowing conclusion in the name of last-minute, desperate agency (I'm looking at you, Ophelia).
The fact that this is a genre to begin with is striking-- has the frustration of women under oppressive systems become tokenized? Is this a call for better treatment, or is it the normalization of women being driven insane through conveniently portraying these narratives as "art"? Do these works of art help politicize female voices after centuries of being driven insane, or does it minimize them and use them as a plot device? I have many thoughts about this genre, but I think it's interesting at a base level to see similarities in how "insane" women are treated throughout literature.
That being said, this is a fantastic play! Very engaging, and I still can't get over the fact that it's the origin for the term "Gaslighting." Surreal!
The fact that this is a genre to begin with is striking-- has the frustration of women under oppressive systems become tokenized? Is this a call for better treatment, or is it the normalization of women being driven insane through conveniently portraying these narratives as "art"? Do these works of art help politicize female voices after centuries of being driven insane, or does it minimize them and use them as a plot device? I have many thoughts about this genre, but I think it's interesting at a base level to see similarities in how "insane" women are treated throughout literature.
That being said, this is a fantastic play! Very engaging, and I still can't get over the fact that it's the origin for the term "Gaslighting." Surreal!