Intimate Apparel is a play written by Lynn Nottage that takes place in 1905. The play follows Esther, a 35-year-old African American seamstress that makes her living in Manhattan. Esther has worked hard her entire life, from picking berries to sewing. Esther is very relatable to woman: she longs for love, she aspires to open a beauty salon, she is self-conscious and a caring humble woman. Many aspects of Nottage’s play resonate with the experiences and feelings of many women, past and present. This is because the characters in the play feel authentic, dealing with real issues many women face. Esther seeks love, but doesn’t feel she is pretty or that anyone will even be interested in her. Here, Esther’s self-doubt in her and in her looks is a very real aspect of Nottage’s imagined world. When Esther gets a letter from George, a panama man who is courting her, she must ask others to read and write letters back as she does not know how to. In 1905 this seems reasonable that Esther wouldn’t have learned to read or write in her economic status. Another way in which Nottage’s play felt authentic was the romantic tension between her and Mr. Marks, a Jewish man who sells her fabrics. Esther opens up to Mrs. Van Buren, saying, “I fear my love belongs someplace else” but disregards her feelings as they come from two different worlds, and he has a fiancé he has not yet met. Nottage’s created world yet again connects with our real world, as interracial relationships would have been greatly looked down upon for someone in Ether’s position in the early 1900’s. A woman would be expected to stay within her race or class and not doing so would result in a social stigma.
Another interesting character that has her own very real issues is Mrs. Van Buren. Esther and Mrs. Van Buren are also from two different worlds, but get along great as friends. Mrs. Van Buren confides in Esther about the pressuring questions she gets from her peers about having a child, and how important having a child is to an important man like her husband. She admits to Esther that she is unsure if she is able to bear any children although people speculate that vanity is the reason. In what I find to be crucial part of the play, Mrs. Van Buren says “By the way, I bled this morning, and when I delivered the news to Harry, he spat at me. This civilized creature of society. We, us women, we all bleed, Esther. And yet I actually felt guilt, as though a young girl again apologizing for becoming a woman”. This part struck me a lot, as a woman trying to imagine the situation in which the character was place; is heart wrenching. Another reason being that many women really do experience this in their life.
The play itself is different than the format of other readings, using a dialogue between characters and descriptive information about the background setting. The advantage in this was being able visually conceptualize the play. For example, George’s infidelity with Mayme was shown rather than spoken in dialogue. The format of the play is able to draw on these scenes that are wordless between characters but speak volumes in the storyline.
Question: I didn’t exactly know what to take on the scene between Esther and Mrs. Van Buren, when Mrs. Van Buren kisses Esther and then says its because she wanted to show her “what it’s like to be treated lovingly”? Then later in the scene Mrs. Van Buren calls Esther a coward. I didn’t understand the motive behind Mrs. Van Buren’s actions in this scene. (Act 2, Scene 3)
