Prompt 1: Overtones Response!

By the third time I read Alice Gerstenberg’s play, Overtones, I found that the rules of its artistic world had become somewhat comprehensible. The world was developed so that the psyche of it's characters is split into two, physical beings. Harriet and Margaret, the controlling personalities, are visible to everyone in the world, including their inner desires and the desires of other egos. Each primitive personality, however, are never seen by the civilized personas and can only be heard by their own egos and other inner desires. This rule is described in the stage directions and dialogue of the play and is shown to the audience through the fact that Harriet and Margaret never look at Maggie and Hetty while the later duo speak directly to their egos. The audience can see which inner nature is connected to which ego by the costumes they wear. Each primitive personality wears a darker version of their complement’s attire, but they wear the same color. When the ego is trying to hide their shadowy inner nature, the unsophisticated personalities cover their faces with veils close to the light colored ensemble. The stage directions describe that, “Chiffon is used to give a sheer effect, suggesting a possibility of primitive and cultured selves merging into one woman.” This makes the true intentions of the controlling personality shielded from both parts of the other character’s psyche.

There is a rule to this world that is not directly stated like the others, but it can be inferred though the actions and stage directions of the play. This rule describes how the two unrefined personalities can see and communicate with each other. This phenomenon does not occur all the time, but they reveal themselves under certain circumstances. When Maggie and Margaret are about to arrive, the stage directions state that, “As HETTY moves in the following scene the chiffon falls away revealing now and then the gown of deeper dye underneath.” This made me wonder if Hetty and Maggie could reveal themselves to each other by intentionally or unintentionally disturbing their veils. Of course, Margaret and Harriet could never see them; otherwise Harriet would look at Hetty at the beginning of the play. I then realized that every time Hetty and Maggie communicate, they are either moving or purposely addressing the other directly.