Suppressed Desires
by Susan Glaspell
Scene II
SCENE II: Two weeks later. The stage is as in Scene I, except that the breakfast table has been removed. During the first few minutes the dusk of a winter afternoon deepens. Out of the darkness spring rows of double street-lights almost meeting in the distance. HENRIETTA is at the psychoanalytical end of STEVE’S work-table, surrounded by open books and periodicals, writing. STEVE enters briskly.
Steve
What are you doing, my dear?
Henrietta
My paper for the Liberal Club.
Steve
Your paper on—?
Henrietta
On a subject which does not have your sympathy.
Steve
Oh, I’m not sure I’m wholly out of sympathy with psychoanalysis, Henrietta. You worked it so hard. I couldn’t even take a bath without it’s meaning something.
Henrietta
[Loftily.] I talked it because I knew you needed it.
Steve
You haven’t said much about it these last two weeks. Uh—your faith in it hasn’t weakened any?
Henrietta
Weakened? It’s grown stronger with each new thing I’ve come to know. And Mabel. She is with Dr. Russell now. Dr. Russell is wonderful! From what Mabel tells me I believe his analysis is going to prove that I was right. Today I discovered a remarkable confirmation of my theory in the hen-dream.
Steve
What is your theory?
Henrietta
Well, you know about Lyman Eggleston. I’ve wondered about him. I’ve never seen him, but I know he’s less bourgeois than Mabel’s other friends—more intellectual—and [Significantly] she doesn’t see much of him because Bob doesn’t like him.
Steve
But what’s the confirmation?
Henrietta
Today I noticed the first syllable of his name.
Steve
Ly?
Henrietta
No—egg.
Steve
Egg?
Henrietta
[Patiently.] Mabel dreamed she was a hen. [STEVE laughs.] You wouldn’t laugh if you knew how important names are in interpreting dreams. Freud is full of just such cases in which a whole hidden complex is revealed by a single significant syllable—like this egg.
Steve
Doesn’t the traditional relation of hen and egg suggest rather a maternal feeling?
Henrietta
There is something maternal in Mabel’s love, of course, but that’s only one element.
Steve
Well, suppose Mabel hasn’t a suppressed desire to be this gentleman’s mother, but his beloved. What’s to be done about it? What about Bob? Don’t you think it’s going to be a little rough on him?
Henrietta
That can’t be helped. Bob, like everyone else, must face the facts of life. If Dr. Russell should arrive independently at this same interpretation I shall not hesitate to advise Mabel to leave her present husband.
Steve
Um—hum! [The lights go up on Fifth Avenue. STEVE goes to the window and looks out.] How long is it we’ve lived here, Henrietta?
Henrietta
Why, this is the third year, Steve.
Steve
I—we—one would miss this view if one went away, wouldn’t one?
Henrietta
How strangely you speak! Oh, Stephen, I wish you’d go to Dr. Russell. Don’t think my fears have abated because I’ve been able to restrain myself. I had to on account of Mabel. But now, dear—won’t you go?
Steve
I—[He breaks off, turns on the light, then comes and sits beside HENRIETTA.] How long have we been married, Henrietta?
Henrietta
Stephen, I don’t understand you! You must go to Dr. Russell.
Steve
I have gone.
Henrietta
You—what?
Steve
[Jauntily.] Yes, Henrietta, I’ve been psyched.
Henrietta
You went to Dr. Russell?
Steve
The same.
Henrietta
And what did he say?
Steve
He said—I—I was a little surprised by what he said, Henrietta.
Henrietta
[Breathlessly.] Of course—one can so seldom anticipate. But tell me—your dream, Stephen? It means—?
Steve
It means—I was considerably surprised by what it means.
Henrietta
Don’t be so exasperating!
Steve
It means—you really want to know, Henrietta?
Henrietta
Stephen, you’ll drive me mad!
Steve
He said—of course he may be wrong in what he said.
Henrietta
He isn’t wrong. Tell me!
Steve
He said my dream of the walls receding and leaving me alone in a forest indicates a suppressed desire—
Henrietta
Yes—yes!
Steve
To be freed from—
Henrietta
Yes—freed from—?
Steve
Marriage.
Henrietta
[Crumples. Stares.] Marriage!
Steve
He—he may be mistaken, you know.
Henrietta
May be mistaken?
Steve
I—well, of course, I hadn’t taken any stock in it myself. It was only your great confidence—
Henrietta
Stephen, are you telling me that Dr. Russell—Dr. A. E. Russell—told you this? [STEVE nods.] Told you you have a suppressed desire to separate from me?
Steve
That’s what he said.
Henrietta
Did he know who you were?
Steve
Yes.
Henrietta
That you were married to me?
Steve
Yes, he knew that.
Henrietta
And he told you to leave me?
Steve
It seems he must be wrong, Henrietta.
Henrietta
[Rising.] And I’ve sent him more patients—! [Catches herself and resumes coldly.] What reason did he give for this analysis?
Steve
He says the confining walls are a symbol of my feeling about marriage and that their fading away is a wish-fulfillment.
Henrietta
[Gulping.] Well, is it? Do you want our marriage to end?
Steve
It was a great surprise to me that I did. You see I hadn’t known what was in my unconscious mind.
Henrietta
[Flaming.] What did you tell Dr. Russell about me to make him think you weren’t happy?
Steve
I never told him a thing, Henrietta. He got it all from his confounded clever inferences. I—I tried to refute them, but he said that was only part of my self-protective lying.
Henrietta
And that’s why you were so—happy—when you came in just now!
Steve
Why, Henrietta, how can you say such a thing? I was sad. Didn’t I speak sadly of—of the view? Didn’t I ask how long we had been married?
Henrietta
[Rising.] Stephen Brewster, have you no sense of the seriousness of this? Dr. Russell doesn’t know what our marriage has been. You do. You should have laughed him down! Confined—in life with me? Did you tell him that I believe in freedom?
Steve
I very emphatically told him that his results were a great surprise to me.
Henrietta
But you accepted them.
Steve
Oh, not at all. I merely couldn’t refute his arguments. I’m not a psychologist. I came home to talk it over with you. You being a disciple of psychoanalysis—
Henrietta
If you are going, I wish you would go tonight!
Steve
Oh, my dear! I—surely I couldn’t do that! Think of my feelings. And my laundry hasn’t come home.
Henrietta
I ask you to go tonight. Some women would falter at this, Steve, but I am not such a woman. I leave you free. I do not repudiate psychoanalysis; I say again that it has done great things. It has also made mistakes, of course. But since you accept this analysis—[She sits down and pretends to begin work.] I have to finish this paper. I wish you would leave me.
Steve
[Scratches his head, goes to the inner door.] I’m sorry, Henrietta, about my unconscious mind.
[Alone, HENRIETTA’S face betrays her outraged state of mind—disconcerted, resentful, trying to pull herself together. She attains an air of bravely bearing an outrageous thing.—The outer door opens and MABEL enters in great excitement.
Mabel
[Breathless.] Henrietta, I’m so glad you’re here. And alone? [Looks toward the inner door.] Are you alone, Henrietta?
Henrietta
[With reproving dignity.] Very much so.
Mabel
[Rushing to her.] Henrietta, he’s found it!
Henrietta
[Aloof.] Who has found what?
Mabel
Who has found what? Dr. Russell has found my suppressed desire!
Henrietta
That is interesting.
Mabel
He finished with me today—he got hold of my complex—in the most amazing way! But, oh, Henrietta—it is so terrible!
Henrietta
Do calm yourself, Mabel. Surely there’s no occasion for all this agitation.
Mabel
But there is! And when you think of the lives that are affected—the readjustments that must be made in order to bring the suppressed hell out of me and save me from the insane asylum—!
Henrietta
The insane asylum!
Mabel
You said that’s where these complexes brought people!
Henrietta
What did the doctor tell you, Mabel?
Mabel
Oh, I don’t know how I can tell you—it is so awful—so unbelievable.
Henrietta
I rather have my hand in at hearing the unbelievable.
Mabel
Henrietta, who would ever have thought it? How can it be true? But the doctor is perfectly certain that I have a suppressed desire for—
[Looks at HENRIETTA, is unable to continue.
Henrietta
Oh, go on, Mabel. I’m not unprepared for what you have to say.
Mabel
Not unprepared? You mean you have suspected it?
Henrietta
From the first. It’s been my theory all along.
Mabel
But, Henrietta, I didn’t know myself that I had this secret desire for Stephen.
Henrietta
[Jumps up.] Stephen!
Mabel
My brother-in-law! My own sister’s husband!
Henrietta
You have a suppressed desire for Stephen!
Mabel
Oh, Henrietta, aren’t these unconscious selves terrible? They seem so unlike us!
Henrietta
What insane thing are you driving at?
Mabel
[Blubbering.] Henrietta, don’t you use that word to me. I don’t want to go to the insane asylum.
Henrietta
What did Dr. Russell say?
Mabel
Well, you see—oh, it’s the strangest thing! But you know the voice in my dream that called “Step, Hen!” Dr. Russell found out today that when I was a little girl I had a story-book in words of one syllable and I read the name Stephen wrong. I used to read it S-t-e-p, step, h-e-n, hen. [Dramatically.] Step Hen is Stephen. [Enter STEPHEN, his head bent over a time-table.] Stephen is Step Hen!
Steve
I? Step Hen?
Mabel
[Triumphantly.] S-t-e-p, step, H-e-n, hen, Stephen!
Henrietta
[Exploding.] Well, what if Stephen is Step Hen? [Scornfully.] Step Hen! Step Hen! For that ridiculous coincidence—
Mabel
Coincidence! But it’s childish to look at the mere elements of a dream. You have to look into it—you have to see what it means!
Henrietta
On account of that trivial, meaningless play on syllables—on that flimsy basis—you are ready—[Wails.] O-h!
Steve
What on earth’s the matter? What has happened? Suppose I am Step Hen? What about it? What does it mean?
Mabel
[Crying.] It means—that I—have a suppressed desire for you!
Steve
For me! The deuce you have! [Feebly.] What—er—makes you think so?
Mabel
Dr. Russell has worked it out scientifically.
Henrietta
Yes. Through the amazing discovery that Step Hen equals Stephen!
Mabel
[Tearfully.] Oh, that isn’t all—that isn’t near all. Henrietta won’t give me a chance to tell it. She’d rather I’d go to the insane asylum than be unconventional.
Henrietta
We’ll all go there if you can’t control yourself. We are still waiting for some rational report.
Mabel
[Drying her eyes.] Oh, there’s such a lot about names. [With some pride.] I don’t see how I ever did it. It all works in together. I dreamed I was a hen because that’s the first syllable of Hen-rietta’s name, and when I dreamed I was a hen, I was putting myself in Henrietta’s place.
Henrietta
With Stephen?
Mabel
With Stephen.
Henrietta
[Outraged.] Oh! [Turns in rage upon STEPHEN, who is fanning himself with the time-table.] What are you doing with that time-table?
Steve
Why—I thought—you were so keen to have me go tonight—I thought I’d just take a run up to Canada, and join Billy—a little shooting—but—
Mabel
But there’s more about the names.
Henrietta
Mabel, have you thought of Bob—dear old Bob—your good, kind husband?
Mabel
Oh, Henrietta, “my good, kind husband!”
Henrietta
Think of him, Mabel, out there alone in Chicago, working his head off, fixing people’s teeth—for you!
Mabel
Yes, but think of the living Libido—in conflict with petrified moral codes! And think of the perfectly wonderful way the names all prove it. Dr. Russell said he’s never seen anything more convincing. Just look at Stephen’s last name—Brewster. I dream I’m a hen, and the name Brewster—you have to say its first letter by itself—and then the hen, that’s me, she says to him: “Stephen, Be Rooster!”
[HENRIETTA and STEPHEN collapse into the nearest chairs.
Mabel
I think it’s perfectly wonderful! Why, if it wasn’t for psychoanalysis you’d never find out how wonderful your own mind is!
Steve
[Begins to chuckle.] Be Rooster! Stephen, Be Rooster!
Henrietta
You think it’s funny, do you?
Steve
Well, what’s to be done about it? Does Mabel have to go away with me?
Henrietta
Do you want Mabel to go away with you?
Steve
Well, but Mabel herself—her complex—her suppressed desire—!
Henrietta
[Going to her.] Mabel, are you going to insist on going away with Stephen?
Mabel
I’d rather go with Stephen than go to the insane asylum!
Henrietta
For heaven’s sake, Mabel, drop that insane asylum! If you did have a suppressed desire for Stephen hidden away in you—God knows it isn’t hidden now. Dr. Russell has brought it into your consciousness—with a vengeance. That’s all that’s necessary to break up a complex. Psychoanalysis doesn’t say you have to gratify every suppressed desire.
Steve
[Softly.] Unless it’s for Lyman Eggleston.
Henrietta
[Turning on him.] Well, if it comes to that, Stephen Brewster, I’d like to know why that interpretation of mine isn’t as good as this one? Step, Hen!
Steve
But Be Rooster! [He pauses, chuckling to himself.] Step-Hen B-rooster. And Henrietta. Pshaw, my dear, Doc Russell’s got you beat a mile! [He turns away and chuckles.] Be rooster!
Mabel
What has Lyman Eggleston got to do with it?
Steve
According to Henrietta, you, the hen, have a suppressed desire for Eggleston, the egg.
Mabel
Henrietta, I think that’s indecent of you! He is bald as an egg and little and fat—the idea of you thinking such a thing of me!
Henrietta
Well, Bob isn’t little and bald and fat! Why don’t you stick to your own husband? [To STEPHEN.] What if Dr. Russell’s interpretation has got mine “beat a mile”? [Resentful look at him.] It would only mean that Mabel doesn’t want Eggleston and does want you. Does that mean she has to have you?
Mabel
But you said Mabel Snow—
Henrietta
Mary Snow! You’re not as much like her as you think—substituting your name for hers! The cases are entirely different. Oh, I wouldn’t have believed this of you, Mabel. [Beginning to cry.] I brought you here for a pleasant visit—thought you needed brightening up—wanted to be nice to you—and now you—my husband—you insist—
[In fumbling her way to her chair she brushes to the floor some sheets from the psychoanalytical table.
Steve
[With solicitude.] Careful, dear. Your paper on psychoanalysis!
[Gathers up sheets and offers them to her.
Henrietta
I don’t want my paper on psychoanalysis! I’m sick of psychoanalysis!
Steve
[Eagerly.] Do you mean that, Henrietta?
Henrietta
Why shouldn’t I mean it? Look at all I’ve done for psychoanalysis—and—[Raising a tear-stained face] what has psychoanalysis done for me?
Steve
Do you mean, Henrietta, that you’re going to stop talking psychoanalysis?
Henrietta
Why shouldn’t I stop talking it? Haven’t I seen what it does to people? Mabel has gone crazy about psychoanalysis!
[At the word “crazy” with a moan MABEL sinks to chair and buries her face in her hands.
Steve
[Solemnly.] Do you swear never to wake me up in the night to find out what I’m dreaming?
Henrietta
Dream what you please—I don’t care what you’re dreaming.
Steve
Will you clear off my work-table so the Journal of Morbid Psychology doesn’t stare me in the face when I’m trying to plan a house?
Henrietta
[Pushing a stack of periodicals off the table.] I’ll burn the Journal of Morbid Psychology!
Steve
My dear Henrietta, if you’re going to separate from psychoanalysis, there’s no reason why I should separate from you.
[They embrace ardently. MABEL lifts her head and looks at them woefully.
Mabel
[Jumping up and going toward them.] But what about me? What am I to do with my suppressed desire?
Steve
[With one arm still around HENRIETTA, gives MABEL a brotherly hug.] Mabel, you just keep right on suppressing it!
(CURTAIN)