Essay Questions

What does the sound of riveting outside the hospital symbolize?

During the episode set inside the hospital after Helen has given birth, one of the play’s many open windows allows the sound of riveting taking place in the construction of the new hospital wing to be hear. This is apparently a rather complicated symbol as it has been interpreted in several different ways. Some scholarship suggests it symbolizes how birth has riveted Helen fully into the patriarchal system she so despises. A popular socio-economic reading of the rivets attributes its symbolic value to how the majority of people have no control over their environment and are at the mercy the powers-that-be. What both of those interpretations fail to take into account is how the precisely the sound of riveting is used to connect this episode to the next. The very last lines that Helen speaks from her hospital bed is a three-peat repetition of “I’ll not submit.” The final repetition is immediately followed by stage directions:

“The scene blacks out. The sound of riveting continues until it goes into the sound of an electric piano and the scene lights up for Episode Five.”

Episode Five features Helen stepping out on her husband for the night at a Prohibition speakeasy where she meets a man with whom she goes home with and has sex; a 180-degree change in character from the Helen that’s been presented so far. She really has changed and she really is determined not to submit to expectations anymore. She has rebuilt herself into something closer to what she wants to be. That the riveting of Episode Four blends into the electric piano of Episode Five is highly suggestive that it is intended to symbolize just one thing: Helen’s reconstruction of herself.

What elements of the play are characteristic of Expressionist theater?

Treadwell very much intended for the work to performed as an example of Expressionist drama. Expressionist theater does not intend to replicate reality on stage in order to create an emotional response in the audience, but instead purposely creates an environment in which emotional connections are obstructed in favor of presenting a glimpse into the psychological interior of characters while commenting upon how society controls and dominates everyday actions. Among the techniques utilized to accomplish this effect are the lack of proper names for characters entirely or just the lack of use of them in conversation. Distorted perspectives are a common element of Expressionism and though this very often means bizarre set designs defying normal perspective, in this play the distortion is more aural. All the scenes are set in places that look pretty much realistic, but within them are the intrusion of external sounds like the riveting, the stream-of-consciousness monologues of Helen, the repetition of words and phrases and the disjointed alienation between two characters which point to the inability to communicate.

The playwright became the only American journalist to be granted an interview with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa seven years before the premiere of Machinal. In what way does Villa’s shadow linger over the story?

“Below the Rio Grande” becomes a kind of magical mantra for Helen; a metaphor for the place she dreams of going to find the freedom she craves so much. Mexico as a metaphorical haven offering sanctuary from the patriarchal custodianship of her mind and body is engendered by the tale told by the stranger she meets in a speakeasy. It is a story—maybe true, maybe somewhat true, maybe just a fiction completely made up to tell susceptible women—of overcoming Mexican bandits who had abducted him by getting two of them drunk before smashing in their heads with an empty liquor bottle filled with stones. The point of the story for Helen is escaping the imprisonment and claiming his freedom. This is an idea which naturally appeals to Helen.

Later, shortly before kills her husband in the same way, she and George are reading sections of the paper separately and calling out interesting headlines to each other. George almost offhandedly mentions that there has “another revolution below the Rio Grande.” Helen’s interest immediately perks up as she peppers him with questions about whether anyone was hurt or taken prisoner. He shakes his head no which prompts Helen to ask “All free” which he answers using the same phrase. The news of a revolution thematically connects with Helen’s concept of Mexico being a place to find freedom. “Below the Rio Grande” becomes not just a metaphorical escape from prison, but a full-out revolution against society. And that is a connection back to Pancho Villa which cannot possibly be just coincidence.