Modern Relationships

In many of her plays, Ginzburg explores the experiences of women in modern relationships and modern marriage. In The Advertisement, Teresa describes the course of her relationship with Lorenzo, which develops in a very nontraditional way that is characteristic of the 1960s when Italian culture was becoming increasingly modernized and secularized. Soon after they meet, Teresa and Lorenzo go to bed together, and they stay in bed for three days straight. When they meet again six months later, they move in together, although they are not married.

Teresa and Lorenzo eventually marry but only because they think Teresa is pregnant. After they are married, however, it turns out that she is not pregnant. Although it is not mentioned directly, there is some implication that Teresa may have lied to Lorenzo about being pregnant to get him to marry her. However, The Advertisement was written three years before...