The Modern Woman

In The Women, Mary Haines goes from being an idealistic woman, maintaining traditional beliefs about marriage, to being a modern woman with a realistic perspective on the harsh realities of marriage. Luce makes reference to the "Modern Woman" in The Women to emphasize the differences between the traditional, idealistic view Mary holds at the beginning of the play and a more modern, cynical understanding of marriage as a game of power, money, and competition. In the beginning of The Women, Mary is idealistic about her marriage, believing that her husband would never be unfaithful to her because he loves her and is happily married. Over the course of the play, she becomes disillusioned with marriage and eventually learns to accept that only by facing the harsh realities of the institution of marriage can she effectively fight to regain her husband. By the end of the play...