Les Belles Soeurs

The protagonist of the play, Germaine is a working-class housewife who has won a sweepstakes for a million trading stamps. If the play is a tragicomedy, then Germaine is the character who suffers the tragic arc of falling from a high place due to a tragic flaw or fate. However, as the play is also part comedy, her social standing is not truly high to begin with, and the stamps she wins don’t elevate her status in the way she (or her friends and family) imagines they will. Germaine’s tragic flaw is her pride. She believes that she lives her life in a way that is above reproach, and she parades her winnings in front of her guests by talking nonstop about what she will buy for herself. Germaine doesn’t imagine that her friends and sisters might secretly despise her or that they would dare to steal from her. She is too concerned about appearances, and she thus rejects the one sister who shows her genuine kindness.