Machinal

The Preface, which opens the first episode, is broken into four parts: “The Plot,”“The Plan,”“The Hope,” and “Scenically.” As Treadwell explains, the plot is simply the story of a woman who murders her husband. The Plan defines Treadwell’s idea for the play. She wants to describe the “different phases of [Helen’s] life,” (165), none of which afford Helenany peace. The woman herself contrasts the harsh, mechanical reality of her life. Treadwell lays out how the development of the story, in nine episodes, echoes this mechanized reality. She finds freedom and peace only in breaching the marriage contract and breaking the laws that bind her. Treadwell explains the unusual use of language as an attempt to catch the rhythm of common city speech and the ambient sounds as “inherently emotional” (167).

The machines necessary to a business office are the first things we see and hear: the clacking of the adding machine, the shuffling of papers, the keys of typewriters, telephone bells. The characters are revealed next, working at their machines and talking about their jobs. For example, the adding-machine man says random numbers, snippets of telephone-operator talk waft across the stage, and the filing clerk yells out, “What’s the matter with Q?” (271).