Women today tend to speak assertively for their rights. However, the social structures in which we live sometimes still make it difficult for us to actualize the full range of our creative abilities. In literature as dated as fairy tales and Greek mythology, writers have used characters who exemplified the caged woman. In the fairy tales, Sleeping Beauty is “caged” behind a wall of briars and Snow White is trapped inside a glass coffin. Ironically, both princesses were caged by a madwoman who was once a caged bird herself.
The Greek story of Medea’s Revenge, tells of Medea, a woman who feels so rejected by her husband that she kills their children because their features and mannerisms are like those of their father. The forgotten godmother, the jealous stepmother, and Medea all represent caged birds gone mad. In Nancy Barr’s play, Mrs. Cage, Lillian Cage is a perfect example of a woman whose mobility has been reduced by mainly her marriage, her social standing and upbringing. Mrs. Cage was trapped in a stifling marriage where she was simply a status symbol to her husband.
She helped him project the type of image he needed as an attorney. Mr. Cage paid her little attention after Elizabeth was born and this caused Lillian’s slow but obvious progression from a caged woman to a madwoman. It may have begun with her ironing his shirts. One of Mrs. Cage’s favorite memories is of the times when Mr. Cage had difficult cases and needed her to bring new shirts to the courthouse. It seems her only real connection with him is in his shirts. She had obviously become obsessed even to the point where it was obvious to Elizabeth who tells her to take the shirts to the cleaners.
Lillian becomes very upset with this suggestion-a sign to the audience of her rising anxiety. Lillian is also bound by the conventions of her social standing. One of Mrs. Cage’s main concerns is a good appearance. She judges people by their cleanliness and manners for she feels this is what she’s judged by. In the screenplay, all of the appliances and walls in the house are white or light pastel colors. These colors tend to be hard to keep clean, however Mrs. Cage not only manages to keep them clean, but gleaming. When she cooks dinner, she prepares a full course meal.
When she leaves the house, simply to go to the grocery store, she puts on make-up, pantyhose, and even a slip. This proves that she is not only concerned with what people think about her inside of her home, but she is also concerned with how she presents herself outside of her home. Unfortunately, she does not have much else to be concerned with. Thus, her obsession. Mrs. Cage’s upbringing was the beginning of her road towards madness. In past generations, the caged bird was the prevailing pattern of feminine existence.
The good woman was a submissive wife who stayed at home, cleaned the house, and took care of her husband and children. This idea trapped many women and their daughters who had to accept this role and suppress their anger or rebel and suffer the consequences. She was caged by the projections of her parents and in turn expects Elizabeth to do the same. Lillian has obviously been raised by a mother who had the same projections as she does for Elizabeth. However, Lillian chose to accept the role of housewife while Elizabeth prefers the role of careerwoman.
In these types of situations, if the daughter’s goals and expectations are the opposite of the mother’s she will rebel and as seen in Mrs. Cage, the daughter of a stay-at-home mother may want a career. Mrs. Cage is upset by the different marital standards Elizabeth possesses. She feels marriage is for life while Elizabeth has a husband she’s thinking of divorcing and a new boyfriend. It is Mrs. Cage’s disdain for her daughter’s behavior that ultimately leads to her final act of madness. Phyllis Dean represents the type of woman Mrs. Cage may have always wanted to be but could not due to all of her “cages”.
She sees in her Elizabeth. When she is in the police station, she basically draws a character sketch of Phyllis Dean although she never knew her, based on what she’s observed in Elizabeth but cannot control-unconventional (the divorce), career-minded (she’s an attorney), rule-breaking (she has lots of parking tickets). However, at the grocery store, she is for a brief moment, given the power to control the situation-the gun. In one brief moment, she is released from her cage. As human beings we live in the paradox of our need for freedom and independence and our desire for security and safety.
We must learn not to be trapped in cages of society, convention, and tradition. Mrs. Cage’s dilemma is that she is trapped in a cycle of being trapped. She moves from the cage of her parents, to the cage of her marriage and social standing, to the ultimate cage of prison. At work we put on our “game faces”. We wear different clothes for different occasions. Our speech and tone change depending on the audience. If we reduced ourselves to one role or identity rather than trying to be an entire, whole, healthy life we could become our own jailers.
