SOURCE: Georgoudaki, Ekaterini. “Women in Lillian Hellman's Plays, 1930-1950.” In Women and War: The Changing Status of American Women from the 1930s to the 1950s, edited by Maria Diedrich, pp. 69-86. New York: Berg, 1990.

In the following essay, Georgoudaki discusses Hellman's portrayal of women in her major plays during the 1930s through 1950s.

During the period from 1930 to 1950 Lillian Hellman wrote six original plays in the realistic mode. Three of these 1930s plays and one drama of the 1940s are set in and reflect the values of small American towns: The Children's Hour (1934) in Lancet, Massachusetts; Days to Come (1936) in Callom, Ohio; The Little Foxes (1939) and Another Part of the Forest (1946) in Bowden, Alabama. Her two wartime plays, Watch on the Rhine (1941) and The Searching Wind (1944), are broader in scope, however, and utilize other types of characters and settings and address different issues. All plays take place during...