Originally posted on Tumblr on February 13th, 2015, but I thought I'd repost it here so I can add pictures and stuff.
I have recently been involved in a production of The Pirates of Penzance. For the uninitiated, The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is an 1879 comic opera written by Gilbert and Sullivan. At first glance, the story appears to suffer from a bad case of Victorian misogyny; women being portrayed as either objects of pursuit or ridicule to the male characters. However, closer inspection reveals that the two most prominent female characters (Mabel and Ruth) are the most courageous and level-headed characters in the show, in contrast to the bumbling, and often cowardly, male cast. Oh, and it does pass the Bechdel Test, which counts for something. Sort of.
I'd like to focus first on Mabel, since she is arguably the strongest (and my personal favorite) character in the show. We see this best in the "Hold, monsters" sequence where she stands up to, and essentially threatens, the pirates who have ambushed her sisters. She's an innocent, Victorian, 17-year-old girl, with no experience in this kind of situation, or means of defending herself, but she's perfectly willing to put her life on the line for her sisters. All this after her suitor Frederic has told her and her sisters to hide for their own safety (note that hiding is the go-to tactic in survival situations for the male cast).
And it works! The pirates immediately back off once they are informed that Mabel's father "is a Major General". Now, I know what you're thinking: "So she's hiding behind her father? Lame!", but when we finally get to see her father, he proves to be a cowardly, incompetent old fool, making Mabel's strength all the more impressive. And really, it doesn't matter what she said. She's still a helpless Victorian lady standing up to a rough band of pirates. So shut up.
Later, when Frederic's sense of duty forces him to rejoin his pirate band, Mabel is the first to break the bad news to the constabulary, and doesn't hesitate to tell them off when they insult him. Mabel doesn't take crap from anybody, which is why she ranks as one pf my favorite fictional Victorian ladies, right up there with Irene Adler and Mina Harker.
And then there's Ruth, Frederic's nurse maid. Poor Ruth; a victim of a patriarchal system if ever there was one. While not old by modern sensibilities, she is 47, thus putting her past the marriageable age of the time. In a society where women exist to be married and impregnated by men, Ruth is treated as a worthless object of ridicule and scorn. In her desperation to be a respectable married woman, she turns to the only prominent man in her life: her charge Frederic, who she has raised from childhood. When Frederic naively asks her if she is beautiful, she tentatively answers in the affirmative, and Frederic tells her that "age shall be no obstacle to our union". All this changes, however, when Frederic stumbles upon "a bevy of beautiful maidens". Finding them them far more desirable then Ruth, he turns on her, insulting and shaming her for her age, and callously kicking her to the curb (Our hero, ladies and gentlemen!). At the end of the second act, Ruth returns to beg Frederic to take her back. He responds as before, humiliating her in front of the other pirates, who are quick to join in on the mockery. Ruth is essentially thrown off the stage, and the finale of act one proceeds without her. Damn. Crappy deal.
The wily Ruth get's the last laugh, however: in the second act, when Frederic is preparing to exterminate his former pirate companions (in case you were wondering, yes, this guy is an ass), she takes great pleasure in informing him of a "startling paradox": due to a technicality in his contract, Frederic is bound to the pirates until 1940! This news throws Frederic's life, particularly his love life, into chaos, and much zany confusion ensues. Ruth steps back from the action, to watch from a distance, and presumably cackle gleefully, as the men proceed to screw things up even further. At the last moment, when all seems lost for the pirates, it is the ingenuity of Ruth that saves the day. The pirates "are no member of the common throng" she informs the authorities, "they are all noblemen who have gone wrong." The pirates are quickly pardoned, Ruth effectively establishes that she is not to be screwed over, and everyone lives happily ever after. Is Ruth's last minute revelation about the pirate's social class actually true? or is it a "terrible story" like the one Major General Stanley uses to evade the pirates in Act 1? We may never know.
So, in conclusion, is The Pirates of Penzance a feminist work? Not really, at least probably not intentionally. But authorial intent is irrelevant, and Mabel and Ruth still kick ass. At any rate, it's not just a piece of saccharine Victorian nonsense. It's a fun, entertaining show, with some great characters, that deserves closer inspection and analysis than it is usually given.
Hail poetry!
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