Reflection on Overtones

The inner selves, Hetty and Maggie, can always hear each other. While Margaret and Harriet are conversing, Maggie and Hetty have their own dialogue going on, a dialogue that the reader could argue is the “true” version of what these two women are actually thinking. With the very first interaction between Margaret and Harriet, Maggie and Hetty directly address each other. Hetty says, “That’s a lie.” and then Maggie says, “I’d bite you if I dared.” This is the first of many instances when these two speak directly to each other. In the world of Overtones, the reader sees that Margaret and Harriet can address each other and hear their own alter egos, but they cannot hear the other woman’s “dark” side. The reader knows this, because Gerstenberg states it directly in the stage directions. The director and actors would have to block the show so these relationships transferred from stage to the audience perspective. I think these relationships could definitely be less clear from an audience perspective because you’d have to pick it up on your own, as opposed to having it explicitly stated to you. There is a moment when it looks like Hetty may break out of this convention (when she heads to answer the phone), however Harriet wins over and the pattern remains consistent.

I think it’s interesting that the women’s “cultured” sides are the petty, dishonest portions of their personalities. Since it’s the early nineteen hundreds, this is how women were required to act. They had to closet their true feelings in order to appear proper and cultured. However, from the perspective of the modern day women, I think that the “primitive” sides of each woman are actually their truer personalities, so it’s odd to me that Gerstenberg chose to make their solid forms the “cultured” versions of themselves instead of vice versa.