His Job

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His Job

by Grace Sartwell Mason

Genre: Drama
Setting:
Format of Original Source: Short Story
Recommended Adaptation Length:

Candidate for Adaptation? Not Reviewed

EXCERPT:

“Take a man’s work,” said Mrs. Van Vechten, pouring herself a second cup of tea. “He chooses it; then he is allowed to go at it with absolute freedom. He isn’t hampered by the dull, petty details of life that hamper us. He—-“

“Details! My dear, there you are right,” broke in Mrs. Bullen. Two men, first Mrs. Bullen’s father and then her husband, had seen to it that neither the biting wind of adversity nor the bracing air of experience should ever touch her. “Details! Sometimes I feel as if I were smothered by them. Servants, and the house, and now these relief societies—-“

She was in her turn interrupted by Cornelia Blair. Cornelia was a spinster with more freedom than most human beings ever attain, her father having worked himself to death to leave her well provided for. “The whole fault is the social system,” she declared. “Because of it men have been able to take the really interesting work of the world for themselves. They’ve pushed the dull jobs off onto us.”

COMMENTS:

It’s 1920, and women discuss what it would be like if they had the career opportunities which men have. At the time of the story’s publication,it was probably fairly lively and even provocative, but unfortunately, these particular women and their conversation don’t survive the century very well, and the bulk of the story is a recounting of a man’s story, not their own. Not much happens; certainly not enough for drama in the theatre.

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