Return to Homepage.
Michael Kadish
5/7/95
.6
In Lillian Hellman's play, The Little Foxes, characterization is used to artistically portray social injustice through intentional deprivation of others. This is illustrated through the main nemeses, Oscar, Benjamin, and Regina. These three siblings by what they say and what they do, show they thoroughly enjoy starving others in many aspects. As their characters develop and hone this abhorrent quality, the reader grows to despise them.
The elder brother, Oscar, quickly delivers this message quite literally. He will not allow the poor in his town to supplement their meager diets by hunting. It becomes known that not only does he abuse his high governmental position by not letting the poor blacks hunt, but also that which he personally hunts is quickly burnt, wasted in all eyes but his own. Oscar only deprives the poor. Perhaps because his abuse, although evil, is blatant and physical, or perhaps because the poor are only minutely represented in the play, Oscar is the least hated of the three siblings.
Next is the second brother, Benjamin. Ben is a jovial hypocrite whose hypocrisy has become so practiced that he is sometimes almost unaware of it. (Adler, 1994. p. 1145.) His false friendly facade serves only to heighten the reader's impression of Ben as one who enjoys depriving others of their desires and needs. Benjamin forces his son to marry his niece in order to keep a business in the family. In a prequel to The Little Foxes, Another Part of the Forest, it is revealed that Ben also forced Regina to marry Horace for his money. This was the basis for everyone's eventual downfall and creates the foundation of this story. (Johansen, 1993. p. 285.) Between these two plots, it is revealed that Ben also blackmailed his father causing his to exit the family business. In addition, he abused his wife, whom he only married for money. His willingness to sacrifice the happiness of others for his own well-being certainly caused Ben to be despised more than Oscar. However, even though Ben magnificently showed how to ignore people's needs and desires, another character exhibits such evils to an even greater degree.
Regina is the masterpiece of Hellman's art. She personifies the injustice of intentional depravation. She does not care about anyone else's needs. Her entire focus is on reaching her goal of living in Chicago with all the money and social achievements she desires. Her marriage to Oscar was only for one purpose--to be able to have access to his money. Consequently, Regina tortured him in ways that left him needy. Initially the torture was strictly emotional. She flirted with her old boyfriend, shamelessly and constantly insulting Horace in public. Regina despised Horace so much that she concocted a scheme to deprive him of his marital rights, which may be perceived as the cruelest act a wife could do to her husband. Regina accomplished this by paying a doctor to tell Horace that he could no longer touch her. This gave her the upper hand for the remainder of their marriage, as she used his desperate extramarital affairs against him in society. Furthermore, relished her husband's apparent anguish when she taunted him with the truth about the doctor's statement. At that point Horace was too feeble to attempt to correct the injustice done to him.
All of these occurrences build up to the climax of the play. Horace discovered his brothers-in-law stolen over eighty thousand dollars from him. This happened shortly after Regina audaciously announced to Horace the truth about the doctor incident. Although Horace attempted to rectify the monetary situation, the combination of his learning of his latest deprivation, i.e., his money being stolen, along with the newly acquired awareness of the real reason for his physical and emotional marital needs being denied for years, took its toll. The sickly Horace suffered another attack at that point and desperately needed his medicine, which was upstairs. He pleaded with his wife to bring it to him, but she responded by nearly laughing in his face. Realizing Regina has no problem with him being deprived of his medicine, and in fact welcomes and wishes for his final breath, Horace attempts to go upstairs and get the medicine by himself. At this point, Regina's evil becomes passive. Instead of blocking her husband's passage, she does nothing. Yet this too deprives him of his basic needs for survival. The stairwell itself becomes Horace's insurmountable obstacle. , and he falls to his death. Regina succeeds in forcing her brothers to increase her percentage by threatening legal action against her brothers, thus again emphasizing her self-centered ideas of justice and needs.
Had Horace only lived, all would be well. However, since Regina could be considered responsible for his death, everything could be viewed as going in favor of the villain. Horace's and society's needs were trampled and ignored, all people deprived physically and emotionally of human needs on all levels. It appears evil has triumphed over good. Yet a hint of another twist and societal justice being righted with good eventually overcoming evil is indicated by Regina's daughter leaving. Her departure from the sterile household of her mother to go with her loving maid implies that an underlying goodness may exist and emerge victorious. (Hiddens, 1984. p. 3453.)
Thus, through brilliant development of the literary act of characterization as exhibited in the speech and action of the various personalities, Hellman has shown in The Little Foxes the evils people and society inflict on others through various forms of deprivation. Hellman illustrated this by portraying both physical and emotional needs denied. Among her examples were the needs for food and for both physical and emotional love as well as for other needs. The art of characterization in this story specifically points to the disastrous consequences which may occur when gross wrongs are inflicted on others through intentional deprivation.