Lillian Hellman

1905-1984

Lillian Hellman is American playwright and motion-picture screenwriter. She became a writer at a time when writers were celebrities and their recklessness was admirable. Like Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Lillian Hellman was a smoker, a drinker, a lover, and a fighter. Hellman maintained a social and political life as large and restless as her talent. Her dramas bitterly and forcefully attacked injustice, exploitation, and selfishness.

She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in the family of a businessman. At the age of five she moved with her family to New York. After graduating from high school, she briefly attended both Columbia University and New York University. For several years she worked in a publishing company. In 1925 she began her writing career by reviewing books for the “New York Herald Tribune”. Her short stories were published in the magazine “The Paris Comet”. Beginning in 1930 Hellman read scripts for MGM in Hollywood. Working at a publishing house, she got her first glimpse of the bohemian lifestyle of the 1920s writer and artist. She married one of these young writers, Arthur Kober, but her marriage (1925-32) ended in divorce. In 1929 Hellman made a trip to Europe. In 1930 Hellman and her husband moved to Hollywood.

Her first play “The Children’s Hour” was staged on Broadway in 1934 and was a success. It presented a picture of moral corruption of children in America. Next year the writer was invited to Hollywood as a scriptwriter to make a film of “The Children’s Hour”.

In 1936 she was invited to go to Spain with a group of producer who wanted to make a documentary film. In 1939 next play “The Little Foxes” was performed and was a great success with the public and also with the critics. "The Little Foxes" was a story about three siblings struggling for control over a family business. The chronicle of hatred and greed among the members of the Hubbard family was partly based on her own memories of the South.

In 1936-37 Hellman traveled in Europe. She met Ernest Hemingway and other American writers living in Paris, visited Spain, where she witnessed the horrors of the civil war, and traveled in the Soviet Union. While traveling in Europe, Hellman helped to smuggle $50,000 over the border for a group who wanted to oust Hitler.

In the 1940s Hellman worked in Hollywood adapting her plays for the screen. In 1941 L. Hellman wrote the anti-fascist play “Watch on the Rhine”. “The Searching Wind” (1944) directly criticized America's failures to address and fight Hitler and Mussolini in their early years. Hellman wrote the screenplay for “The North Star”(1943), which glorified the heroism of the Russian people in the war against the Germans. Contrary to the opinion of a number of other writers, she did not sympathize with the Finns in the Winter War between Finland and the Red Army in 1939-40 - the war started by order of Stalin. After the war she became a professor of literature at Yale University. By the early 1960s, Hellman started to move away from drama and concentrated on writing her memoirs.

Hellman’s “Collected Plays” was published in 1972. Her dramas exposed various forms in which evil appears – a malicious child’s lies about two schoolteachers, a ruthless family’s exploitation of fellow townspeople and one another, and the irresponsible selfishness of the post-World War I generation. The ability to blend strong politics with humane (though not sentimental) stories of individual struggles was one of Hellman's great achievements.

Before her death, Hellman had suffered from poor eyesight. She managed to publish in 1980 a little novel about elusiveness of the truth of the past entitled “Maybe”. On June 30, 1984 Lillian Hellman died in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts at the age of seventy-nine. Among the many honors she received were two New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, a Gold Medal from the Academy of Arts and Letters for Distinguished Achievement in the Theater (1964) and a National Book Award for “An Unfinished Woman”. As a teacher and scholar she was well respected, and her political involvement was integral in the fight against fascism at home and abroad.

“LITTLE FOXES” (1939)

This play is a family drama. Lust for wealth has destroyed all normal human relations between its various members. Devoid of any moral principles, they stop at nothing: swindle theft, even murder are resorted by them in cold blood.

The play shows a typical American family. The scene is laid in the house of the Giddens family in a small town in the South. Horace Giddens, a banker who has a bad heart is in Baltimore in a hospital. His wife Regina, a beautiful woman of 40 and her brothers Oscar and Benjamin (Ben) Hubbard fight each other for a larger part in a profitable commercial enterprise organized by Marshall, a rich Chicago businessman. To achieve this end each of them is to invest a share of $75.000, but they haven’t got the money. It is only Horace who can provide the money and Regina sends her daughter Alexandra to Baltimore to bring him home. On his arrival Horace refuses point-blank to procure the money for the dirty machinations of his wife and her brothers.

Oscar, who is about 50, had married Birdie, a girl from a rich family. He didn’t love her and married only for her money. They have a son, Leo, whom his mother doesn’t love because he is very much like his father. Leo works in the bank headed by Horace.

Having no capital, Oscar and Leo steal from Horace’s safe-deposit box 88.000 dollars’ worth bonds, which are as negotiable as money. Horace discovers the theft, but to revenge himself on his wife for all the wrongs she has done him he decides to leave all his money to his daughter with the exception of $88.000 in the bonds; he will pretend that he has lent her share to her brothers, as he is sure that they will cheat her. Regina is cornered. Aware of the fact that while Horace lives he will stick to his decision, she doesn’t help him when he has a heart attack and smashes his bottle of medicine. Horace dies. The play ends with Regina’s bargaining with her brothers and her triumph.

The title of the play as well as its epigraph is borrowed from the Bible: “Take from us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoilt the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” It symbolizes the playwright’s thesis that greed creates ruin among humans. The ‘tender grapes’ are the gentle characters, especially young Alexandra.

ACT III

The living-room of the Giddens house in a small town in the South. A staircase leading to the second floor. Spring 1900. Horace is sitting near the window in a wheel-chair. On the table near him is some medicine. He is talking to his wife about the theft of the bonds.

Horace. Leo took the key and opened the box. You remember the day I came back from the hospital? Oscar went to Chicago the same day. Well, he went with my bonds that his son Leo had stolen for him. And for Ben, of course, too.

Regina. When did you find out the bonds were stolen?

Horace. Wednesday night.

Regina. Why have you waited three days to do anything? This will make a fine story. (Suddenly laughs.) A fine story to hold over their heads.1 How could they be such fools?

Horace. But I’m not going to hold it over their heads.

Regina. (stops laughing). What?

Horace. (turns his chair to see her). I am going to let them keep the bonds – as a loan2 from you. An eighty-eight-thousand-dollar loan; they should be grateful to you. They will be, I think.

Regina. (slowly smiles). I see. You are punishing me. But I won’t let you punish me. If you won’t do anything, I will. Now. (She goes to the door.)

Horace. You won’t do anything. Because you can’t. (Regina stops.) I shall say that I lent them the bonds.

Regina. You are going to lend them the bonds and let them keep all the profit they make on them, and there is nothing I can do about it, is that right?

Horace. Yes.

Regina. Why do you do it?

Horace. I was coming to that. I am going to make a new will, Regina, leaving you those bonds. The rest will go to Alexandra. It’s true that your brothers have borrowed those bonds for a short time. After my death I advise you to talk to Ben and Oscar. They won’t admit3 anything. I will say nothing as long as I live. Is that cleat to you?

Regina. Yes, you will not say anything as long as you live.

Horace. That’s right. And after a time they will give you your bonds back and nobody except us will ever know what had happened. Your brothers will be soon here. They want to know what I am going to do. They will be happy to know that I’ll do nothing. And that will be the end of that. There is nothing you can do to them, nothing you can do to me.

Regina. You hate me very much.

Horace. No.

Regina. Oh, I think you do. Well, we haven’t been very happy together. I don’t hate you either. I have only contempt1 for you. I’ve always had.

Horace. From the very first?

Regina. I think so.

Horace. I loved you. But why did you marry me?

Regina. I wanted much from life. I wanted good things. Then, and then (smiles) Papa died and left the money to Ben and Oscar.

Horace. And you married me?

Regina. Yes, I thought – but I was wrong. You were a small-town clerk then. You haven’t changed.

Horace. (smiles.) And that wasn’t what you wanted.

Regina. No. No, it wasn’t what I wanted. After some time I found out I had made a mistake.

Horace. Why didn’t you leave me?

Regina. This wasn’t what I wanted, but it was something. (Horace puts his hand to his throat.) You could die before I did. I couldn’t know that you would get heart trouble so early and so bad. I’m lucky, Horace. I’ve always been lucky. (Horace turns slowly to the medicine.) I’ll be lucky again. (Horace looks at her. Then he puts his hand to his throat. He moves the chair to the table and takes the medicine bottle and the spoon. Suddenly he drops the medicine bottle and it breaks.)

Horace. Please, tell a servant to get the medicine in my room. (Regina does not move. Horace looks at her and suddenly understands. He tries to call servants but his voice is too weak to be heard outside the room. He gets up from his chair and goes the staircase. But he slips and falls on the steps. Regina waits a second, then goes to the staircase and speaks.)

Regina. Horace, Horace. (When there is no answer she calls.) Come here, somebody! (The servants come into the room and run to the staircase.) He’s had a bad attack. Take him to his room!

(The servants carry Horace to his room.)

(Ben, Oscar and Leo come into the room. After a time Regina comes slowly into the room too.)

Ben. What happened?

Regina. He’s had a bad attack.

Oscar. Too bad. I’m sorry we were not here to help you.

Ben. How is he? Can we go to him?

Regina. (shakes her head.) He’s not conscious.

Oscar (walking around the room.) Is it so bad? We must call the doctor.

Regina. I don’t think there is much for him to do.

Ben. Oh, don’t say so. He has come through attacks before. He will now.

Regina. Well. We haven’t seen each other since he came home. He told me about the bonds this afternoon. (There is silence.)

Leo. The bonds. What do you mean? What bonds?

Ben. (looks at him angrily. Then to Regina). Horace’s bonds?

Regina. Yes.

Oscar. (steps to her). Well. Well, what about them? What – what could he say?

Regina. He said that Leo had stolen the bonds and given them to you.

Oscar (very loudly). That’s ridiculous, Regina!

Leo. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t steal anything.

Ben. What did Horace tell you?

Regina. (smiles at him). He told me that Leo had stolen the bonds.

Leo. I didn’t steal -

Regina. Please. Let me finish. Then he told me that he was going to pretend that he had lent them to you. (Leo turns to Regina, then looks at Oscar, then looks back at Regina.) As a present from me – to my brothers. He said the rest of money would go to Alexandra. That is all. (There is silence. Oscar coughs, Leo smiles.)

Leo. (stepping to her). I told you he had lent them –

Regina. (doesn’t listen to him, smiles at Ben). So I am very poor now, you see. But Horace said there was nothing I could do about it as long as he lived and could say he had let you the bonds.

Ben. It can all be explained. It isn’t so bad.

Regina. So you admit that the bonds were stolen.

Ben. I admit nothing. It’s possible that Horace made up that part of the story to punish you.

Regina. (sadly). It’s not a pleasant story. I feel bad, Ben, I didn’t expect –

Ben. You shall have the bonds back. That was the understanding, wasn’t it, Oscar?

Oscar. Yes.

Regina. I had greater hopes.

Ben. Don’t say so. That’s foolish. (Looks at his watch.) I think we must go and find the doctor ourselves. We shall continue this talk some other day.

Regina. I think you had better stay and sit down. I have something more to say.

Ben. (turns, comes to her). Since when do I take orders from you?

Regina. (smiles). You don’t – yet. Come back, Oscar. You too, Leo.

Oscar (smiles). My dear Regina –

Regina. You are quite safe while Horace lives. But I don’t think Horace will live. And if he doesn’t leave, I shall want seventy-five per cent of the profit.

Ben (steps back, laughs). Greedy! What a greedy girl you are. You want so much of everything.

Regina. Yes. And if I don’t get what I want, I am going to put all three of you into prison.

Oscar. You are mad.

Ben. And on what evidence would you put Oscar and Leo into prison?

Regina. (laughs). Oscar, listen to him. He is ready to say that it was you and Leo! What do you say to that? (Oscar turns angrily to Ben.) Oh, don’t be angry, Oscar. I am going to see that he goes in prison with you.

Ben. Try anything you like, Regina. And now we can stop all this and say good-bye to you. (Alexandra comes slowly down the steps.) it’s his money and he wanted to let us borrow it. (As Ben turns to Oscar, he sees Alexandra. She goes slowly to the window, her head bent. They all turn to look at her.)

Oscar. What? Alexandra – (She does not answer. After a second the servant comes slowly down the staircase.)

Oscar. (to Alexandra). Well, what is – I didn’t know that he was so sick. The whole town loved him and respected him.

Alexandra. Did you love him, Uncle Oscar?

Oscar. Certainly, I – What a ridiculous thing to ask!

Alexandra. Did you love him, Uncle Ben?

Ben. He had –

Alexandra. (suddenly begins to laugh very loudly). And you, Mama, did you love him too?

Regina. I know what you feel, Alexandra, but please try to control yourself.

Alexandra. (laughing). I’m trying, Mama.

Ben. Some people laugh at such a time, and some people cry. It’s better to cry, Alexandra.

Alexandra. (stops laughing and goes to Regina). What was Papa doing on the staircase?

Regina. Please go and lie down, my dear.

Alexandra. No, Mama. I’ll wait. I’ve got to talk to you.

Regina. Go and rest now.

Alexandra. I’ll wait, Mama.

Regina. (turns to Ben). As I was saying. Tomorrow morning I am going to the judge. I shall tell him about Leo.

Ben. Don’t talk in front of the child, Regina.

Regina. I didn’t ask her to stay. Tomorrow morning I go to the judge.

Oscar. And on what evidence?

Regina. No evidence. I need no evidence. The bonds are stolen and they are with Marshall. That will be enough. If it isn’t, I’ll add what’s necessary.

Ben. I am sure of that.

Regina. (turns to Ben). You can be quite sure.

Oscar. You couldn’t do anything like that. We’re your own brothers. (Points to Horace’s room.) how can you talk about such things when there not five minutes ago –

Regina. (slowly). They will put you in prison. But I won’t care much if they don’t. Because by that time you’ll be ruined. I shall also tell my story to Mr. Marshall, who likes me, I think, and who will not want to be involved in your scandal. A respectable firm like Marshall and Company. And you know it. Now I don’t want to hear any more from any of you. I’ll take my seventy-five per cent and we’ll forget the story. That is one way of doing it; and the way I prefer. You know me well enough. I will take the other way too, if I have to.

Ben. (after a second, slowly). We haven’t ever known you well enough, Regina.

Regina. You’re getting old, Ben. (There is no answer. She waits, then smiles.0 All right. I understand that it’s settled[4] and I get what I asked for.

Oscar. (angrily to Ben). Are you going to let her do this –

Ben. (turns to look at him, slowly). Have you anything else to suggest?

Regina. (puts her arms above her head, laughs). No, he hasn’t. All right. Now, Leo, I have forgotten that you ever saw the bonds. (To Ben and Oscar) And as long as you boys both keep your promise, I’ve forgotten that we ever talked about them. You can write the necessary papers tomorrow. You are a good loser, Ben. I like that.

Ben. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Regina. Oh, yes. Certainly. You’ll be working for me now.

COMPREHENSION AND DISCUSSION:

1. In what kind of family did Regina, Ben and Oscar grow up?

2. To whom did their father leave his money?

3. Why did Regina marry Horace?

4. What’s Horace’s plan about his will?

5. Why did Horace die?

6. What do Regina and her brothers fight each other about?

7. What did Regina offer to her brothers?

8. Prove that Alexandra began to understand that her mother and her uncles loved only money.

9. Explain the title of the play.

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