Flirtatious Material
Mr. Marks is one sly dog. He very cleverly—but romantically—exploits the shared familiarity with textile materials to use them as imagery to flirt with Esther in a way that shows his appreciation for the finer things in life extends to women as well material:
“I buy at the docks yesterday morning—it come right off a ship from the Orient. I see it and think Esther Mills will like. Of course. Everybody else: gabardine, wool, nainsook. But it isn’t often that something so fine and delicate enters the store. Look at the way the gold thread is interwoven; a hand took the time to gently wind it through each and every stitch like a magician.”
Double Meaning
George Armstrong in his letters also attempts to insinuate himself into Esther’s graces by discussing her job as a seamstress. This is a significantly more complex bit of imagery than flirtation of Mr. Marks, however. From his letters, George appears to be making an attempt at something along the same lines as Mr. Marks as he endows his views of Esther the seamstress working her magic. When the real George is revealed, however, the exact same imagery takes on a much different and darker aspect: George lusting after the dependable income of a wife whose talent will guarantee continued income:
“I see you sitting at your sewing machine. I hear the sound of the wheel turning, the tiny stitches drawing together the pieces of satin… I think of you running silk thread between your fingers and find a bit of holy relief, for your letters arrive just in time to ward off temptation.”
The Van Buren Girl
An interesting example of how the stage allows for imagery to be subtly conveyed visually through an ironic commentary upon a previous action brings an important scene between Mrs. Van Buren and Esther to an end fraught with conflicting emotions. In this particular example, the visual image is expressed in concrete terms through stage directions;
“(Mrs. Van Buren touches Esther’s hand with an unexpected tenderness. Esther politely withdraws her fingers.)”
This unexpected demonstration of suppressed desire creates a dramatic tension that is pulled so taut it is constantly on the verge of snapping and is carried throughout the rest of the scene in which Mrs. Van Buren tries to distract by confessing of things done but never openly admitted. She confesses to having smoking opium with a female friend once. It is Esther’s confession that isn't a confession that reduces the tension and brings the necessary slack back to the circumstance:
ESTHER: I touched someone . . . who I knew I wasn’t supposed to touch. I touched them because I wanted to. It was wrong, but I couldn’t help myself.
Heliotrope and Cambric
Esther is past thirty, has been working since she was nine and is not completely unexposed to the brutal realities of the world. Nevertheless, her view toward George Armstrong is almost sweet naïve and certainly more than a little willfully gullible. She turns to the imagery she knows best to make a guileless determination of his character and worth. And get, apparently unwittingly, the imagery also carries within it a recognition of the unbearable lightness of wish-fulfillment that informs it:
“he here in my pocket in a cambric walking suit, he has a heliotrope handkerchief stuffed in his pocket and a sweet way about him. He so far away, I can carry him in my pocket like a feather.”
