Reading Response to Gerstenberg's "Overtones"

Alice Gerstenberg's short play Overtones explores the relationships and methods of communication that exist between individuals' cultured facades and the more primitive emotions that rage beneath this peaceful exterior. The characters of Harriet and Margaret function as the “real-world,” cultured women of society, while Hatty and Maggie are each woman’s respective “primitive” self. Hatty can speak to Harriet, and Maggie can speak to Margaret, though neither cultured woman sees either “primitive,” as I will refer to them. To the audience, this dramaturgical choice may be a bit confusing at first, at least until Harriet and Hatty explicitly discuss their relationship to one another:

HETTY:  My passions are deeper than yours. I can't keep on the mask as you do. I'm crude and real, you are my appearance in the world.

HARRIET:  I am what you wish the world to believe you are.

Once the connection between the two has been established, audiences will understand that this relationship also exists between Maggie and Margaret. Since the physical presence of either primitive is never acknowledged by Harriet or Margaret, any attentive audience member should quickly glean that Hatty and Maggie act primarily as unseen, unconscious forces. These conventions are relatively clear and unchanging. However, the rules that dictate how Maggie and Hatty interact with one another are much less strict, which may lead to some confusion among audience members. For the most part, when one primitive addresses the other (it might be more accurate to say “when one attacks the other”), the remark is ignored; the primitives are too busy trying to achieve their own ends through their cultured selves to respond to petty insults… at first. Hatty and Maggie only confront each other face to face towards the end of the piece, once both of the women have achieved their goals. Each primitive feels as though she has won the battle and throws aside the veil to gloat in the face of the other.