Overtones Blog

In Overtones, I think Alice Gerstenberg uses visual cues as a determinate factor of whether a character can be heard or not. For instance, Hetty and Maggie, Harriet and Margaret’s inner thoughts, if you will, are dressed in the same color gowns as their hosts. The only difference is that Hetty and Maggie’s attire is a a few shades darker than Harriet and Margaret. Margaret wears lavender whereas Maggie wears purple, and Harriet wears light green whereas Hetty wears dark green. Harriet can hear Hetty, and Margaret can hear Maggie, but Margaret can’t hear Hetty and Harriet can’t hear Maggie.       

The attire of the women’s primitive selves becomes interesting as they are dressed with a chiffon veil across their faces. They wear these veils until the very end of the play, when the women’s truest thoughts are arguing at one another. It’s safe to say that Hattie and Maggie cannot actually hear one another, but still attempt to be heard by speaking. This, I interpret, as a rule. Once the veils are removed, the thoughts, Hetty and Maggie, become stronger and attempt at communication. 

Harriet can definitely hear Hetty just as Margaret can hear Maggie, but they do not speak directly to their thoughts. Instead, they would think aloud in response to what the thoughts are saying. Margaret does not speak back to her primitive self, but Harriet does at the beginning of the play. Hetty is also not wearing a veil when it is just she and her host, alone. This is another rule of the play. Veils are not necessary unless someone else enters the room with their own thoughts. 

I feel the rules created within the play are consistent. Hetty and Maggie consistently say and do what they want throughout the play where Harriet and Margaret have to keep up a facade to cover their secret unhappiness with their lives. The playwright also kept consistent with the way that Hetty nor Maggie can physically touch things. They may reach for items, like Maggie with the cake, but never actually touch them. This is one of the things that convey to the audience that Hetty and Maggie are not physically there and, therefore, cannot actually partake in conversation. I thought Overtones an interesting play with clever tactics in showing what people feel versus what they do in different situations.