On the stage

In light of the question that was asked at the end of class on Thursday (which I summarize as "Is a prostitute that is not a prostitute still a prostitute") the phrase "on the stage" caught my eye as I was reading. The line only appears three times over the course of the text (at least as far as I noticed).

The first time I noticed the phrase was on page 79 when Walter is assuring Anna that she will like Germaine and she asks if Germain is "on the stage too?" Considering that a stage implies that the person on it is acting, and that Walter keeps saying "you will like her" and "she is a nice sort" to the point that it becomes comical, Anna's question may have absolutely nothing to do with the stage. If one assumes that Anna probably views the practice of women latching onto a man who gives them money as relatively common, her addition of the "too" to the end of the question makes it very clear that she may see her own situation with Walter as acting.

Granted, this interpretation requires that Anna be way better at introspection than the text seems to want us to believe. That said, she never seems to really like Walter. She professes to love him, but that seems more out of a desire to not admit the role that she has adopted. A role which she may detest and deny yet still be fully aware of.

She is later asked if she's "on the stage" by Germaine, to which Vincent says she "is or was" which can be interpreted as foreshadowing of her and Walter's impending break up, and indicate that Germaine is using the term much as Anna was several pages back and trying to confirm if they are in the same situation. Considering the joke Germaine makes about British girls and men, it seems she is fully aware of the situation she is in and role she is playing. In both cases, however, Walter and Vincent are not in on the double meaning of the question.

The last person to use the phrase is Ethel, shortly after meeting Anna. However, Ethel's use of the phrase seems to be using the literal meaning rather than the one imposed upon it. Meaning that for all intents and purposes, Ethel is in the same boat as Walter and Vincent in terms of understanding Anna. It also sets Ethel apart from the "sort" of women that Anna and Germaine seem to represent.

Incoherent babbling tangent: the female characters in the book seem to only be represented by three "sorts." While we have the virgin/whore dichotomy playing out in Anna, Maudie, Laurie. there is also the "crone," who is represented by all the land-ladies and eventually by Ethel. And Ethel doesn't seem to start out as a crone, but really becomes it after her breakdown after the botched massage. These three archetypes seem present primarily because of societal pressure and the book is harshly critical.