The changing role of women in the 1950s musical: Seven Brides a case study.

During World War II, women on both sides of the Atlantic gained immense satisfaction and financial independence from holding down jobs that had been previously denied to them. Returning service men became increasingly alarmed by this apparent “masculinization” of women, and shows from the Golden Age of Musicals (1940-1960) subtly exhorted a return to traditional gender roles on stage and in the film adaptations of the 1950s. Hope and optimism for the future surged at the end of the Second World War, which is seen to be the beginning of the musicals Golden Age. The act of marriage in musicals brings the characters in line with the expectations of society and promises to uphold those values. Musical theatre is an idealisation of life in America and celebration of its abundance, tended to idealize women’s role as well. These core values are reflected in the musical theatre of the post-war years, particularly in the musicals of the 1950s such as in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. In this musical, marriage is the key that brings around the change and, in certain cases, even the taming of the women from loud and brash, to slightly more demure characters.

Seven Brides was written in 1954, yet it is set at the frontier of America in the 1850s. This already suggests that there will be different expectations placed on the women in the pieces straight away, as their aim in life was to be married and have children. This is certainly Milly’s aim within Seven Brides and she gets her wish quite early in the piece. According to Richard M Goldstein, the works of the heroine “is an idealist holding an extremely romantic view of male-female relationships.” (Gordon, 2014, p. 14) Milly is a strong female character as she decides she wants to marry Adam; she is not forced into it and then takes on all his brothers and forces them to conform to her set of ideals. The expectations of women are explored specifically through the song Goin’ Courtin’ in which Milly explains what the boys must do if they want to find a girl to marry. This highlights to the audience exactly what a woman expects in a man and how they should act in front of a woman. Milly is a romantic at heart as she believes that when you are taken out on a date it creates a sense of excitement within you as well as nerves. Therefore, the boys must understand how to treat a girl to make them feel comfortable in the situation. Milly then goes on to explain how a woman will act in the situation and then what they expect the man to do “she gives you kinda half a smile/ you cuddle up she moves away/ then the strategy comes into play”. This suggests that having a romantic encounter is considered as a game and that women are something to be either conquered or won. It also highlights that the men are expected to play this role just as well as the women play theirs. In this situation, the female in the relationship is the more dominant gender as she can reject a man if he does not meet her expectations which is why it is even more important for the brothers to not only meet these expectations but surpass them. The song is written in ¾ time in the style of a waltz which romanticises the whole song yet, by dropping the g’s at the end of most of the words it still gives the song a rural accent so it still fits in with the rural nature of the piece and the characters. Therefore, the expectations of what women want in a man are explored through the song Goin’ Courtin’ as Milly explains to us how a man should act for a woman if they wish to be married.

In comparison, however, leading ladies usually have a romantic ballad that they sing that reveals what the women want and what they, ultimately, expect of themselves. The romantic ballad is a tool used in every musical and is given to one of the leads to describe their longing for one of the other characters in the story. According to Grace Barnes; “By defining a man as an ultimate prize-the one competition all women want to win - the male is ultimately elevated in status above the female. Romance, for women, comes at a price-usually that of her personal freedom.” (Barnes, 2015, p. 42) This is very true in the case of all three female leads in the musicals I have studied as they all give up something to marry then man of their dreams. In Milly’s case, she gives up her life in the city to marry Adam and moves up to the mountains to help him take care of the rest of his brothers. When You’re in Love is Millie’s romantic ballad in which she explains to Adam what she feels towards him and in turn, why she agreed to marry him in the first place. Milly’s version of this song is more romanticised and truly reveals about what she thinks love can do to people by describing; “when you’re in love, really in love/ you simply let your heart decide it.” This explains to the audience that Milly simply believes you have no control over who you fall in love with and that Milly’s expectation of what love is becomes romanticised. She begins to describe the effect of what being in love is supposed to feel like; “with every sigh, with every glance/ with every heartbeat you confide it.” Milly is trying to explain that words aren’t needed to show a person how much you love them and it is the little things that reveal your true feelings. By singing the song just after Milly and Adam arrive in their bedroom, it shows the audience that love doesn’t have to be distasteful, it can become something quite pure and simple. However, in terms of the timeline of the musical, Milly and Adam have only just met so the idea that she has instantly fallen in love with him is something that is quite a shock to modern day audiences. Laura Hanson describes this as “the straightforward declaration of emotion in more traditional love songs or those in which the characters are so eager for love to come along that they express their longing for it before it has really had time to take route.” (Gordon, 2014, p. 14) The song is only eight lines long and only contains two verses, but the word love is repeated 6 times in those eight lines, this emphasises that Milly truly expects that because she is in love with Adam everything will work out.

Milly is a strong women as she stands for what she believes in, even if in the end of the musical she conforms to the expectations that have been placed on them by society. According to Stacey Wolf, audiences of the 1950s “knew that the plot would clip along, everything would get wrapped up and the feuding couple would unite and marry.” (Wolf, 2011, p. 20). The character of Milly fits in with the expectation of what a female lead would be like, however, she is a strong willed character who changes the men around her to fit in with her ideals, she does not change who she is just because she marries Adam. Seven Brides explores the changing roles of women in the 1950s by giving Milly a strong voice and by giving the audience a “male and a female lead, both strong-willed, but from two different, incompatible worlds.” (Wolf, 2011, p. 20) They give the audience what they want without realising. By ending all the musical with a big wedding scene, they revert back to the idea that a woman’s role in the 1950s was, as stated by Wolf, “homemakers and mothers and to find complete satisfaction in these roles.” (Wolf, 2011, p. 24)

#musicals #SevenBridesforSevenBrothers #Feministreview #broadway