Date of Award

1-1-1982

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

Abstract

6 Cubicles is a three act drama that is best labeled a "tragicomedy." The plot revolves around the life of Hilda Stag, an elderly English professor whose obsessive behavior is best typified by her kleptomania and her mania for watching soap operas. Eventually Hilda's bad habits are chosen by her colleagues as the "sins" of the faculty office for which "atonement" must be made. Hilda thus becomes a scapegoat who is "sacrificed" by her officemates by means of a seemingly harmless prank. Suffering a mental breakdown, Hilda fantasizes herself in a religious soap opera but is victimized here as well, and, further disillusioned, dies. After death, she renews her hope for happiness in soap opera purgatory, but her optimism is short-lived, for she finds the same social structure and strictures she thought she had left behind.The play's unconventional structure, that of a Pirandello play within a play within a play, is unique in that each actor in the first act assumes a corresponding role in the second and third acts. It is this triple role identity that is responsible for much of the irony and satire that is an essential part of the work.As the title implies, the six-cubicle setting proves to be an important image in the play. The bareness of the cubicles parallels the barrenness and consequent social predicament of Hilda Stag. It is within the catacomb-like cubicles that Hilda confronts the worlds of education, religion, and eternal life. And with each new confrontation she finds only duplication of her preceding "existence." As the play progresses, the characters' names change, the plot changes, but the cubicles remain untouched, serving as a reminder of their function as ongoing images of deception and illusion.Though a highly melodramatic look at society, the parody is evident: 6 Cubicles, through the character of Hilda Stag, depicts the absurdity of the human condition. While on one hand society rewards individuality, on the other hand it punishes those who do not live according to social standards. And just as individuality provides society its "heroes," so do individuals serve as its victims.

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