The Children’s Hour and Its Crossing

The Children’s Hour written by Lillian Hellman displays the destructive effect of children’s lies, which transforms the farce into tragedy. Ostensibly, the play manifests the issue of homosexuality and children’s nature, which constitutes the keynote of the first and the second chapter, that is, cross-gender and cross-age. For one thing, Martha’s lesbian inclination is entrenched by her unreliable narrative. According to Judith Butler’s theory, gender is the civilized product rather than innate attribution. The concentration of Mary’s lie is the two sisters’ unhealthily intimate performance, which makes the mass believe their “abnormal relationship”. For another, the playwright creates two disobedient children to highlight the resemblance between child and adult. Mary’s trick is replete with malevolence and beyond the reach of her age as people would think. Her transcendence in cunning becomes the main driver of the whole tragedy. Furthermore, this assignment delves into the function of space-changing and distinguishes the non-present characters as well as their exchange of information, which plays an important role in plot knitting. The omission part of the judgement in court demonstrates that Mrs. Tilford’s living room serves as the judicial apparatus. Mary takes advantage of her private place to consummate the lie, which not only results in the overturning of proper order as Bakhtin defines, but also pushes the two sisters into a condition of utter helplessness. With the former emphasis on duration and space, the last chapter illustrates the relationship among the script, the play performance and film adaptations from the perspective of the audience who witness the whole event.