The Books: “Something Unspoken” (Tennessee Williams)

Next on my script shelf:

Next Tennessee Williams play on the shelf is a one-act called Something Unspoken.

Another example of Williams’ genius. Any of you out there who are Williams fans: I highly recommend you checking out this one-act if you haven’t already. It’s in the collection 27 Wagons Full of Cotton And Other One-Act Plays. Again: the amount of informaiton that he is able to pack into a one-act – without any of it seeming forced or artificial – is truly extraordinary. These plays are slices of life. Entire worlds are suggested in their meagre pages.

Here’s the plot: Miss Cornelia Scott is a wealthy Southern spinster in her 60s. She is a grande dame. She dresses elaborately, does her hair up in pompadours, and lives her life with a lot of pomp and circumstance. The amazing thing that Williams does with her character, though, is … by the end of the play, he has completely shown us what is going on beneath her facade – we completely see the REAL Miss Cornelia Scott – even though she would never be in charge of letting us see her so intimately. Her defenses are too strong for that – but no matter: Williams lets us see inside anyway. She is so lonely it aches. She is so eager for approval that she loses sleep at night. She is so afraid of rejection that she can barely even think about it. But nobody would ever guess that Miss Cornelia Scott was so vulnerable.

She has a secretary – a woman in her 40s – who has been with her for 15 years. Her name is Grace. They have a complex codependent relationship. There is tension between them – something unacknowledged (ahem – notice the title of the play) – we are not sure WHAT are the guts of this relationship but we know something is there.

Miss Cornelia Scott is waiting on tenterhooks (uhm – have I ever used that phrase before? What does it mean??) to hear about the elections of the local chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. She has been a member for years. She wants to be Regent. She has held every other office – but she wants to be Regent. The only problem is: her fear of rejection is so huge that she cannot submit to the indignities of campaigning – and unless it is a unanimous vote – unless everyone says, as one, “WE MUST HAVE CORNELIA SCOTT AS OUR LEADER” then she feels she must resign from the organization. Williams, in his genius way, lets us see that what is really going on here is that Cornelia Scott has no one in her life who loves her. Everyone fears her, and tiptoes around her – but no one loves her. And even though Cornelia Scott pretends that this doesn’t matter, it eats away at her.

All of this ends up coming to a head in a confrontation between her and her secretary.

An incredible relationship portrayed.

Grace ends up having a monologue that, in the context of the play, knocks my socks off (I’ll include it in my excerpt). Nobody pulls back the veil to reveal the truth like Tennessee Williams. And watch how when Grace finally starts to spit out that “something unspoken” – Miss Cornelia is not angry or offended. She eagerly listens, she wants more. Because it is THE TRUTH. And nobody in her life ever tells her the truth, good or bad.

Here’s an excerpt from the play. Miss Cornelia Scott has given Grace a gift – 15 roses to commemorate her 15 years as her secretary. The bouquet is the catalyst for all that follows.

From Something Unspoken, by Tennessee Williams

GRACE. Thank you for the roses.

CORNELIA. I don’t want thanks from you either. All that I want is a little return of affection, not much, but sometimes a little!

GRACE. You have that always, Cornelia.

CORNELIA. And one thing more: a little outspokenness, too.

GRACE. Outspokenness?

CORNELIA. Yes, outspokenness, if that’s not too much to ask from such a proud young lady!

GRACE. [rising from table] I am not proud and I am not young, Cornelia.

CORNELIA. Sit down. Don’t leave the table.

GRACE. Is that an order?

CORNELIA. I don’t give orders to you, I make requests.

GRACE. Sometimes the requests of an employer are hard to distinguish from orders. [She sits down]

CORNELIA. Please turn off the victrola. [Grace rises and stops the machine] Grace! — Don’t you feel there’s — something unspoken between us?

GRACE. No. No, I don’t.

CORNELIA. I do. I’ve felt for a long time something unspoken between us.

GRACE. Don’t you think there is always something unspoken between two people?

CORNELIA. I see no reason for it.

GRACE. But don’t a great many things exist without reason?

CORNELIA. Let’s not turn this into a metaphysical discussion.

GRACE. All right. But you mystify me.

CORNELIA. It’s very simple. It’s just that I feel that there’s something unspoken between us that ought to be spoken … Why are you looking at me like that?

GRACE. How am I looking at you?

CORNELIA. With positive terror!

GRACE. Cornelia!

CORNELIA. You are, you are, but I’m not going to be shut up!

GRACE. Go on, continue, please, do!

CORNELIA. I’m going to, I will, I will, I — [The phone rings and Grace reaches for it] No, no, no, let it ring! [It goes on ringing] Take it off the hook!

GRACE. Do just let me —

CORNELIA. Off the hook, I told you! [Grace takes the phone off the hook. A voice says: “Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?”]

GRACE. [suddenly she is sobbing] I can’t stand it!

CORNELIA. Be STILL! Someone can hear you!]

VOICE. Hello? Hello? Cornelia Scott? [Cornelia seizes phone and slams it back into its cradle]

CORNELIA. Now stop that! Stop that silly little female trick!

GRACE. You say there’s something unspoken. Maybe there is. I don’t know. But I do know some things are better left unspoken. Also I know that when a silence between two people has gone on for a long time it’s like a wall that’s impenetrable between them! Maybe between us there is such a wall. One that’s impenetrable. Or maybe you can break it. I know I can’t. I can’t even attempt to. You’re the strong one of us two and surely you know it. — Both of us have turned grey! — But not the same kind of grey. In that velvet dressing-gown you look like the Emperor Tiberius! — In his imperial toga! — Your hair and your eyes are both the color of iron! Iron grey. Invincible looking! People nearby are all somewhat — frightened of you. They feel your force and they admire you for it. They come to you here for opinions on this or that. What plays are good on Broadway this season, what books are worth reading and what books are trash and what — what records are valuable and — what is the proper attitude toward — bills in Congress! — Oh, you’re a fountain of wisdom! — And in addition to that, you have your — wealth! Yes, you have your — fortune! — All of your real-estate holdings, your blue-chip stocks, your — bonds, your — mansion on Edgewater Drive, your — shy little — secretary, your — fabulous gardens that Pilgrims cannot go into …

CORNELIA. Oh, yes, now you are speaking, now you are speaking at last! Go on, please go on speaking.

GRACE. I am — very — different! — Also turning grey but my grey is different. Not iron, like yours, not imperial, Cornelia, but grey, yes, grey, the — color of a … cobweb … [She starts the record again, very softly] — Something white getting soiled, the grey of something forgotten. [The phone rings again. Neither of them seems to notice it] — And that being the case, that being the difference between our two kinds of grey, yours and mine — You mustn’t expect me to give bold answers to questions that make the house shake with silence! To speak out things that are fifteen years unspoken! That long a time can make a silence a wall that nothing less than dynamite could break through and — [She picks up the phone] I’m not strong enough, bold enough, I’m not —

CORNELIA. [fiercely] You’re speaking into the phone!

GRACE. [into phone] Hello? Oh, yes, she’s here. It’s Esmerelda Hawkins. [Cornelia snatches the phone]

CORNELIA. What is it, Esmerelda? What are you saying, is the room full of women? What a babble of voices! What are you trying to tell me? Have they held the election already? What, what, what? Oh, this is maddening! I can’t hear a word that you’re saying, it sounds like the Fourth of July, a great celebration! Ha, ha, now try once more with your mouth closer to the phone! What, what? Would I be willing to what? You can’t be serious! Are you out of your mind? [She speaks to Grace in a panicky voice] She wants to know if I would be willing to serve as vice-Regent! [into phone] Esmerelda! Will you listen to me? What’s going on? Are there some fresh defections? How does it look? Why did you call me again before the vote? Louder, please speak louder, and cup your mouth to the phone in case they’re eavesdropping! Who asked if I would accept the vice-regency, dear? Oh, Mrs. Colby, of course! — that treacherous witch! — Esmerelda!! Listen! I — WILL ACCEPT — NO OFFICE — EXCEPT — THE HIGHEST! Did you understand that? I — WILL ACCEPT NO OFFICE EXCEPT — ESMERELDA! [She drops phone into its cradle]

GRACE. Have they held the election?

CORNELIA. [dazed] What? — No, there’s a five-minute recess before the election begins …

GRACE. Things are not going well?

CORNELIA. “Would you accept the vice-Regency,” she asked me, “if for some reason they don’t elect you Regent?” — Then she hung up as if somebody had snatched the phone away from her, or the house had — caught fire!

GRACE. You shouted so I think she must have been frightened.

CORNELIA. Whom can you trust in this world, whom can you ever rely on?

GRACE. I think perhaps you should have gone to the meeting.

CORNELIA. I think my not being there is much more pointed.

GRACE. [rising again] May I be excused, now?

CORNELIA. No! Stay here!

GRACE. If that is just a request, I —

CORNELIA. That’s an order! [Grace sits down and closes her eyes] When you first came to this house — do you know I didn’t expect you?

GRACE. Oh, but Cornelia, you’d invited me here.

CORNELIA. We hardly knew each other.

GRACE. We’d met the summer before when Ralph was —

CORNELIA. Living! Yes, we met at Sewanee where he was a summer instructor.

GRACE. He was already ill.

CORNELIA. I thought what a pity that lovely, delicate girl hasn’t found someone she could lean on, who could protect her! And two months later I heard through Clarabelle Drake that he was dead …

GRACE. You wrote me such a sweet letter, saying how lonely you were since the loss of your mother and urging me to rest here till the shock was over. You seemed to understand how badly I needed to withdraw for a while from — old associations. I hesitated to come. I didn’t until you wrote me a second letter …

CORNELIA. After I received yours. You wanted urging.

GRACE. I wanted to be quite sure I was really wanted! I only came intending to stay a few weeks. I was so afraid that I would outstay my welcome!

CORNELIA. How blind of you not to see how desperately I wanted to keep you here forever!