KJCKorea
Journal Central

Like her other plays, Lillian Hellman’s Toys in the Attic deals with dangerous themes at that time. Carrie’s incestuous desire for her brother, Lily’s obsessive love for her husband, and an aberrant love between a white rich woman and her black chauffeur arouse much reaction among the audience. Toys in the Attic is about love, unlike Hellman’s earlier plays which deal with social issues such as blackmail, betrayal and power relations. Here Hellman focuses on the destructiveness of excessive love― she suggests that we talk about love too carelessly and that we ignore the negative side of blind love. She does not portray love in a melodramatic way. In a traditional melodrama love is a cure-all, but in this play it is abnormal and obsessive―one which has much to do with domination and power. Hellman shows these ideas through women in love. Carrie has an unconscious desire for her brother and treats him like a toy in the attic. The attic is the place where childhood desire is stored and forgotten. Julian’s independence through success disturbs and irritates her, so she ruins his success. Lily also has an obsessive desire for her husband. She is suspicious of her husband’s fidelity and is consumed by the thought that she has been and will be betrayed by others. She also believes that Julian married her for money and that he will betray her after he becomes rich. She ruins his business for fear of losing him. Hellman puts emphasis on Lily’s lack of self-knowledge. Lily lacks the self-knowledge to prevent her husband’s failure. The necessity for self-knowledge and its disastrous effects of its absence are Hellman’s constant concerns in her works. In Toys in the Attic, Hellman shows that too much love and the lack of self-knowledge bring harm to other people.

헬만, 사랑, 지배, 멜로드라마, 집착