Machinal

The young woman, whose name is Helen, is the central character of Machinal. She is both herself, specifically, constrained by the social norms of her age but desiring freedom and something more from life, and representative of all women of her era. She is “essentially soft and tender,” (167-68) but lives within a harsh, mechanical world that does not listen to her and provides few options for a path forward in life. We see her do her best to push back and refuse the nagging demands of her mother, her husband, and society in general, but these elements wear her down.

Helen sees her only chance at freedom as arriving to her through the murder of her husband—an idea put into motion when she goes on date with a murdererwhile she’s married. Helen is a prime example of Battered woman syndrome (BWS), in which a female kills their partner as a response to what is perceived as consistent and persisting abuse. BWS would not become a syndrome until the 1990s, some sixty years after Treadwell’s play first premiered. BWS is considered by some analysts as a sub-type of PTSD, and includes intense feelings of fear, loneliness, anger, and sadness, in addition to the inability to effectively communicate these feelings.