Glossary

Here's a glossary of potentially unfamiliar references in the script, with the page numbers on which they first appear in parentheses.

Electric lamp (9): In 1878, Joseph Swan demonstrated the first electric light. A few months later, Thomas Edison invented the carbon-filament lamp and a direct-current generator for incandescent electric lighting. By 1886, long distance power transmission was possible. Streetlamps, storefronts, theatres, and homes were lit by electricity in areas with hydroelectric turbines and in areas that could afford the transmission of electricity.

Medical equipment (9): Here's a picture of a doctor's office from the 1890s, to give you an idea of what kind of equipment might be around.

No rusty tool to snuff it out (9): Candles can be put out with a candle snuffer, an instrument that smothers the flame with a small metal cup that is suspended from a long handle, thus depriving it of oxygen.

A nice wet nurse with lots of healthy milk (9): A wet nurse is a woman who is used to breast feed and care for another's child. Wet nurses are used when the mother is unable or chooses not to nurse the child herself. Before the development of baby formulas in the 20th century, when a natural mother was unable to breastfeed her baby, the baby's life was put in danger if a wet nurse was not available. The practice of using wet nurses is ancient and common to many cultures. It has been linked to social class, where monarchies, the aristocracy, nobility or upper classes had their children wet-nursed in the hope of becoming pregnant again quickly.

Pram (10): A baby carriage.

I find her weeping at odd moments during the day, muttering about green curtains or some such nonsense (11): Perhaps a nod to Charlotte Perkins Gilman's famous 1899 short story "The Yellow Wallpaper." In this story (full text available online here), the narrator goes mad and begins seeing figures "creeping" around in her patterned yellow wallpaper after having been confined in the same room for months as part of the rest cure treatment for hysteria.

And have you tried the usual remedies, rest and relaxation? (12): Dr. Givings refers to the rest cure, which was a common treatment for hysterical women. Under this treatment, female patients were ordered to spend months in bed, were not allowed to read, write, or exercise, they were force fed until they were fat--essentially creating an artificial pregnancy (because this was a woman's ultimate purpose and destiny anyway). The rest cure was usually pretty counter-productive--Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the author of "The Yellow Wallpaper," endured it herself, to no avail, and ultimately found herself cured of her post-partum depression only when she began a regimen of work on her writing and physical exercise.

Mr. Daldry, your wife is suffering from hysteria (13): Since the very first physicians practiced medicine in ancient Greece, women were frequently diagnosed with "hysteria"--a cluster of emotional symptoms that were thought to result from diseases of the female sexual and reproductive organs ("hysteria" comes from the Greek word hystera, meaning "womb"). Neurasthenia was a new medical diagnosis invented by George Beard in the 1870s--a variation of essentially the same thing. Understood as exhaustion of the nervous system because of a lack of nervous energy, neurasthenia was the name for vague, chronic complaints in adult women, including anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, nervousness, erotic fantasies, and moisture inside the vagina. Though hysteria/neurasthenia was usually applied to women, it was occasionally diagnosed in men--as we see in with the character of Leo Irving.

I recommend therapeutic electrical massage (13): For centuries doctors had been treating women for hysteria by focusing on the uterus directly. The "pelvic massage" was intended to provide hysterical women sudden, dramatic relief through "hysterical paroxysm" (orgasm). However, this was time-consuming and hard work for the doctors. In 1883, Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville patented the first electromechanical vibrator. It was an immediate hit--it produced paroxysm quickly, safely, reliably, and inexpensively. The vibrator was not seen as sexual because men believed that women were incapable of sexual desire and pleasure.

It take a while to disrobe as she wears a variety of layers (15): Typical Victorian dress for women consisted of layers of underskirts and a brassiere, followed by a chemise, corset, bustle, long skirt, and high collared top. The emphasis was on a small waist and a full skirt in the back, slim on the sides. There's more details here.

Mrs. Daldry, we are going to produce in you what is called a paroxysm. The congestion in your womb is causing your hysterical symptoms and if we can release some of that congestion and invite the juices downward your health will be restored (16): Dr. Givings is evidencing typical late 19th century medical and biological theories about women's bodies and women's health. The argument was that from puberty to menopause, the entire female body and mind was controlled by the reproductive apparatus. As they put it: "It is as if the Almighty, in creating the female sex, has taken the uterus and built up a woman around it."Hence, whatever happened in the central nervous system had direct implications on the health of uterus, and vice versa--whatever happened (or failed to happen) in the uterus had immediate reverberations in the central nervous system.

Thanks to the dawn of electricity--yes, thank you Mr. Edison, I always tip my hat to Mr. Edison--a great American--I have a new instrument which I will use. It used to be that it would take me or it would take Annie-- oh--hours--to produce a paroxysm in our patients and it demanded quite a lot of skill and patience. It was much like a child's game--trying to pat the head and rub the stomach at the same time--but thanks to this new electrical instrument we shall be done in minutes. (16): Building on the contributions of other developers over the previous three quarters of a century, Mr. Thomas Edison made significant improvements to the idea of incandescent light, and wound up in the public consciousness as "the inventor" of the lightbulb, and a prime mover in developing the necessary infrastructure for electric power. Also, see note for "I recommend therapeutic electrical massage" (13).

Dr. Benjamin Franklin once decided to electrocute a bird for his turkey dinner on Christmas eve. But, by mistake, he held onto the chain, completing the circuit, and couldn't let go. He described violently convulsing until he was able by sheer force of will to let go of the chain. He was perfectly fine! (17): This is a true story. Check it out.

Did you know they electrocuted an elephant in Coney Island last week? (18): Also true, though slightly anachronistic, as the event actually occurred in 1903. From Wired: Thomas Edison staged his highly publicized electrocution of an elephant in order to demonstrate the dangers of alternating current. Edison had established direct current as the standard for electricity distribution and was living large off the patent royalties, royalties he was in no mood to lose when George Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla showed up with alternating current. Edison's aggressive campaign to discredit the new current took the macabre form of a series of animal electrocutions using AC. Stray dogs and cats were the most easily obtained, but he also zapped a few cattle and horses. Edison got his big chance, though, when the Luna Park Zoo at Coney Island decided that Topsy, a cranky female elephant who had squashed three handlers in three years (including one idiot who tried feeding her a lighted cigarette), had to go. Park officials originally considered hanging Topsy but the SPCA objected on humanitarian grounds, so someone suggesting having the pachyderm "ride the lightning," a practice that had been used in the American penal system since 1890 to dispatch the condemned. Edison was happy to oblige. A crowd put at 1,500 witnessed Topsy's execution, which was filmed by Edison and released later that year as Electrocuting an Elephant. In the end, though, all Edison had to show for his efforts was a string of dead animals, including the unfortunate Topsy, and a current that quickly fell out of favor as AC demonstrated its superiority in less lethal ways to become the standard.

It's only that they say morality goes right through the milk (21): There was a backlash at the time of the play against the practice of wet nursing, the main objections being that wet nurses were dirty, alcoholic, poor, etc.--it was believed that mothers transmitted morality through their milk. French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that mothers’ refusal to nurse was the source of all vice in the world--the intimacy of breast feeding allowed mothers to pass on values of kindness to the new generation.

You'd rather have a Negro protestant than an Irish Catholic, wouldn't you? (22): Dr. Givings expresses the sentiments of the Nativist movement, which favored the interests of certain established inhabitants of an area or nation as compared to claims of newcomers or immigrants. This form of nationalism is often identified with xenophobia and anti-Catholic sentiment. Nativist outbursts occurred in the Northeast from the 1830s to the 1850s, primarily in response to a surge of Irish Catholic immigration. Nativist sentiment experienced a revival in the 1890s, led by Protestant Irish immigrants hostile to Catholic immigration.

Cholera season (22): Cholera was one of the most widespread and deadly diseases of the 19th century, killing an estimated tens of millions of people. It recurred in spurts several times over the course of the 1800s, usually in the summer as the warmer weather allowed the virus, which spread through contaminated water, to multiply.

I was horrified when the electric lamp was invented (23): Thomas Edison patented the electric lamp in 1879, so this was a relatively recent invention for Mrs. Daldry to adjust to.

I also need to be sure you haven't any venereal disease that could be passed through the milk to the child (25): According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health, most STIs, with the exception of HIV, are not transmitted from mother to child through breast milk.

We hope to have extra children, just in case (27): In 1880, the infant mortality rate was 214.8 deaths for every 1000 babies born, meaning nearly 22% of all babies died as infants. Mrs. Givings's remark is thus understandable for this era--the death of a child was certainly in the minds of women at that time as a distinct possibility. 

Electrical failure (30): Given that electrical lighting was very rare in this era, it was common for fuses to blow given any significant increase in electrical usage.

The manual treatment (31): See note for "I recommend therapeutic electrical massage" (13).

Aristotle (31): A Greek philosopher, he believed that the wombs of over-stimulated women would become slippery and inhospitable to fetuses, and consequently recommended a periodic release of "seed."

One day the whole city will be electrified. Mr. Edison is the man to do it. (34): "We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles." --Thomas Edison

Vulvular massage has been discounted in many circles (35): Many doctors of the era rejected the practice of time-consuming "vulvular massage" after the inventor of the vibrator, so as not to lose business to midwives, who were more adept at achieving paroxysm through manual treatment.

I'm going to the club (37): The idea of a gentlemen's club reached its heyday in the Victorian Era. There, men could gamble, drink, and discuss politics or current events in a setting removed from their wives. Clubs were divided by political affiliation, by class, or by profession.

Mr. Edison's man is electrocuting dogs this evening. He's out to prove the danger of alternating current over and above direct current (37): See note for "Did you know they electrocuted an elephant in Coney Island last week?" (18).

Gloves (37): In Victorian dress, it was typical for both men and women to wear gloves in public, particularly in the winter months. Formal "opera length" gloves were also required for ladies on formal occasions.

A hat pin (39): A decorative pin used to keep one's hat on one's head.

Florence (43): A city in central Italy. It was the capital in 1865, and the home to many artists, past and present.

Leonardo (43): Leonardo DaVinci, Italian Renaissance painter and inventor. He his known for placing a strong emphasis on the human form.

The Uffizi (43): An art gallery in Florence.

It is very rare, a case of hysteria in a man, but of course we do see it. (45): The homogeneously male medical community leaned toward restricting their diagnoses of nervous disabilities almost exclusively to female patients, thus contributing to a model of masculine human nature which, although fragile and ultimately shown to be untenable, operated successfully over a span of more than two centuries.

The Chattanooga Vibrator (46): Invented to treat male hysteria, the Chattanooga Vibrator was inserted rectally and designed to stimulate the prostate gland.

Michelangelo (50): Italian renaissance painter

Virgin Child with the Angels (50): A Renaissance painting by Sandro Botticelli

A Madonna (53): A pictorial or sculptural representation of the Virgin Mary, either without without the baby Jesus.

Mackintosh (55): A form of waterproof raincoat made of rubberized fabric. First sold in 1824 and named for its inventor.

In a sick woman the device restores balance, but in a healthy woman, it makes you excitable and perhaps even causes some perverse kind of onanism (59): In the history of the diagnosis of hysteria, one physician believed that the symptoms of hysteria were caused by immoral self-stimulation. He proposed the vibrator as "a test of salacious propensities in women." Onanism is a word for masturbation that originates from the story of Onan in the biblical Old Testament. Onan was struck down by God for "spilling his seed on the ground" instead of fulfilling his filial obligation to continue his dead brother's family by impregnating his widow.

A vibrator made of water (61): Luckily, there is no lore of someone electrocuting themselves trying to create a vibrator with electric currents in water. However, water was a frequently-prescribed treatment before the invention of the vibrator. The few women who could afford it would travel to spas to receive a "pelvic douche," a treatment in which a strong jet of water was aimed at a woman's lower pelvis in order to produce a paroxysm. A few rich doctors installed hydrotherapy units, but the majority did not have access to this treatment. Thus, a more convenient tool, the electric vibrator, was invented.

It has come to mean an absolute thing: the end of a book, those dreadful Mrs. Bovary books (63): Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert was published in 1856. It tells the story of an unhappily married woman who carries on a string of indiscreet affairs and, of course, meets a tragic end as a result.

There is a winter garden (68): Victorian winter gardens were usually glass greenhouses where bulbs and other cold weather plants were cared for.

Thales thought the earth was suspended on water (76): Thales of Miletus (620 BCE to 546 BCE), studied philosophy, history, science, mathematics, engineering, geography, and politics. He is considered the father of natural philosophy because he was the first to question the origins and properties of matter.

Temporomandibular joint (84): The joint at the top of the jaw, just in front of each ear.

Buccal artery and nerve (84): A nerve and artery in the area of the cheek.

Depressor anguli oris (84): The muscle at the corner of the mouth and below that moves the corners of the mouth horizontally.

Zygomatic arch (84): The cheekbone.

Temporalis fascia (84): The sheets of muscle on the sides of the skull.