June marks LGBTQ Pride Month, so let us celebrate by talking about an early 20th-century play that I think alludes to homosexuality. The play is J.M. Barrie’s 1905 play, Alice Sit-By-The Fire. (J.M. Barrie wrote the classic play, Peter Pan). It is a shorter post as the evidence is mainly at the beginning of the play, but I think the play definitely has homosexual undertones.
Alice Sit-By-The Fire centers on the return of Amy and Cosmo’s parents, Alice and Robert, from their time in India. Amy has taken on the role as the mother figure to Cosmo and their baby sister. Amy and Cosmo act very mature for their age and think they know more than their parents. Alice has a hard time re-adjusting herself as a mother figure. When Amy and her friend, Ginevra, believe Alice is having an affair, Amy takes the situation into her own hands. The plot unfolds in a comical way, with Alice becoming the mother figure that Amy needs in the end.
The relationship I want to talk about is the friendship between Amy and Ginevra. I believe that the two of them have romantic feelings for one another, hinted at in the beginning of the play. (Their friendship is featured throughout the play, but the main storyline overshadows the notion that they may love each other more than friends).
Starting at the beginning of the play, we learn that Amy and Ginevra meet “several times a day”, but every time they see each other, they lock eyes. When they do so, what they see is “love eternal”.
“Thus they loved at school (in their last two terms), and thus they will love till the grave encloses them. These thoughts, and others even more beautiful, are in their minds as they gaze at each other now”.
Though this quote could just be a description of two very close friends who are perhaps more like sisters, the next line suggests something differently.
“No man will ever be able to say ‘Amy,’ or to say ‘Ginevra,’ with such a trill as they are saying it”.
Barrie is suggesting that no man will come close to having the same relationship as Amy and Ginevra have. The notion that this is more of a romantic love is further emphasized after Ginevra and Amy call each other their “beloved,” “my better self,” and “my other me.” Barrie writes:
“There is something almost painful in love like this”.
I conclude that this line solidifies the notion that the love Amy and Ginevra have for one another is romantic because Barrie calls it “painful”, which hints that it is forbidden love because they are both women. In the early-1900s (and still now), homosexuality was considered a sin and a criminal offense. Thus, Amy and Ginevra would have had to hide their romantic love. It is therefore painful love because it is love that can never be.
Amy and Ginevra are drawn to one another, demonstrated by a kiss they share:
“…they have been slowly approaching each other, drawn by a power stronger than themselves. Their intention is to kiss. They do so”.
It is not described in the play if this is a kiss on the cheek or on the lips, but the tension that builds between the two of them suggests that it is a romantic kiss either way.
The rest of the play features their strong friendship but the allusion to something more is not featured because the main plot takes over. Since there is very little critical writing on Alice Sit-By-The Fire, I was unable to find any articles that also think the play suggests a homosexual relationship between Amy and Ginevra. Thus, my argument stands on the evidence found in the text. If only we could know if J.M. Barrie intentionally alluded to a romantic relationship between Amy and Ginevra.
June 20, 2019
Link to Alice Sit-By-The-Fire
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