Guide Note

Jean Genet's play The Maids is based on the Papin sisters who murdered their employer and daughter in 1933.

Summary

The play begins in Madame's bedroom with the maid Claire chastising her sister and fellow maid Solange for taking rubber gloves out of the kitchen. As Solange helps Claire dress they continue to reenact their roles with Claire as the employer and Solange as the maid, however the reenactment turns to fantasy as Solange insults Claire in a way she does not when she is the maid to Madame.

Claire asks Solange to remember Madame's kindness, but Solange feels that she and Claire are treated as filth. As the tension between them mounts and fear of getting caught continues, Solange realizes that Claire does not respect her and insists it is her turn to play the employer and Claire's turn to play the maid. Solange pretends to murder Claire as Madame followed shortly afterwards by Claire's suicide by poisoned tea.

Significance

The play caused a scandal in Paris when it was first performed for its harsh portrayal of conflicts between the upper and working classes, the questioning of femininity and the appropriate role of women proved almost as controversial. The sisters represent otherness or those who are different in opposition to the status quo which proved threatening to those who liked the status quo.

Fast Facts

1. Written by Jean Genet
2. First performed on April 17, 1947
3. Originally written in French
4. French title Les Bonnes
5. First performance in Paris
6. First published by Grove Press
7. A one act play
8. Based on the Papin sisters
9. Set in 1930s
10. Set in Madame's bedroom
11. Major symbol is red velvet dress
12. Film based on play stars Glenda Jackson, Susannah York, and Vivien Merchant
13. Classified as both Absurdism and Theatre of Cruelty

Quotations

1. "Frontiers are not convention but laws. Here, my lands; there, your shore." — Solange
2. "She loves us the way she loves her bidet." — Solange