The Philadelphia Story: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Philadelphia Story" is a classic play that revolves around the complexities of love, class, and personal growth, primarily through the lens of its major characters. At the center is Tracy Lord, a beautiful and strong-willed woman who, despite her high society status, grapples with her own imperfections and the expectations placed upon her. Her ex-husband, C. K. Dexter Haven, embodies a blend of charm and sarcasm, still harboring feelings for Tracy while critiquing her rigid ideals. Mike Connor, an outsider and writer, brings a critical perspective on wealth and privilege, yet finds himself drawn to Tracy’s spirited nature. The play also features a cast of supporting characters, including Tracy's family and fiancé, George Kittredge, who highlight the different facets of her character and her journey toward self-acceptance. Each character contributes to Tracy's evolution, challenging her views on love and societal norms. The narrative ultimately explores themes of personal integrity and the search for genuine connection amidst societal expectations.
The Philadelphia Story: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Philip Barry
First published: 1939
Genre: Play
Locale: Near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Plot: Comedy of manners
Time: The 1930's
Tracy Lord, a strikingly beautiful young woman of twenty-four, nicknamed “Red” by Dexter Haven because of her red hair. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College. Divorced from Dexter Haven, who criticized her as a virgin goddess, a married maiden, and the quintessential Type Philadelphiaensis, she could be the finest woman on earth, he claims, if she could overcome an intolerance against human frailty. She insists that she does not want to be worshiped but wants to be loved. Defending herself from Mike Connor's prejudice, she argues that classes do not matter “except for the people in them” and that “there aren't any rules about human beings.”
C. K. Dexter Haven, a twenty-eight-year-old formerly married, for ten months, to Tracy in an impulse marriage. He designs and races sailboats and plays polo. He drinks a bit too much and once slugged Tracy, who was a scold rather than a helpmate in their brief marriage. Urbane, witty, and with an honest if sarcastic outspokenness, he argues that occasional misdeeds are often as good for a person as the more persistent virtues. He is still in love with Tracy, thinks she is remarrying beneath her, and maneuvers to get her back. As an in-joke, he is named for the playwright's friend, professor of English Dexter Haven of The Johns Hopkins University.
Macaulay (Mike) Connor, a thirty-year-old writer from South Bend sent by Destiny magazine to write up Tracy's high-society wedding as part of a series on the Philadelphia story. A self-styled Jeffersonian Democrat, he dislikes the assignment, has a bias against the wealthy, and thinks the idle rich like Tracy have no right to exist. She in turn considers him an intellectual snob, but she is attracted to his sardonic iconoclasm. Tracy argues that the time to make up your mind about people is “never” and that he should follow the advice in one of his own stories, “With the Rich and Mighty Always a Little Patience.” His external toughness masks a poetic sensibility that is evident in his books. Before the play is over, he has come to admire Tracy and Dexter and to see that Tracy's fiancé, who has come up from the proletariat, is really a heel. Tracy cannot understand how, when he can write so well, he wastes his time doing cheap work for expensive magazines. His books, however, have earned practically no money for him. A drunken evening with him, involving two kisses and a nude swim, humanizes Tracy, severs her engagement to Kittredge, and helps her return to Dexter.
Elizabeth Imbrie, a twenty-eight-year-old photographer from Destiny who really wanted to be a painter. Divorced from a hardware salesman in Duluth, she is in love with Mike Connor.
Dinah Lord, Tracy's wisecracking thirteen-year-old sister, who prefers Dexter to George Kittredge. By chance, she witnesses Tracy's drunkenness. The next morning, she tells Tracy, who would rather forget the incident, as she claims to have forgotten a similar one during her marriage to Dexter.
Seth Lord, age fifty, Tracy's father, a banker who is separated from his wife and living in New York, where he has backed three shows for a dancer, Tina Mara. He has a controlling interest in George Kittredge's company. Tracy pretends that he is her Uncle Willie. She is unforgiving of his philandering, though he says that middle-aged philandering has nothing to do with a wife and is rather an expression of reluctance to grow old. He argues that the one thing Tracy lacks is an understanding heart and that she is a prig and a perennial spinster. Becoming reunited with Dexter also reunites her with her father.
Alexander “Sandy” Lord, age twenty-six, the brother of Tracy and Dinah, newly a father. He invited Mike Connor and Elizabeth Imbrie to stay for the wedding, in turn for their keeping Seth Lord's affair out of the news. Sandy works for The Saturday Evening Post.
Margaret Lord, the mother of Tracy, Dinah, and Sandy, forty-seven years old but appearing and acting younger. She is estranged from her husband, largely at Tracy's insistence.
George Kittredge, Tracy's handsome, thirty-two-year-old fiancé. He worked his way up from the bottom to become general manager of Quaker State Coal. Tracy thinks that she is in love with him, but she actually is on the rebound from Dexter, who says that “Kittredge is no great tower of strength….Heisjustatower.”Despitehisworking-classorigins, Kittredge is a snob. Unlike Dexter, he admires Tracy's distant, cool goddess quality. When he sees her in Mike's arms after a nude swim, he instantly concludes the worst.
William Tracy, known as Uncle Willie, Margaret Lord's older brother (by fifteen years) and Tracy's uncle. He is a defense lawyer. Tracy pretends that he is her father.