Machinal

The offstage voices in Machinal are used as a chorus that supports the play’s themes in several ways. First, the voices can obscure what the characters onstage are saying, making these voices symbolic of the lack of humanity and individualism in the world Treadwell creates. Next, the voices can underscore what is happening on stage, such as when Helen and her mother are trying to talk, and the voices of a child and parent are included from offstage. Here, the offstage discussion reinforces the conversation onstage, showing that interpersonal conflict, regardless of the specifics thereof, is omnipresent in Treadwell’s world. The voices also work as a means of externalizing Helen’s internalized emotional landscape. This is of especial use when we think of Helen as a character suffering from Battered woman syndrome, a mode of PTSD. As an individual suffering from BWS, Helen is unable to effectively convey how she feels in most situations, instead internalizing these feelings until they overwhelm her. As the play progresses, and Helen sees her only way out of her relationship with Jones as being through killing him, these voices become an externalization of Helen’s psychosis, such as when the voices offers: “Stones–stones—small stones–big stones–millstones–cold stones–head stones head stones–head stones–head stones.