35 pages • 1 hour read
Sarah RuhlIn the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play)
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act IChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Scene 1 Summary
In the Next Room takes place in the 1880s, at “the dawn of electricity; and after the Civil War” (5), in the living room and private operating theater of Dr. Givings, who specializes in gynecological and hysterical disorders. The Givings home is located outside New York City, in a town that may or may not be Saratoga Springs. In the living room, Mrs. Catherine Givings shows her baby the marvel of an electric lamp. Dr. Givings walks through the living room on the way to his operating theater, returns to greet his wife, then returns to the operating theater, where his midwife assistant, Annie, is preparing the room. Catherine talks to her baby, nearly weeping as she promises to find the child a wet nurse because she isn’t producing enough milk herself. She feels guilty for hoping to find a wet nurse who doesn’t have her own child, since that would most likely mean that her baby died. Dr. Givings reenters and informs Catherine that a new patient will arrive soon, and Annie should answer the door because the woman is fragile and seeing the baby might upset her.
The doorbell rings. Dr. Givings tells his wife to hide, and she obeys. Annie lets Mr. and Mrs. Daldry into the house. Mrs. Sabrina Daldry seems weak and anxious, and Annie takes her to the office in the next room as Mr. Daldry explains that his wife is sensitive to light and cold. The baby cries in another room. As Dr. Givings speaks to Mr. and Mrs. Daldry, Catherine slips away to the nursery. Mr. Daldry complains about his wife’s emotional state, often crying and obsessively bothered by their green curtains. Sabrina explains that when she was a child, her mother frequently washed their curtains, and she is bothered because she is too frail and exhausted to “wash the curtains every week and beat the ghosts out of them” (11-12). Mr. Daldry looks pointedly at the doctor and laments at how his wife was full of life when he met her at the age of 17. She played the piano, and Mr. Daldry tells Dr. Givings that her fingers no longer work, insinuating that she also no longer uses her fingers in the bedroom.
Appalled, Sabrina walks out and back into the living room. Dr. Givings explains that Sabrina is afflicted with hysteria and that “therapeutic electrical massage” on a weekly or even daily basis would restore Sabrina’s youth (13). Mr. Daldry is grateful. In the living room, Catherine reenters with the baby, who is named Letitia, or Lotty. Sabrina asks to hold the baby, and Catherine agrees. Dr. Givings suggests that Mr. Daldry take a walk outside during his wife’s appointment. Annie enters to fetch Sabrina, who reluctantly returns the baby; Catherine reassures her and then exits to put the baby down for a nap. Dr. Givings tells Sabrina to take her clothes off so Annie can cover her with a sheet, exiting to give her privacy to do so. In the living room, Catherine reenters and introduces herself to Mr. Daldry, who tells her that he is supposed to go for a walk. Although it is raining out, Catherine offers to walk with him, and they exit.
Dr. Givings explains to Sabrina that he will use an electrical vibrator to “produce in [her] what is called paroxysm” to relieve the “congestion in [her] womb” (19). Sabrina is afraid, but Dr. Givings promises her that the procedure is safe. As Dr. Givings stimulates Sabrina underneath the sheet, he tells a story about Ben Franklin. He encourages her as she starts to moan and then orgasms. Dr. Givings praises the wonders of electricity, and it is time for Sabrina to get dressed. Sabrina expresses a desire to hold the baby again and begins to cry as she tells Dr. Givings that she and her husband have been unable to conceive. Dr. Givings attributes this emotion to the hysteria and tells her that she needs a second treatment. Sabrina protests and pleads him not to do it again, but he insists. Sabrina describes what she is feeling and then orgasms again.
Annie reassures Sabrina that she shouldn’t be ashamed, as every patient has the same response to the treatment. Sabrina expresses that she is sleepy, and Annie agrees to hold her hand while she falls asleep. In the living room, Catherine reenters with Mr. Daldry, wet from the rain and laughing. Catherine jokes flirtatiously with her husband, but Dr. Givings pays little attention and instead tells Mr. Daldry that his wife’s treatment went well. Catherine mentions off-hand that she cannot produce enough milk for her baby, and Mr. Daldry replies that their housekeeper’s baby had died, and she might be a willing wet nurse. Catherine has reservations about allowing a Black woman to feed her baby, but Dr. Givings persuades her, remarking to Mr. Daldry that his father was a famous abolitionist. Sabrina reenters, and Mr. Daldry is amazed at her transformation. After the couple leaves, Mrs. Givings expresses anxiety at bringing a strange woman in to feed her baby, feeling inadequate as a mother even though her husband assures her that she is not.
Act I, Scene 2 Summary
The following day, Mr. Daldry returns with his housekeeper, Elizabeth. Elizabeth reluctantly allows Dr. Givings to examine her to make sure she is producing enough milk and has no venereal diseases. Sabrina enters, and Catherine comments on how healthy she seems. Sabrina mentions that she has begun to play the piano again, and Catherine pleads with her to play until she gives in. In the operating theater, Dr. Givings pronounces Elizabeth healthy. In the living room, Catherine praises Sabrina’s playing and makes up lyrics to go with the music Sabrina wrote. Dr. Givings enters with Elizabeth, and Catherine invasively asks about the child she lost, a boy named Henry Douglas, until Elizabeth tells Catherine that she prefers not to talk about her son. Sabrina offers that Elizabeth has two other sons, and Catherine is glad because, as she says, a home is lifeless without children. This comment irritates Sabrina, who informs Catherine that she has no children.
Dr. Givings directs Catherine to bring the baby to Elizabeth and goes into the operating theater with Sabrina. Sabrina confesses that she finds talk about children to be upsetting. Annie has not arrived yet, and Sabrina is uncomfortable with just Dr. Givings, who exits to allow her to undress. Catherine gives her baby to Elizabeth, who weeps silently while she feeds her. Elizabeth sees that Catherine is nearly crying and takes the baby into the nursery. Dr. Givings sees that his wife is sad, and she explains that she feels strange to see her child latched onto another woman’s breast. Sabrina calls that she is undressed and ready. Dr. Givings suggests that Catherine lie down, but Catherine replies, “I don’t want to lie down. I want to feed my own child” (42). Dr. Givings tells her that that isn’t possible and exits to the operating theater. When he turns the vibrator on, Catherine listens. Dr. Givings attempts to stimulate Sabrina again, but this time it doesn’t work.
Suddenly, the electricity shuts down, and the lights go off. Annie arrives, and Dr. Givings explains that the treatment isn’t working. Annie offers to treat Sabrina manually and does so. This time, when Sabrina orgasms, she ejaculates. Annie assures Sabrina that this is a common response and in fact, “Aristotle talked all about it” (46). Sabrina is impressed to learn that Annie can read Greek. Elizabeth enters the living room and agrees to return after dinner. Catherine stops her and asks, “Elizabeth, when the milk comes in, can you feel any love for the child?” (47) Elizabeth replies that she prefers not to think about love or her dead child. Catherine talks about giving birth and how her child came out hungry—not just for milk, but as if she wanted to devour her. Catherine comments that it’s ironic that Jesus is a man since women are the ones who feed with their body. Catherine apologizes for saying something so blasphemous, but Elizabeth says that she stopped believing in Jesus after he allowed her son to die.
The electricity returns, and the lights come on. Sabrina enters the living room, and Catherine pleads with Sabrina to play another song. Afterward, Sabrina announces that she needs to leave, as does Elizabeth. Annie walks out with them in the same direction. Catherine is alone, and her husband enters, praising electricity and Thomas Edison. They kiss, and Dr. Givings asks if they ought to go to the bedroom. Catherine suggests they stay there, and Dr. Givings concedes. They kiss again, and the doorbell rings. Sabrina rushes in, exclaiming that she has forgotten her hat. Sabrina is dizzy and nearly faints, claiming that the walk was too much exertion as she and Annie were talking. Dr. Givings takes Sabrina back into the operating theater, not bothering to undress her before attempting to apply the vibrator. Sabrina begs Dr. Givings to use his hand instead, and he agrees. When she orgasms, Sabrina calls out Annie’s name.
Dr. Givings finds Catherine listening at the door. She wants to know what therapy he is offering his patients. Dr. Givings insists that it is uninteresting, but Catherine begs him to try it on her. Dr. Givings refuses, calling it “unseemly for a man of science to do experiments on his wife” (56). Sabrina leaves, and Dr. Givings locks the operating theater behind her before leaving to see a demonstration of electricity at his club. Catherine is angry. Sabrina reenters, having forgotten her gloves this time. Catherine tells her that the operating theater is locked but asks her about the therapy. Sabrina explains vaguely, embarrassed that Catherine heard her moaning. Sabrina describes it as “pleasure, and pain all at once” (59). The women talk about electricity and wonder how it will change their lives. Catherine borrows a hatpin from Sabrina and picks the lock, ostensibly to get Sabrina’s gloves. Approaching the vibrator, Catherine asks Sabrina how it works. She tries it on herself, weeping as she orgasms. Catherine describes the feeling as terrible and odd, offering to hold the device so Sabrina can have a turn. Sabrina refuses at first but then agrees.
Act I Analysis
In the first act, the men maintain a disconnect between propriety and intimacy as well as between intimacy and sex. The women, however, blur these boundaries. Sabrina, Catherine, and Elizabeth all express deep levels of sadness that are bound up in love and intimacy. Sabrina cannot have children, and her distress is heightened by her husband’s coldness toward her and refusal of intimacy. Catherine suffers because she cannot fulfill the intimate act of breastfeeding her child. Elizabeth mourns her lost child and tries to separate herself from the intimacy of breastfeeding, but she weeps regardless. The women are expected to control their emotions, their sorrows, and their feelings of inadequacy because their men believe that these matters are private. The administration of orgasm may seem to bring forth physical improvement, but it does not provide the missing intimacy, as demonstrated when Sabrina cannot orgasm in her second session until Annie uses her hands instead of the machine.
By medicalizing the female orgasm, Dr. Givings disassociates it from sex and sexuality. When he and his wife kiss, presumably intending to progress to sex, they are passionless and polite. Dr. Givings deems it inappropriate to give his wife an orgasm and sees the act of stimulating a woman to orgasm as a science experiment. In fact, Dr. Givings tells Catherine that she wouldn’t enjoy an orgasm, illustrating that he does not understand that orgasms are intimate and sexual. Additionally, Dr. Givings can clearly see when his patients exhibit emotional distress but refuses to take his wife’s sadness and pain seriously. Catherine responds by asking—sometimes even pleading—with others to give her that emotionally intimate connection. She often makes others, particularly her husband, uncomfortable by speaking openly about her feelings and asking questions that are a bit too personal to be appropriate.
Additionally, the issues of intimacy (or lack of intimacy) in the play are a matter of male control. If an orgasm is a medical treatment, it is dispensed at the discretion of the doctor. Dr. Givings chooses to give orgasms to his patients but to not his wife because he does not believe that she needs them. When Sabrina is anxious in the first session, Dr. Givings does not listen to her when she begs him to stop. For Elizabeth, breastfeeding is intimate and painful and recalls commonplace instances during slavery in which Black women were deprived of their own children and forced to serve as nannies and wet nurses to White babies. Although the play takes place after the Civil War and emancipation, Mr. Daldry offers her services without consulting her first as if lending his housekeeper out as a wet nurse is his decision rather than hers. At the end of the first act, when Catherine breaks into her husband’s office with Sabrina to experiment with the vibrator, it is an assertion of agency over their bodies.
