71 pages • 2 hours read
Joseph KesselringArsenic and Old Lace
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1941A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Themes
Family Loyalty Versus Independence
Mortimer’s loyalty to his family is constantly tested throughout the play. He grapples with the choice between his birth family, the Brewsters, or his future family with Elaine. In moving forward with his engagement, he will be abandoning the women who raised him. Conversely, in staunchly defending his aunts, he is rejecting the possibility of a new family with Elaine. Mortimer’s character arc in the play requires him to define how he will choose to conceptualize his family and deciding whether he can shed the metaphorical weight of the Brewster family name in order to save himself.
Kesselring’s play hinges on characterizations of mental illness that were typical in 1941; psychiatric conditions are wrongly conflated with criminal behavior or insensitively portrayed for comedic effect. This outdated conception of psychiatric conditions is essential to understanding Mortimer’s relationship to his family. Throughout the play, various characters discuss the violence, peculiarity, and “insanity” that appear in many of the Brewsters in various forms. Mortimer fears that his status as a Brewster means that he will also inevitably develop these tendencies. In one of the more popular quotes from Arsenic and Old Lace, Mortimer tells Elaine, “You see, insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops” (55). Here, insanity is described as something with agency that can capture an entire bloodline. To be a Brewster means living a life evading its grasp. Having seen the effects in Jonathan, Teddy, and now his aunts, Mortimer refuses to let Elaine and their potential children succumb to the “strange taint in the Brewster blood” (56). However, his choice at this moment begs the question of whether he is resigning himself to shoulder his perceived burden on his own, without any family at all. Despite his turmoil, Mortimer still defends his aunts to the very end, even suggesting that they frame Teddy for their murders in order to protect them. While he ends up choosing a new family by going through with his engagement and abandoning his childhood home, he is only able to do so upon learning he is not a born Brewster. This, in addition to the outlandish and stressful events of the evening, allows him to sever his connection to the Brewsters once and for all, and alleviates his sense of obligation to his family.
By contrast, the rest of the Brewsters display extreme family loyalty. Even though Jonathan, Abby, and Martha are killers, they maintain an odd sort of familial tie even to their victims. The bodies of their victims are not strangers; Abby refers to Mr. Hoskins as “one of our gentlemen,” (67), and Martha gets defensive when Jonathan suggests burying him alongside the strange Mr. Spenalzo. The bodies are considered extensions of the family, taking the place of friend, partner, or honored guest. Kesselring also plays this sense of loyalty for humor, as Abby and Martha genuinely feel a kind of intimacy with their victims, whereas Jonathan’s referral to Mr. Hoskins as “a friend of Mortimer’s” is euphemistic (67). Teddy exhibits this trait of family loyalty as well: When Jonathan attacks Elaine, he identifies her as Alice Roosevelt, incorporating her into the context of his own invented identity. By the end of the play, Abby and Martha present a contrast to Mortimer’s individualism by choosing to join Teddy at the sanitarium rather than send him there alone.
The Absurd Comedy of Contradictions
One of Kesselring’s comedic trademarks in Arsenic and Old Lace is presenting contradictory characters, whose appearances are misaligned with their traits. There are small contradictions littered throughout the early moments of Act I. They start off small–one of the first contradictions presented is Mortimer’s relationship to his career. Though he works as a dramatic critic, he hates the theater and attends performances begrudgingly, or intentionally gives them negative reviews. Another moment that primes the reader for further contradictions within characters is the early encounter with the police officers Brophy and Klein. While they are not outright contradictory, they still embody humorous stereotypes about the competency of law enforcement: Despite their training and role in the community, they are largely inattentive and fail to notice the connection between the Brewster house and certain missing persons cases.
The most obvious set of contradictory characters is Abby and Martha. Their facade of kindness and charity is absurd, but genuine. Abby springs into action as soon as she hears that Brophy’s wife is still recovering from pneumonia, quickly going to fetch her hot broth. Klein remarks, “Listen, try to stop her or her sister from doing something nice–and for nothing!” (9) Abby and Martha’s reputation for always being helpful initially seems at odds with their homicidal streak. While they euphemize their actions by calling their gravesite the Panama Canal, there is still care at the center of their actions. Abby confesses that they were initially inspired by a lonely heart attack victim who seemed to finally achieve peace after succumbing to his illness in their living room, saying they would do anything to “help other lonely old men to that same peace” (26). Though undoubtedly homicidal, their violence stems from a desire to see others free of suffering. Even their method of killing is relatively peaceful and quaint–they offer their victims a final meal before serving them lovingly made, poison-infused wine. Their logic is consistent, but absurd, a typical example of farcical circumstances.
While the Brewster sisters may be able to justify their actions, audience members will likely grapple with their natural instinct to view murder as wrong. Mortimer becomes a proxy for the audience in considering Abby and Martha’s actions. He knows, perhaps better than anyone in the play, that his aunts have an incredible capacity for love. This makes it all the more crushing when he learns that Abby and Martha take the idiom of “killing with kindness” a little too literally. The audience is forced to reckon with the sisters’ actions alongside Mortimer, and joins him in processing their contradictions in real time, aided by the humor Kesselring draws from the juxtaposition of basement graveyards and kindly grandmothers.
The Endurance and Risks of Love
Despite the grisly moments that punctuate Arsenic and Old Lace, the play is grounded by the overwhelming love most of the characters show each other. Watching these relationships ebb and flow over the course of the play demonstrates the extent to which love can persevere in adverse circumstances. It also shows how other forms of love can prove to be toxic.
Abby and Martha notice that Elaine seems to be having a positive impact on Mortimer. When Elaine leaves after Mortimer’s proposal, Abby remarks, “Mortimer, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you quote the bible. We knew Elaine would be a good influence for you” (19). While Mortimer was stating the quote to make a joke, it is still evident that Elaine makes Mortimer happy. The stage directions reflect this–the actor playing Mortimer is instructed to laugh at Abby’s reference to Elaine, and stare out the window at her while Abby fetches Martha (19). He is clearly in love with Elaine and excited to marry her. This makes their eventual breakup all the more crushing. Mortimer begins to struggle with the engagement after learning that Abby and Martha are killers. However, he decisively makes the choice to call it off once he hears about Jonathan’s attack. Mortimer notices her “trembling” and a frightened Elaine tells him that Jonathan is “some kind of maniac” (54). This is the moment that prompts Mortimer to tell Elaine about his family’s history of insanity and call off the engagement. This is incredibly difficult for both Mortimer and Elaine. Mortimer struggles with the knowledge that exposing the truth will put his aunts in danger, and Elaine is deeply confused and upset by his sudden change of heart. As Mortimer explains that he could one day go insane, Elaine responds; “If you think you’re going to get out of this by pretending you’re insane–you’re crazy. Maybe you’re not going to marry me, but I’m going to marry you. I love you, you dope” (56). In this moment, Elaine shows her willingness to fight for their relationship despite Mortimer’s seemingly newfound hesitancy. When he pushes her away, she expresses her willingness to help him solve his problems, suggesting that they could still have a genuine partnership. When he continues to spurn her, she runs away.
After rejecting Elaine, Mortimer dives head-first into protecting himself and his aunts. His love for his family borders on limitless loyalty, and it nearly stands in the way of a successful engagement. Mortimer is only freed from his sense of familial duty when Abby and Martha reveal that he is not a biological Brewster. In this case, Mortimer’s overwhelming desire to protect his aunts from the consequences of their action stood in the way of him pursuing his true love: Elaine. While his love for his family was equally powerful, it began to steer him in a negative direction. Elaine’s love challenged him to better himself for the sake of a healthy relationship, especially as defined by social norms of the time.
