49 pages • 1 hour read
Noël CowardBlithe Spirit
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.
Themes
The Question of Loyalty
Through his exploration of Charles’s two marriages, Coward considers whether eternal loyalty is possible and what limitations it may have. Elvira’s return from the dead initially suggests that love may lead to a loyalty that outlasts death. She “marked herself down for a return visit” (46) and everyone insists that Charles “conjured” her up (27). While it appears Charles has been able to move on and marry a second woman, the play initially seems to suggest the first love may be a true love only separated by death. However, his consistent reaction to her return suggests that people may not want eternal devotion. His abandonment of the house and spirits at the end of the play further suggests that eternal loyalty is unwanted and impossible.
Coward considers not only the limits of marital devotion but also sexual fidelity. According to Charles, Elvira “behaved abominably over Guy Henderson” when she had an affair (68). She also “went out on the moors with Captain Bracegirdle” because she was an “eager young bride” who “wanted glamour and music” but was “desperate” for affection and “romance” (69). While Elvira does not question Charles’s sexual fidelity at this point, her affairs underscore how loyalty without love and physical affection does not matter. In addition, within his first marriage, Charles is also not faithful. He was “extremely attached to Paula Westlake at the time” Elvira was with Captain Bracegirdle (85).
The different reactions to the revelations reflect the different expectations for loyalty in a marriage. Ruth’s loyalty is questioned when she refuses to immediately and blindly believe Charles is seeing a ghost. Yet Charles frequently and hypocritically berates both his wives. In particular, he is judgmental of Elvira for her sexuality. Yet in his second marriage, he was only “reasonably faithful” to Ruth and questions whether their marriage would have lasted for much longer (85). His parting comment to Ruth that she was “off-putting” suggests that her loyalty is not respected and will instead be used as an excuse to wander (85). At the end of the play, Charles is loyal to neither wife and leaves them in the house.
Sexuality
Elvira’s sexuality is a large part of her ability to tempt Charles. Before Elvira appears onstage, Charles and Ruth have described her, starkly noting her sexuality. Charles notes “her physical attractiveness, which was tremendous, and her spiritual integrity, which was nil.” (4). Ruth describes how she was “physically triumphant” (5), and Elvira herself confirms this impression. When Charles is distressed over Elvira’s return, Ruth tries to get him to sit down and relax. When she tells him “to come upstairs with [her] and go to bed” (41), Elvira makes it sexual, quipping that the “way that woman harps on bed is nothing short of erotic” (41). Her erotic effect is clear when Charles asks, “What happens if I touch you?” (30). While he is also commenting upon her physical state as a spirit, it also sounds like a question about what will happen to his marriage. Ruth, despite her protestations to the contrary, seems jealous of Elvira’s sexual expressiveness. Ruth and Elvira are positioned as two different types of womanhood: devoted wife as caretaker and sexual object of desire.
Sexuality plays a different role before and after marriage. Charles’s flings bother Ruth, even if his “affair with Maud Charteris lasted exactly seven and a half weeks” (35). As a man, Charles is allowed to declare his premarital sexual encounters. He seeks to upset Ruth when they are fighting, and he remarks that her list of his sexual partners is incomplete, and she has “missed out several episodes” (35). Yet once married, sex is no longer taboo, as Ruth gets confused when she thinks Charles refers to their sexual experiences as “thoroughly immoral” (28). This distinction also lays at the core of why Elvira’s appearance is so upsetting; no longer married, her sexual overtures become immoral again.
Marriage as a Social Expectation
Coward makes a distinction between love and marriage. Marriage is presented as a bleak reality: Elvira is not loyal, Ruth is not happy, and Charles is neither. Marriage is a role for the upper class to fulfill, and Ruth and Charles are performing the expectations for married women and men to both themselves and as a public performance for their guests like Madame Arcati and the Bradmans. Both Charles’s marriages end in death, though he states in Act III that he would have ended his second marriage soon even if Ruth had survived. All his conversations with his wives escalate to fights, and there is no evidence of genuine affection or attempts at communication. While Elvira often conflates love with marriage, Charles often avoids directly declaring his love for either woman.
Marriage comes with expectations, especially for women: they should guide, care for, and support their husbands. Husbands are the benevolent protector of their child-like wife, and she is expected to be subservient to his wishes. These expectations often manifest in condescending language, like when Dr. Bradman says that he “guarantee[s] that [Mrs. Bradman] will be good—I made her promise,” suggesting that Mrs. Bradman has no real control over her emotions and that Dr. Bradman must dictate her manners for her (7). When the séance is over, Mrs. Bradman performs her duty to convince her husband they “must go home” as he has to work early, which fulfills her wifely duty to keep her husband’s schedule (25). Dr. Bradman verbally and subtly asserts his masculine superiority when he states, “The moment I begin to talk about anything that really interests me, my wife interrupts me” (25). While in each other’s company (which can be considered within the public eye), both the Condomines and the Bradmans seem to be upholding the social expectations surrounding marriage, though this adherence tends to break down within the privacy of the Condomines’ home.
