Spike Heels

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1990

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Summary

Act Summaries & Analyses

Act I, Scene 1

Act I, Scene 2

Act II, Scene 1

Act II, Scene 2

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Act I, Scene 2Act Summaries & Analyses

Act I, Scene 2 Summary

Late in the afternoon the next day, Edward knocks on Andrew’s door—he is here to pick up Georgie for a dinner date. He calls Georgie and tells her to meet him in Andrew’s apartment.

Andrew is stunned. He assumed Georgie would quit the job. He never dreamed she would pursue a relationship with the slimy boss who had threatened to rape her. Andrew, who has been drinking Scotch instead of his usual tea, confronts his friend: “I want you to stay away from her” (33). Edward claims that the rape remark obviously was an angry joke—an off-the-cuff comment he made when Georgie, an attractive and provocative woman. When Andrew counters that “It was sexual harassment,” Edward rejects the term as so “overdefined” it’s “meaningless” (36). He suggests that Andrew’s interest in Georgie is something other than friendship. Edward then calls Lydia, whom he also once dated, little more than a “corpse” (37).

Andrew reminds Edward that women are not just bodies—they have tender hearts and generous souls. Edward scoffs at this sloppy idealism, since people are mostly corrupt. Exasperated, Andrew compares the conversation to “talking to a swamp” (39). When Andrew asserts that Georgie will find a new job, Edward says he will never let her go given all the time he has put into molding her into a legal secretary.

Georgie arrives for the date, wearing a provocative dress that Andrew calls “sad and ridiculous” (44) and a pair of exotic spike heels. Edward excuses himself to leave the Andrew and Georgie alone so Andrew can make his pitch to save Georgie’s soul.

Georgie assures Andrew she is not quitting her job—in fact, that afternoon Edward apologized and offered her a raise of over $2000: “I fucking know how to deal with that, okay? I know what to do” (49). Desperate to stop her from going on the date, a slightly tipsy Andrew kisses Georgie. Just as the kiss becomes intense, Andrew pulls away and launches into a stern lecture, scolding Georgie: “I made you better than this” (51), he says. Enraged, Georgie tells Andrew that tonight he will definitely hear Andrew and Georgie having sex in her apartment and storms out.

Act I, Scene 2 Analysis

Georgie is trapped in a patriarchal system that exploits her as a woman and leaves her very little negotiating room. Andrew, ostensibly a friend, treats her as by turns the subject of an experiment and an inferior being he has the right to reprimand. Edward, her boss who could be a professional mentor, is a sexual predator. Georgie has only two choices: Give up any power she has accumulated completely by returning to waitressing, or adopt the only role available to her in the system—that of a sex object. She chooses to keep her status and accept more money, agreeing to go to dinner with Edward the day after he threatens to rape her. Georgie’s ostentatious display of dating Edward is also a way of getting back at Andrew. She wants to make Andrew jealous and to prove to him that he doesn’t control her actions any more. She believes that going out with Edward will reverse the power dynamic between her and Andrew again: “Maybe I want to teach you something for a change” (49). Unfortunately, although her decision horrifies Andrew, it is actually what he has been grooming Georgie to do—he has taught her to play the white-collar office game, which means being game to accept sexual harassment and using her sexuality to get ahead.

In switching his drink from tea to Scotch, Andrew signals his determination to drop his inhibitions. The alcohol bolsters his courage to confront Edward about his treatment of Georgie. However, Andrew is no match for Edward, a defense attorney who spends his days twisting the truth about hardened drug dealers to secure their release. He expertly evades Andrew’s accusations, dismisses sexual harassment as a legally void term, and rejects Andrew’s argument that because women have souls using them is reprehensible: “We’re not talking about anybody’s soul; we’re talking about whether or not I said something sleazy to my secretary. I’m not trying to be difficult; I’m just trying to be realistic” (38). Edward’s pragmatism cuts through Andrew’s philosophizing, exposing to the audience Andrew’s hypocrisy: He reproaches Edward for manipulating Georgie when he has been controlling her every move for months.

Georgie is clear-headed about her decision to sell out. When Edward ducks out to give them some time alone, Georgie explains that Edward offered her job security and a $2000 raise to make his earlier sexual advances seem “kind of funny” (47). Using the passivity she’s learned by being Andrew’s puppet, Georgie cedes control to Edward, remaining in her negotiation with him and then agreeing to the first offer he makes. When Andrew claims that Georgie’s sense of victory is hollow, annoyed by her small victory over him, she realizes that she will never be free of male control and laments Andrew’s decision to instruct her: “Why didn’t you just leave me alone in the first place; why didn’t you just let me be whatever I was?” (52). As she exits, the audience sees the painful reality that there is little difference between seducer Edward and teacher Andrew.