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 II, Scene 2Act Summaries & Analyses

Act II, Scene 2 Summary

Late the next morning, Andrew and Edward wake up in Georgie’s apartment. In an unguarded moment, Andrew confesses that he and Lydia had sex before Edward and she broke up. Edward is shocked by the duplicity of his friend.

Edward tells Andrew to stop playing games with Georgie and tell her how he feels: “You should take her in your arms and take her to bed” (89). However, Edward adds that if Andrew does not want her, then Edward does. Andrew’s immediate response is to return to his claims of ownership: “I’m not giving her to you again” (89). As the hypocrisy of the remark registers, Edward comments, “We really are a couple of assholes” (89).

Georgie arrives with groceries and a copy of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that Lydia gave her. She is wearing jeans, a sweater, and her spike heels. She cannot believe the two men are still in her apartment. Andrew asks Edward to give them a moment alone, then takes Georgie in her arms and tries to kiss her. She pulls away, astutely noting that she will never be good enough—he will always be trying to fix her. Dispirited, he leaves. When he is gone, Georgie throws off her heels.

Edward returns. Georgie complains that she needs to sleep, but Edward refuses to leave. He tells that while Andrew is wrong for her, Edward has changed. Georgie believes people can change; she is also now no longer afraid of anything or anybody. Georgie lays down some rules: Edward gets one kiss, and then they must negotiate where they go from here. Georgie says, “Make me an offer” (100).

Act II, Scene 2 Analysis

The Georgie who returns the following morning is clearly not the Georgie who left with Lydia. Although details of the night are never shared, we see the therapeutic impact of this new friendship. For the first time, someone has influenced Georgie in a way that doesn’t feel selfish, manipulative, or predatory. For the first time in the play, she appears in comfortable jeans and a loose sweater, rather than provocative office attire or her underwear. To complete the transformation, she slips off and discards her spike heels even as the insensitive Andrew compliments them. Her inner life has also been affected—rather than listening to Andrew’s droning on about philosophy, she will read Pride and Prejudice, a novel about a headstrong woman who finds an equitable relationship with an at first condescending man. Georgie asserts an authentic identity, accepting herself as she is and rejecting Andrew’s judgment that she needs to be fixed: “I am not saying I am perfect. A lot of the time I’m a fucking mess” (93).

After Andrew’s departure, Georgie confronts Edward on new terms and with new boundaries. She refuses to discuss Andrew, and speaks truthfully about what she and Edward have started: “we don’t have the most romantic relationship here” (98). Asserting that “I’m not afraid of anything” (99), Georgie signals to Edward that the power dynamics that worked in his favor before—her fear of losing her law firm job, that she had little offer besides her sexual appeal, and that she wouldn’t do enough to please Andrew—no longer apply. Instead, Georgie adopts a different role, channeling Edward’s own earlier strategy: negotiation. Taken aback, Edward, who is usually an accomplished strategist, surrenders: “I accept your terms” (99).

The play ends without solving its problem. Georgie and Edward smile at each other, but we do not learn how they manage to balance their own needs with each other’s wants. Georgie has come a long way, however, discarding her spike heels to assert a more powerful identity.