34 pages • 1 hour read
Lynn NottageIntimate Apparel
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Letters
When George sends his first letter, he is entirely unknown to Esther. The letter is mysterious, representing interest and attention from a man for the first time in her life, but the letter is inaccessible to Esther because she cannot read. For Esther, who feels unattractive, the letters are a safe form of intimacy. She can imagine that George is whoever she wants without worrying that he will be disappointed when he sees her. Esther’s letters also create an idea of her that is who she wants to be, infused with both the beauty and sensuality of Mayme and the refined attractive elegance of Mrs. Van Buren. Esther’s letters are an embellishment, particularly in the sense that she does not consider herself to be as eloquent as her ghost writers, but she becomes enamored with the man who is writing her.
Although he is a continent away, George is somehow more accessible to Esther than Mr. Marks. But as Esther eventually discovers, George isn’t real—or at least the George she romanticizes isn’t real. Before he travels to New York, Mayme teases Esther and tells her that George is imaginary. Esther says that he is only paper, light enough to carry in her pocket. When George proposes and makes plans to travel to New York, Esther is nervous, worried about whether accepting his proposal was the right decision. George’s letters, despite the authorship and lack of sincerity, are realer than George himself. His motives, wants, and desires as a person—beyond his scheme to extort money and his enjoyment of sex with Mayme—are unknown.
At the end of the play, Esther shows George that she has saved his letters. Since the play was inspired by Lynn Nottage’s great-grandmother and the lost voices and narratives of history, the letters seemingly represent a historical record of a relationship. But since Esther cannot read or write, the letters are unable to preserve her voice. And George’s letters are a fabrication. The play imagines a personal historical context for the fictional letters, reminding audiences that historical evidence, such as personal letters or photographs, are open to interpretation and never tell the complete story.
Fabric
To Esther and Mr. Marks, fabric represents an unspoiled sense of possibility. The pleasure they both take in exotic and unique fabrics is playful and almost sensual. They can connect on an intimate level over Japanese silk or Scottish wool without breaking the rules of propriety and social decorum. They are not allowed to touch each other, but each fabric brings its own tactile and sensory experience, which they are able to share with each other. They can smell the fruit dyes in the silk and feel the texture. They can use fabric as an intermediary to touch each other, as when Mr. Marks drapes lace around Esther’s shoulders. Mr. Marks locates the fabrics and saves them from other customers so he can experience them with Esther. Together, they imagine the possibilities and what Esther’s skilled hands can make.
Esther’s ability as a seamstress is her greatest talent and passion, and she shows love and affection by creating for others. She brings lingerie and corsets to Mayme, even though Mayme doesn’t have the money to buy them. Esther uses some of her special fabrics to make corsets and robes for Mrs. Van Buren, and she uses her most special fabric, the Japanese silk, to make a smoking jacket for George. None of them seem to fully understand or appreciate what she is giving them, and they certainly never imagine the sacredness of the intimacy with Mr. Marks that is ingrained in those fabrics. Esther sews as a form of love, not only creating but mending clothing, using her talents to make things whole. She offers this freely to those she cares about.
Before Esther meets George, while she exchanges letters and flirts surreptitiously with Mr. Marks, she is surrounded by colorful and interesting fabrics that excite her imagination. Sewing intimate apparel leaves a lot of space for creativity and flamboyance. The smoking jacket is delicate and colorful, something she creates based on her imaginary idea of George. But George doesn’t appreciate the jacked. When he arrives, he is wearing his best suit—a suit that is ill-fitting and frayed. It is beyond repair, and like its owner, impossible to redeem. When Esther purchases fabric for a new suit, she cries because her world and the fabrics in it are no longer colorful. Esther compromises herself in hopes of making George love her. In her final act of compromise, she destroys fabric, ripping open her quilt so he can take her money.
Men’s Jackets
In Esther’s first scene with Mr. Marks, she notices that his suit jacket is missing a button. During another visit, she notices that it is still missing and offers to repair it, but he declines. Repairing the button is an intimate, domestic act, one that a wife might perform for her husband. It would also require him to remove the jacket. As he explains when Esther asks, the jacket belonged to his father. Mr. Marks has access to all of the fine fabrics in the world, but chooses to wear a black, well-worn suit because it connects him to his father and his heritage. The suit represents the traditions and practices that have been passed down for centuries. It is comfortable and signifies his faith. But the jacket is also worn and missing a button. At the turn of the 20th century, Mr. Marks is discovering that some of his religious traditions may also be worn-out and old-fashioned.
Esther makes the smoking jacket for George, imagining that the man in the letters will appreciate the delicate Japanese silk and her expert craftsmanship. The smoking jacket represents Esther’s love. But fine fabrics don’t make sense on George. He is uncomfortable in the smoking jacket. Jackets are outerwear, the opposite of the intimate lingerie that Esther makes as the bulk of her livelihood. It was Mr. Marks who suggested that she might make a smoking jacket from the silk, and when she gives it to George, Esther is trying to shape George a bit more like Mr. Marks. Instead of appreciating the jacket, George betrays Esther by giving it to Mayme, demonstrating that he doesn’t understand Esther at all. At the end of the play, Esther finally gives the jacket to Mr. Marks. He immediately recognizes the magnitude of the gift and matches it with a large gesture of his own. Mr. Marks removes the jacket that represents the heritage that keeps them apart. The smoking jacket fits perfectly, and for the first time, Mr. Marks allows Esther to touch him.
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By Lynn Nottage
