The Winter Garden: Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room and the Dialectic Deconstruction of Separate Spheres

Abstract

Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room (2009) breaks down the nineteenth-century dichotomy of public and private spheres. Catherine Givings exists in her parlor, which is separated from her husband's operating theatre where he treats hysteria patients by inducing orgasms with electric vibrators. Following much feminist dramatic precedent, Catherine is trapped in the domestic sphere, unable to make meaningful relationships. The private space of the parlor and the public (in its association with medical science) operating theatre interpenetrate one another, compromising the ideology of nineteenth-century gendered spaces. However, only when Catherine and Dr. Givings are transported to the winter garden—a third space outside the normal bounds of the public/private binary—can they connect emotionally. Ruhl's play models this alternative space of human connection to advocate breaking down of contemporary gendered binaries and hierarchies.