THE MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY IN A TIME OF CHANGE


The Conway family lives through a time of great change in Britain during the events of the play. Social values and traditional ways of life changed dramatically in the years following WWI, just as the Conway children reach adulthood. As the siblings make their way in the world, each faces what psychologists today call an inner conflict: a difference between their intrinsic desires and the cultural and family values they internalized in childhood. For this family, childhood, and adulthood took place in two very different eras.


“I don't want anybody to dress up and be funny in the coat Father wore just before he was drowned.”


The Conway family dynamic is shaped by the death of the father just before start of WWI. At the time of the father’s death, traditional mourning was still practiced in England, though customs were relaxed compared to those of the nineteenth century.


Family members wore mourning clothes, typically black crape, for a set number of months. These clothes were meant to represent spiritual darkness following a loss. The length of time one spent “in full mourning” depended on the relationship to the deceased. Family members would


then enter “half mourning” where they would transition to wearing lighter colors over time. These lighter colors signalled where they were in the grieving process to everyone they encountered.


Widows like Mrs. Conway were expected to remain “in mourning” the longest, up to two years. (Widowers would have remained in mourning for less than a year, suggesting the value the culture placed on women relative to that of men.) Those in mourning did not attend social events for several weeks and refrained from balls and dances for months.


Mourning customs allowed people to openly express their grief and provided a framework for the bereaved to return to normal activities. These social rituals made death a visible part of life.


Though mourning practices were already changing before WWI, the conflict marked a major shift. 700,000 British soldiers were killed. So many people were compelled to wear mourning clothes that it lowered the morale of the nation. Fabric shortages and women’s employment in the war effort made mourning clothes impractical. “Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag,” one famous marching song of


14 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY


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