A Matter of Husbands
One Act play by Ferenc Molnar
Summary and Theme
A Matter of Husbands is one act play by Ferenc Molnar about twisted story. It presents story of an Earnest woman. She gets married to a lawyer. Her husband is closely associated with an actress. She finds suspicious activity of her husband with the actress. The actress tells a story of a man who is trying to fool his wife.
The play is about human double standard nature. Actors role are different in real life and on stage. Actors are capable of fooling the audience. At the beginning the woman comes to the stage to wait the actress. She asked her to return her husband. The actress denies her involvement with her husband. She tells that she hasn’t stolen her husband.
She pretends as if she is unknown about it. She tells that she knows her husband during a case. But they don’t have any relation. She tries to find the reason behind the Earnest woman’s suspicion. She makes a fake story to fool her. She claims that she hasn’t received any gifts and letters from her husband. She pretends that some misunderstanding must lead her to suspect their relation.
The actress becomes successful to persuade her that her husband is doing it to increase their love relation. He is only making her jealous. After listening her statement, the young woman accepts her mistake and believes actress story. She also apologizes for creating misunderstanding. When she leaves the stage, the actress calls the man (Alfred), her lover, from her personal bedroom.
Theme: The play tries to show the double standard nature of human being. We shouldn’t trust what appears. We need to go deep into it to explore its reality.
