Wealthy, self-important businessman John is a bully towards his conventional wife, Lucy, and everyone else who crosses his path. His younger sister, Helen, is a modern woman and John is constantly scandalized by her behavior, especially when she decides to pursue an education and a career in science. John is even more shocked when Helen begins to work at night, alone and unchaperoned, in her laboratory with her boss, the young scientist Ernest. As John realizes Helen and Ernest are secretly in love, John tries to prevent their marriage, believing that scientists are ill-paid and of a lower class. But when the pair threaten to leave for Paris to work on a scientific project, John is determined to force them into a marriage to preserve Helen’s respectability. An examination of love, marriage, commitment, and money in the dawn of the new century, Why Marry is the first ever winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Why Marry? guide sections
