The plot of the play revolves around family disagreements over financial issues. Each character is greedy to one degree or another and is not afraid to betray their relatives for the sake of earning money. Regina, the play’s protagonist, was deprived of family inheritance by the father of the Giddens family, while her brothers, Oscar and Benjamin, enjoyed all the privileges (Hartley & Ladu, 1948). Thus, Regina’s brothers managed to gain financial independence while she was forced to rely on her wealthy husband. This plot is the basis of the conflict between the characters since Regina is offended by her own relatives for such an outcome. Regina’s position could be seen as a result of the circumstances of the oppression of women by the power of men. However, she also appears to be a greedy personage who wants to get what is due to her.
The conflict escalates when Oscar, the plantation owner, invites his brother and sister to unite to expand production. However, Regina cannot find enough money to enter the business, and even her husband refuses to help her (Hartley & Ladu, 1948). In this situation, the two brothers work together again, while Regina is left alone. Later, the brothers, due to a lack of money for expansion without Regina’s participation, decide to rob her husband, but the plan is revealed. Despite this, her husband also takes the side of the brothers and transfers all his money as an inheritance to his daughter and not to Regina. Thus, Oscar and Benjamin succeed, while Regina is again left alone, already betrayed by her own husband.
Regina’s opposition to the commonwealth of her brothers, her husband, and his daughter is the central plot of this play. This situation is exclusively a conflict between characters and does not include their struggle with external circumstances. All actions are performed by the characters in relation to each other, which is the cause of their troubles and successes. None of them suffered from accidents or happy coincidence, so their conflict is rooted in the greed of the main characters.
Reference
Hartley, L., & Ladu, A. (Eds.). (1948). Patterns in modern drama: Ibsen, Chekhov, Galsworthy, O’Neill, Kelly, Thurber, Nugent, Hellman Citation metadata. Public Domain.