Trials of Worthiness & Innocence____________________________

As we have seen, Oklahoma! depicts a benevolent matriarchy
in which young people are born into an adulthood
based on enjoyment and the celebration of life.
Now we will examine the way they accomplish this task
by passing various kinds of tests or trials,
which determine both their guilt and innocence
and their ability to fulfill adult gender roles.
If they pass the trials, they leave their earlier life behind
and marry their heart's desire.

One trial we see is the auction at the social,
which is for the company of young females
and the enjoyment of their archetypally female picnic baskets.
At the auction, Aunt Eller wields the gavel
and makes the implied promise that
high male bidders will enjoy love and culinary delights.
She backs up her promise by letting them sniff
one of the picnic baskets, extending the already obvious 
sexual symbolism in which males compete
for the pleasures that await them
in the interior of the female's picnic baskets.

It is clear that Aunt Eller runs the auction in a way
that expresses her own values of love and enjoyment,
and enhances the self-esteem of the participants.

But the auction is also a trial
that will reveal whether each young woman
has essential characteristics of womanhood
and is desired for her company, beauty and cooking skills.

The effort by the males to outbid each other
for the females and their culinary delights
results in Jud and Curly bidding everything they own for Laurey.
They are involved in a quintessentially male trial
of daring and the willingness to sacrifice to win a female,
which is part of the larger test the male characters have to undergo
in which they try to achieve manhood
by hunting, fighting for, and wooing the females.

Another trial, which is of masculine skill,
is the steer-roping contest that is referred to,
in which Will proves his suitability
as a mate by demonstrating the ability
to catch and subdue.

Later, he corrals Annie, which suggests that
love is a trial of masculine pursuit
not too different from a steer-roping contest.

All of these are trials of the characters' ability
to fill traditional gender roles.
Closely related are trials of guilt and innocence,
which are blended in with trials of gender competence.
The most obvious example is the mock courtroom trial
in which Curly is judged for the crime of fratricide --
the killing of Jud, a competitor for a female.

Although a male judge wields the gavel,
it is turned into a celebration (as we saw earlier),
as Curly is found not guilty.
He killed Jud, after all, by accident
and because he was fulfilling his gender role
by defending his new wife and her farm.

Laurey's journey through the dream
is another trial that combines the ability to fulfill one's role
with guilt and innocence.
Afraid to fulfill the role of an adult wife,
Laurey has, instead, retreated into a quasi-adulterous flirtation
with Jud, which leads to lascivious sexuality.

She too proves her innocence by fleeing from Jud
and falling into Curly's arms.

In the second love triangle, Annie and Will
also pass the test of innocence and competence at the same time.
Will may not pass the test of intelligence
since he keeps losing the money he needs to win Annie,
but he and Annie each realize
they will have to police the other 
to make certain they both stay faithful.

They then consummate their love,
demonstrating their competence when it comes to
giving each other pleasure in a way that will allow them
to avoid seeking pleasure elsewhere.

Will and Annie, and Curly and Laurey
pass the test. But the likeable Peddler
fails because he keeps trying to pass a different gender test
that involves making female conquests.
He has tried to connive his way into bed with Annie,
manifesting an archetypally masculine form of manipulation
in which he has schemed to attain pleasure
while protecting his freedom.

Because the Peddler fails to pass the test
of adult competence and innocence
he gets stuck with the booby prize:
he will become a henpecked husband for his sins,
with the vain and annoying wife, Gertie,
with the annoying laugh.
The punishment is proportional --
an absurd life for an absurd character, which could
still turn out to be better than the solitary life he was leading.
The punishment is also fittingly ironic:
his comments make clear that his greatest fear
is that marriage is a trap
in which, if one gets tired of one's wife,
there is nowhere to escape.
In the end, he is trapped into marriage
at the point of a gun
and must spend his life subjected to Gertie's laugh,
which makes a few days seem like decades of torture.

Jud, who refuses to seek competence
in wooing a female
because of his profoundly blameworthy desires
based on fixation, jealousy, revenge, and hate,
pays the ultimate price and dies for his sins.

He tries to pass the test of achieving adult marriage
and manhood through guilty means
commonly attributed to the dark side of masculinity,
including intimidation and assault
in which pursuit turns into stalking.

At the end, Jud dies for his sins
and Curly is found innocent in his death.
Thus, the guilt and unworthiness of the other characters
is passed on to Jud and,
to a lesser extent, the Peddler.
Jud is the scapegoat who dies
so the others can live an innocent life.

_____________________________________________
Oklahoma Home Page | Transparency