Blackness, femaleness, and ethics: Moral dilemmas in selected plays of Pearl Cleage

This dissertation evaluates selected plays by womanist playwright Pearl Cleage using the multiple perspectives of femaleness, blackness, and moral dilemma. The characters determine how to negotiate various life challenges, which include race and gender oppression. They are caught between the rules of the external community and the basic rules of survival for themselves and their families. The characters also tackle race and gender issues within their circle of family and friends which is the internal community.;The plays examined in this dissertation are set during significant time periods in history. The characters in all three plays are forced to negotiate the effects of racism and sexism, but the plays also focus on specific issues that relate to black women. Flyin' West takes place after Reconstruction where tens of thousands of blacks move from a racist South to the West in hope of a better life. A family of women combat external forces that could strip them of their property and internal forces that could strip them of dignity via domestic violence. Blues for an Alabama Sky takes place near the end of the Harlem Renaissance and the characters deal with issues concerning the reproductive rights of women, which include contraception and abortion. Hospice illustrates the effects of a mother's desertion of her young daughter so that the mother can fulfill her dreams as an artist. The issues within the Cleage plays reveal moral dilemmas faced by the characters. These women do not hide from the moral dilemmas but are audacious enough to make tough choices knowing that their decisions will at once be beneficial in one instance and detrimental in another. The outcome of their choices determines whether or not they survive race and gender oppression.