Sarah Ruhl’s presents a comedic analysis of gender roles and sexuality in play In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play, which depicts the early use of the vibrator as a clinical device used by doctors in order to help females cope with hysteria. Ruhl utilizes a main plot reinforced by a sub-plot in order to examine her topic and critique the Victorian view of gender roles and sexuality. Both plots are built upon the same premise, the wives (Catherine Givings and Sabrina Daldry) find them dissatisfied with their respective marriages resulting from their husbands’ passiveness when it comes to marital sex. Ruhl introduces Sabrina as a patient of Dr. Givings and Sabrina shares similar marital issues as Catherine. The marital issues derive from enforced…show more content… Ruhl offers one such solution to this problem through Sabrina, who chooses to continue treatment with the vibrator while enduring mundane and passionless sex with her husband. However, Ruhl also suggest that women such as Sabrina, who rely on the vibrator, as the beginning of depersonalizing sex which is initiated by men. The play’s protagonist Catherine explore another unique answer to the issue presented in Ruhl’s play. Catherine begins the play as a happy wife and new mother, both of which make it appear as though all is well with her life. Despite this, she develops a curiosity about what exactly goes on in her husband's operating theatre, (the "next room") revealing the subtle imperfections in her marriage and the growing restlessness Catherine has with the role society has assigned her. As mentioned earlier, the men of the play are very much in control of all aspects of the relationship, including intimacy. The “next room” becomes a physical manifestation of the sexual barrier imposed by social constructed sexual stereotypes, something that Catherine desires to get past in order to regain the passion in her marriage that she so desperately
