Dorothy Rothschild Parker once stood as the most achieved female literary writer in history. Born in Long Branch, New Jersey in 1893, Parkers family was relatively financially comfortable. Yet she still had a complicated and troubled upbringing that later provided much substance for her work. Parker even claimed that her father physically abused her. By the age of twenty-six, Parker ascended to distinction and she became a member of the famously conspicuous and elite, Algonquin Round Table. She rapidly developed a reputation from her distinct style and characteristic voice in her works. Today, many regard Dorothy Parker as a signature figure who embodied sharp humor and rapacious wit, which indeed, are hallmarks of her style. However, her writings explore much deeper ideas and they truly deserve further observance. Parker traversed territory that was previously untraveled, and by doing so, she broke free from convention. She developed a unique blend of style and themes, used to unbind herself from the established practices of society. Such devices, which Parker regularly utilized, are manifested in her exceptional works.
Amongst her fellow Round Table intellectuals, Dorothy Parker generated a highly urbane and elegant idiosyncrasy. This style became an intrinsic characteristic of her writing. At that time during the twenties, sophistication was a highly esteemed manner of conducting oneself (Miller 763). Through her feminine lens, Parker saw women as being naturally tact "by virtue of their femininity, whereas for men it was most often something they needed to achieve". To maintain their sophistication, Parker felt that women had to find their place between their new, progressive, feminine identity, and the resulting notion that they posed a threat in any way to the established social tradition. Parker's persona certainly seemed to strike a balance between the two, lending to her unique, urbane style (Miller 767).
As Dorothy Parker directed herself towards a sophisticated style, she also strove to achieve a more simplistic, efficient, and in her eyes, perfect prose. As Parker said, "'Brevity is the soul of lingerie." Parker became known for her unique "sense of knowing where to begin, how to select exactly the right detail, when a story has to stop" (Meade, The Portable Dorothy Parker xiii, xxi). She carefully constructed her verses using concise and clever language, often too carefully. It was known that Parker could take up to six months to compose just one piece. As a perfectionist, she regularly became frustrated with her craft to an irrational extent. Parker was so obsessive that, "Once stymied in a struggle to change a ribbon, she abandoned the machine in disgust and quietly resolved the problem by buying a new one" (Meade, What Fresh 96-98). Her fixation with "perfect neatness" even went so far to the point where she smelled of "germicidal soap." This aversion to imperfection certainly provides for her slick and succinct style that is so recognizable (Melzer 18).
By using simple, crisp prose, Dorothy Parker is able to limit the rhetorical excesses that can be a product of verbose language. Parker is also able to manage this by "restricting the scope" of her work. She felt that by not complicating her language and plot, she keeps her meanings plain and direct (although they are usually buried beneath humor). As Arthur F. Kinney put it, Parker writes with a style "opposed not to tragedy (that would be comedy) but to epic. She deals with the commonplace, the everyday, even the trivial if it reveals something useful." Parker tried to maintain the disposition of someone who is regularly careless and casual, even in spite of her supposed emotional strife. And by creating works concerned with the "paraphernalia of life," she could sustain that sort of lazy and fulfilled attitude for her persona. Kinney notes that Parker was many times even too "careless." He remarks that some of her poems and stories can "collapse" due to the fact that their direction is too simple and soft. Nevertheless, Kinney does affirm that Parker's style of brevity is unique: "But at her best - in the art of the epigram or the brief word portrait- she is without peer in her time" (Kinney 416).
Despite its distinctiveness, Dorothy Parker's brief and to-the-point rhetoric has been contrasted to that of many other literary writers. Particularly writers like Ring Lardner and Ernest Hemingway, who also utilize such economical language, remain as critical exemplars for this comparison. This leads to the notion that "assigning masculine gender to brevity and dialogue" may actually be inconsistent (Pettit 50). Although Parker was known for her feminine approach, her material sometimes has a masculine tendency, exploiting the "big punch-line, the vengeful jab in the tenderest spot" (Toth, Smart Woman 5). Parker's unique style of brevity tears down any preconceptions and ideals on the genders of writing. This effect was certainly one of her ultimate goals in her clash with convention (Pettit 50-51).
Because of this "lonely, perfectionist," and concise style of writing, Dorothy Parker has a tendency to make the completely hilarious to feel only incidental and "casual" (Whitman). Her humor was also known for its particular brand of dexterous wit. Recognizable by its ingenuity and refinement, it is at other times, unpolished, crude, and derisive. Parker equipped this humor to confront the general culture of the time and she pointed it straight at society (Weaver 28). She even used her ex-husband's questionable sexuality as ammunition. Her weapon was quite effective and she rarely regarded where she aimed the reticle (Meade, What Fresh Hell Is This 290-291). The conjunction between the "seriousness of her aim and the playful tone of her presentation" supplies the irony and understatement in her writing. This relationship creates a corollary effect where the "irony becomes 'irony of the self' (and even of the poetry)". Such humor was so appealing at the time, since it could address identifiable, negative issues, while still remaining as a form of "simple amusement" (Kinney, 15: 416).
Another form of Parker's comedic irony utilizes the sensation of disillusionment. Often, her words create flowery and sensual scenes, with the last line or so having a stinging and jolting connotation. For example, she can create a beautifully idyllic scenario, trapping the reader in a state of fantasy, and then conclude the scene with a line such as: "Isn't it great that it never can be?" (qtd. in Toth, Sharpening Her Claws 13). This cogent bite in her work is at many times an accurate depiction of reality, and that notion sprinkles some salt into the fresh wound (Toth, Sharpening Her Claws 13).
Dorothy Parker's style of humor and the way by which disillusionment is felt throughout, is attributed to her pervading sentimentality. It was known that, "She truly loved flowers, dogs, and a good cry; and it was this fundamental sadness and shyness that gave her humor its bite and intensity." The sultry, new generation of the Progressive Era was a fitting audience for her concoction of cynicism and emotion (Whitman). Such sentimentality certainly resulted from Parker's life experiences: "Parker's 'personal struggle with runaway emotion,' argues Ross Labrie, 'is uncomfortably apparent in her life'" (qtd. in Pettit 74). Yet, many critics, including Marion Meade, subscribe to the notion that Parker's implications were misleading. Meade argues that Parker's "claim of a deprived childhood, and her version of herself as an unloved orphan," equipped her with "self-justification" for her melodramatic manner. Even Ernest Hemingway, a figure whom Parker adored, judged her style and felt that it was posed and contrived. His taunting poem, "To a Tragic Poetess," mocked Parker's numerous suicide attempts by implying that they were intentionally unsuccessful. Hemingway also criticized "Parker's love for 'other people's children' as sentimental since she is not having one of her own" (Pettit 74-76).
Nevertheless, whether contrived or authentic, Dorothy Parker had a very apparent connection to her writing and to her public. As a result, she undoubtedly had a particularly strong appeal to feminists of the time. This was the case, not because Dorothy Parker outwardly displayed any partisanship, but because she maintained a distinct style that was widely attractive. Parker established a place on the spectrum between classical femininity and the "new womanhood" movement. She considered herself a New Woman, but she still embodied women and advanced her own identity by subtracting herself from any "alliance with the feminine horde." This correspondence benefited her public persona and is used to distinguish Dorothy Parker's writing today. Parker felt that women who hold images of conventional femininity are at the mercy of the public, since the relationship is based on appeasement and conformity. This idea is presented in her poem, "Braggart," which explores and "contrasts two models of inhabiting a public persona and public space" (Miller 767, 778, 780).
To construct this impressive identity, Dorothy Parker's works targeted many "iconographic categories of women". An established theme that is pervasive throughout much of Parker's work is the question of woman's place in society (Weaver 25). At that time during the twenties and thirties, many women generally identified themselves with either the "mass femininity -as represented by the Vanity Fair debutantes," or the "New Women" (Miller 767). The New Women were considered as white, genteel, notably independent, and liberal individuals. Parker concluded that these developments in identification were a reaction to the battles for suffrage and the principles of social stratification. Parker observed these trends, especially how the popular magazines pushed them, and she constructed caricatures that mocked their very concepts. She also, as Weaver put it, "reversed the idealizations saturating the magazine, focusing on the ways the 'average' woman suffered as a result of consuming the image of the ideal woman." Parker proclaimed the culture of wrongly marketing an "ideal" form of femininity that was "based on outward appearances and consumption." She saw this as a product of the culture being imposed by the men, as well as an appropriate motif for many of her poems and stories (Weaver 28-29, 31,35).
Once she violently deconstructed the stereotypes, Dorothy Parker equipped this theme of women's place in society. She then explored the deeper realms and the hidden questions as to why they even evolved initially. Parker attributed it to the "intense alienation and self-deception characteristic of Progressive Era women's lives and language choices." Through her writing, Parker challenged her female readers to observe the "socially constructed nature of their behaviors. Only then, Parker's work suggests, could women begin to resist, or even transform, the representation available to them." She revealed that the bubbling culture had led to an acute level of ignorance amongst women. Beneath the glossy magazines and the caked layers of makeup, hid the discontentment, sadness, and strife. Women didn't even recognize their own inner isolation. This idea of "self-deception" became a regular interest in her writing (Weaver 35, 39-40).
Although Dorothy Parker surely lingered around the spheres of feminism, she was never outwardly a feminist. Parker, as Sondra Melzer put it, "does not actually present what have been called 'women's issues' directly as the central focus in all of her works." Yet, she writes her works, constructs the plots, and illustrates her characters with an underlying tendency towards "feminine concerns." Thus, without any direct branding or chauvinism, her work still reveals a strong viewpoint. This principle doesn't quiet her voice, whatsoever; as it remains even as loud, if not louder, as that of any outwardly biased, feminist author. To hide her deeper meanings without drawing too much attention to her suggested connotations, Parker blankets her meanings with her famous humor. In this manner, her intent and deliberation seems somewhat unintentional and she avoids further exposure of her purpose (Melzer 3-4).
A favorite amongst her themes, the silliness of women, also functioned to separate her from the progressive feminists who, nonetheless, still admired her. Though she is known for her Hate Verses, which poke fun at men and their conventionalized mannerisms, Parker "was often even spiteful [even] towards her own sex." As Parker once said, "That women speaks eighteen languages and cant say 'No' in any of them" (qtd. in Toth, Sharpening Her Claws 13). Even many of her close female friends called her "catty" and a controversialist by nature. Dorothy Parker certainly left no party free of her acidic critiques (Toth, Sharpening Her Claws 13). Because of the independence and freedom that this sort of "unbiased" relation grants, Parker is "free from the all-consuming rapture which would bar her access to the world" (Miller 772). At any rate, her stories do plot various circumstances of female distress. Although in such stories her language doesn't explicitly support the woman, they are indeed widely recognized for doing so. For example, in "Such a Pretty Little Picture," Parker explores "a wife's role with a weak husband," and in "The Lovely Leave," Parker ruminates on "the effects of army life on a young marriage." In these works, Parker remains as an unbiased narrator and simply tells a story of unsuccessful matrimony (Melzer 5).
It is true that many of Dorothy Parker's works have a fundamental theme of failed relationships. Perhaps, this was a result of her own romantic disenchantment. Not many of her relationships were very substantive and she rarely truly loved. For that reason, it is easy to see why Parker was known to reject the classical notion of the "romantic love tradition." Parker's contention was that "romantic love" is merely a "self-serving" relationship in which secrets and emotions are held away from the other lover. In her poem, "Plea," Parker makes a depiction of such a relationship, and her antipathy for the " tyranny of privacy" is made clear:
Secrets, you said, would hold us two apart;
You'd have me know of you your least transgression
And so the intimate places of your heart,
Kneeling, you bared to me, as in confession.
Softly, you told of loves that went before, -
Of clinging arms, of kisses gladly given;
Luxuriously clean of heart once more,
You rose up, then, and stood before me, shriven (Miller 770).
While Parker disliked the "privatizing effects" of romantic love, she espoused the concept of an "anti-romantic model of love" that is truly "intersubjective" (Miller 770-771). Intersubjective love is what Parker once called the "midst of a mutual dream" (qtd. in Miller 771). She contends that this ideal type of love is only possible when it is constructed by mutual behavior and "decorum." This results in the relationship having a critical, social aspect and not being solely sensual. Parker notes that in traditional romantic love, especially when it is based only on sensual instincts, an "erotic investment" exists and it the man maintains dominance. But, by loving with a mutual conduct and etiquette, the love expands onto a "publicly known and shared field of behaviors and roles into which 'lovers' can then- freely and independently- interlope themselves" (Miller 775-776, 782).
As Dorothy Parker felt that her affairs gave her "equality with men," she believed her drinking and alcoholism functioned in the same way as well. Parker's alcoholism and her theme of alcohol abuse in her writings developed from her relationships, platonic and sexual, with her fellow male writers. She observed their "free and irresponsible consumption of alcohol" as a "ticket" to achieve their status. Yet with time, Parker's alcoholism became "chronic" and her social drinking became an addiction. It never critically affected her ability to write, as Bret C. Millier commented, as it only became a hindrance to her work "not so much in quality (this may be an interesting difference between the most famous male alcoholic writers of this generation and their female counterparts) but in quantity." Many critics also claim that Parker frequently suffered from depression and that it was thus a main factor for her bouts of alcoholism. Parker's maudlin sentimentality wasn't normally a result of rational causes, which made her unhappiness even more difficult to overcome without the distractions of drunkenness. The idea of turning to alcoholism to dull stress and unhappiness is a theme widely prevalent in her stories and poems. Parker certainly succumbed to that idea, as her drinking habits resulted from a need to find relief from the "anxiety and uncertainty" of a writer's life. Yet by the time she was older, Parker felt great remorse for her lifestyle since she knew that it mired her potential ability. And in the end, she still ended up dying a sad, miserable, alcoholic, alone in her apartment (Millier 17-19).
Dorothy's Parker's depression even led to multiple attempts at suicide. Parker tried to kill herself in a variety of unconventional ways throughout her writing career. Nevertheless, it is unclear whether or not her suicide attempts were intentionally unsuccessful and only served to advance her persona. Parker certainly did, though, have a "morbid personal obsession" with death and this is easily felt throughout her works. It was recognized that she even "subscribed to mortuary science trade journals and worse tuberose perfume, the scent favored by morticians in their grisly ministerings." Dead bodies even stood as a sensual element between her own pictures of sexuality. Yet, "of Parker's various responses to public embodiment, the most spectacular are undoubtedly her many death poems- poems of gleeful suicide, live burial, rotting corpses, and grotesque visitations" (Miller 782). Parker even used this theme of death and pathos to construct some of her famous humor. She wrote about characters that welcomed death as an escape from their suffering and she typified such feelings as comically ironic and accurate of her own emotions (Meade, What Fresh 140, 155).
Dorothy Parker truly stands as a figure that remains praised for her unique style and voice in her writing. Utilizing her various distinct styles and recurring themes, Parker's identity advanced throughout her career. Modern feminists adore Parker's works and she is now even praised as an advocate of progressive social change, recognized through many posthumous honors. Dorothy Parker, without question, is one of the greatest female American writers in history.
