Susan Glaspell's Suppressed Desires

"Suppressed Desires" by Susan Glaspell is a two-scene play about a woman, Henrietta, who is obsessed with dream interpretation and seems unable to stop over-analyzing the dreams of her husband, Stephen, and Henrietta's unsophisticated sister, Mabel. Mabel knows so little about psychoanalysis that she think it is "something about war," though she has seen a psychiatrist, Dr. Russell, the same psychiatrist who cares for Stephen. Henrietta respects psychoanalysis until eventually, her mind changes about its importance, after Stephen has a dream that suggests his desire to be single, and Mabel has a dream that hints at her desire to marry Stephen. Glaspell’s episodes show that a little knowledge can do a lot of harm.
The realism and the setting of the play reflect the characters and their preoccupations. The set is a single room used for dining and working. The characters share the table, at which Stephen designs homes and Henrietta writes scientific essays on psychoanalysis. Henrietta is addicted to the Freudian fad and worships the knowledge of Dr. Russell. She is preparing a paper on psychoanalysis, and
As they say "a little knowledge is dangerous." Henrietta thinks that she knows everything about psychoanalysis, but in reality she does not. In fact the little knowledge she has almost leads to the breakdown of her marriage. Her husband is aware that he shouldn't believe Dr. Russell, but Henrietta insists on telling him to follow the doctor’s advice. Then, when she realizes that what the doctor says is not good, she decides to take a break and leave the whole thing, because she really wants her marriage to last. The play ends with Mabel's anxious question: "What am I to do with my suppressed desire?" Henrietta is relieved to hear her husband answer, "But what about me? What am I to do with my suppressed desire?" In the play’s final line, Steve said: "Mabel, you just keep right on suppressing