53 pages • 1 hour read
Djanet SearsHarlem Duet
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1997A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act I, Scenes 6-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I, Scene 6 Summary
In 1860 Harlem, delta blues play under the voice of actor Paul Robeson, who speaks of his ancestors and how their blood inhabits the soil. The character He is working on a horseshoe as She rushes in with a bag containing a change of clothes and some food. She is ready to begin their trek to Canada, but He continues in silence. When pressed, He tells Her that He isn’t going. Miss Dessy’s father is going to war, and He wants to stay to take care of her. She asks Him directly if He loves Miss Dessy. He answers with a simple, “Yes” (63).
Act I, Scene 7 Summary
The voice of Louis Farrakhan plays over the sounds of “dulcet blue tones” (64). Farrakhan speaks of American society dragging down African Americans. Magi and Billie are laughing over Magi’s dating life as they continue packing the remaining items in the apartment. Billie has decided to move out, even though Magi tells her not to feel pressured to do so. She asks Magi if she wants a mask, but Magi turns the offer down, prompting Billie to smash it to the floor: “I don’t want anything that’s—that was ours” (65). Billie says that she has believed in lies all her life, and even Harlem no longer provides the joy and comfort it once did. Magi refutes her statement, reminding Billie that earning her master’s degree is not a lie and that Othello is the one who is living a lie by wanting to “White wash his life” (66). Magi adds that she has seen Black men “do things for White women they wouldn’t dream of doing for me” (67).
Othello arrives, holding Billie’s Dutch pot. Magi asks him how things are going at “Harlumbia—those 10 square blocks of Whitedom, owned by Columbia University, set smack dab in the middle of Harlem” (67). He tells her it is boring without her. Billie exits to get a boubou—a traditional North African dress—that Magi has asked to borrow for a date, allowing Magi to ask Othello why he has yet to tell Billie about his plans to marry Mona. Billie returns with the boubou, and Magi leaves.
Now alone, Othello tells Billie that he cannot pay for her tuition for the upcoming semester as he promised, as he now has a new mortgage. He will try to put some extra money in her account, but that is all he can do. He tells her that he is getting married to Mona, adding, “Mona wanted me to tell you” (70). This riles Billie: “Yes. Yes. Being a feminist and everything—A woman’s right to know—since we’re all in the struggl […] thought you hated feminists” (70). An argument comparing white and Black feminists ignites. Othello believes that white men still wear the “economic and political pants that White women have been demanding to share” (70), whereas Black women “wear the pants that Black men were prevented from wearing” (70). He laments that Black women nowadays are too career-driven and unwilling to live a more traditional life—one that “honoured being a balance to their spouse, at home, supporting the family, playing her role” (70). Billie answers that Black women have worked hard all their lives, especially for white people: “We looked after their homes, their childre […] don’t support you? My mother’s death paid your tuition, not mine” (70).
Exasperated by where the conversation is going, Othello tells Billie why he prefers being with white women over Black women:
They weren’t filled with hostility about the unequal treatment they were getting at their jobs. We’d make love and I’d fall asleep not having to beware being mistaken for someone’s inattentive father […] and not be confused with every lousy lover, or husband that had ever left them lying in a gutter of unresolved emotions (71).
He ends his speech by saying that people are all equal in the eyes of God, so what’s the point of arguing any further?
Act I, Scene 8 Summary
In 1928 Harlem, the mournful sounds of a cello and bass open the scene, with the voice of Jesse Jackson rising above the music. She is standing above His body, which lies motionless on the floor in front of her. He holds a white handkerchief while She holds a bloody, straight-edged razor. She speaks incoherently, blending bits and pieces of references to bodily whiteness and the white, strawberry-specked handkerchief that She calls “deadly” (72). She also references lyrics from both gospel and pop songs of the 1920s.
Act I, Scene 9 Summary
Instruments play the blues as the voice of Malcolm X scats the question, “What Difference Does Color Make?” As he continues packing, Othello breaks into a monologue as Billie listens in silence. He apologizes for the remarks he made earlier and goes on to explain how change can be beneficial. He recalls how his mother used to say that he needed to be “three times as good as a White child to get by, to do well” (73), but he does not share her views. “I am not minor” (73), he states, and his culture is the same as that of a white man of his age and education. As such, he has no real connection to Africa, nor does he see such a connection as the way to become “human” (73). He goes on to say that he is an American, that the enslaved people were freed over 130 years ago, and that interracial marriage is no longer illegal. He wants no part of the racial wars, and he rejects being judged by his color.
Act I, Scene 10 Summary
Rhapsodic music underscores the voice of Christopher Darden as he asks OJ Simpson to try on the glove. Billie is concocting something in her living room lab. Wearing rubber gloves, she adds purple-colored drops to a flask, then picks up a white handkerchief embroidered with strawberries. Alone in the apartment, she speaks aloud to Othello, telling him that she has a plan for him and his bride. She cites the handkerchief, which he gave to her when they committed to one another, as a symbol of his history. It is an heirloom: a gift from his mother that she received from his father, whose mother gifted him the handkerchief, which was meant to be passed from generation to generation. The handkerchief carries “the emotions of all your ancestors” (75), and rather than love, represents their suffering. As she speaks, she reaches for the flask and carefully pours its solution over the handkerchief. She ends her monologue with the words, “My sable warrio […] ight with me. I would fight with yo […] uffer with m […] would suffer—” (76).
Her buzzer rings, prompting her to take her flask to the kitchen and empty it in the sink. There is a knock on the door, and Magi calls out to her. Billie runs into the bathroom with the chemistry tray and flushes any remaining solution down the toilet. Magi stands at the doorway and announces that she has come with a visitor. Billie tries to put her off, but the visitor is Billie’s father, Canada. A nicely dressed, 60-something-year-old man carrying a suitcase enters the apartment. He greets Billie as Sybil and asks for a hug.
Act I, Scenes 6-10 Analysis
In the second half of Act I, the play continues to explore parallels between Billie’s life in 1997 and the lives of her precursors in 1860 and 1928 to illustrate the Intersections of Race and Gender. Both Billie and the She of 1860 are betrayed by their men, who leave them for white women. In Act I, Scene 6, He abandons His plan to escape to Canada with Her because Miss Dessy (the white plantation owner’s daughter, whose name suggests a connection with the various Desdemona figures of the play) needs him: “When I’m with her I feel lik […] man. I wan […] need to do for her” (63). The moment recalls a similar moment in the previous scene, when Othello rushes out of Billie’s apartment for fear of angering his white partner, Mona. Othello chooses Mona, while He chooses Miss Dessy.
In Scene 7, when Othello arrives with the Dutch pot Billie requested, this transfer symbolizes a final break between them, as the pot was the last tangible carryover from their life together to his new life with Mona. The pot was passed down to Billie from her father and is used to cook gumbo, a dish with deep roots in the Black culture of the South, and Billie resents the idea that it is now being used by a white woman. By forfeiting the pot, Othello forfeits his connection to Billie’s Black identity and heritage. As the two argue, it becomes clear that Othello and Billie have radically different ideas of what it means to be Black in America, with Othello yearning to belong to a world in which he is judged for “the content of his character”—as in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream—and not for his race, while Billie insists that her racial identity is a fundamental part of who she is.
Othello’s callousness is quite evident in the scene as well, as he not only surprises and disappoints Billie with the news that he won’t be paying her tuition as promised—even though she has already paid his—but that he is also getting married. In seconds, both the professional and personal areas of her life have taken another major blow. Their verbal sparring on Black versus white feminism further reveals the fraught intersections of race and gender, as Othello it easier to be with white women than Black women. His reference to never being mistaken for an indifferent father is a direct disparagement of the relationship between Billie and her father, Canada. Othello comments on the lack of traditionalism in Black relationships, and how Black women don’t sufficiently support their families, which is especially offensive to Billie given that she used her mother’s life insurance policy to support his education. Othello’s last comment about everyone being equal in the eyes of God is another way of shirking responsibility for his decisions. Yes, equality in the eyes of God is a common religious tenet; however, the reference diminishes Billie by denying the structural inequalities that exist between them.
In Scene 8, the play’s tragic potential comes to fruition for the first time, as the She of 1928 murders Him with His straight razor. She has entered a dangerous and disassociated mental state, and in Her barrage of references from 1920s Black culture, there is a sense that The Continuity of Black History is coming undone: “don’t my eyes on the shadow sparrow” (72) evokes the lyrics to the 1905 Gospel hymn, “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” which expresses God’s protection in times of sorrow and despair, but here the words have been twisted so that they no longer make sense. Another snatch of music—”if I get the notion to jump into the ocean, ain’t nobody’s business if I do do do do “ (72)—comes from “‘Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do,” a major blues hit in the 1920s which celebrated autonomy. In this context, however, the phrase “jump into the ocean” is suggestive of suicide. Both songs deal with spiritual and personal salvation, but She alters them in a way that suggests salvation may be permanently out of reach. She also mentions the whiteness of body parts, likely referring to the woman He claims to love in the play’s Prologue. Finally, the white handkerchief appears again, reminding us of the pain it brings to those who own it without caution.
In Scene 9, Othello delivers a monologue on race that ends with the following:
I am an American. The slaves were freed over 130 years ago. In 1967, it was illegal for a Black to marry a White in sixteen states. That was less than thirty years ag […] n my lifetime. Things change, Billie. I am not my skin. My skin is not me (74).
It is no coincidence that he declares himself American versus African American, as his goal is to remove those kinds of distinctions, contrasting Billie’s assertion of her heritage and her history. Where she celebrates, or used to celebrate, her Blackness, he wishes that racial distinctions would simply blend into the scenery. His vision of Racial Equality and the American Dream is one in which racial distinctions simply no longer matter. Recalling his mother’s warning that he would have to do better than his white counterparts to get ahead, he makes it clear that, as an adult, he will not foreground race in his professional or personal identity. His stand may be a result of his education; however, it is more likely ego-driven, as he speaks only for himself, not for the Black community. His dismissal of racial solidarity reads as disingenuous, as it is in part a way for him to forgive himself for multiple betrayals—of his marriage vows, his commitments, and even his personal history. Breezily disregarding conditions that have improved, particularly the legalization of interracial marriage which directly impacts him, shows a lack of respect for those who suffered under past oppression.
Scene 10 indicates that Billie is slipping farther into the depths of madness. She is now planning to kill Othello with a poisoned handkerchief. As she pours her concoctions over the cloth, she cites examples of racial inequity—specifically, the Susan Smith case where a mother committed filicide yet convinced both law enforcement and the public that a Black man was responsible for the crime. She imagines Othello “wondering what made her do it” (75), implying that he would easily shrug off any blame for her mental state, while she would be discarded “as some kind of unconscionable bitter shadow, or something. Ain’t I a woman?” (75). That last phrase is a direct reference to the 1851 speech by anti-slave activist and feminist Sojourner Truth, who addressed the disparity of rights among Black women and white women. Billie then describes the white handkerchief with strawberries. Because it represents fidelity, it must act as the vessel to end Othello’s life just as Othello ended his loyalty to her.
When Magi enters the apartment with Canada, it comes as a shock when he calls Billie “Sybil” (77). The name harkens back to the Sibyl who first gave the original white handkerchief to Othello’s mother in Shakespeare’s tragedy. The name is symbolic, as a sibyl is an oracle, prophet, sorceress, and truthteller—descriptors that apply to Billie.
