“I think I’m an American. And for that reason I think I have something to say about America.” (Madeline Morton, Inheritors, Act 3)
Susan Glaspell’s Inheritors, which premiered at the Provincetown Players’ Playwrights Theatre in Greenwich Village in March 1921, offers a penetrating analysis of the relationship between American ideals and American action from its early nineteenth century westward expansion to the aftermath of World War I.
This epic work includes a number of typical Glaspell themes, including freedom of speech, the struggle of the individual against society, a reconsideration of the past in order to shape a better future, gender and national identity. Although the central action of the play (occurring in Acts 2 and 3) spans a week in 1920, Glaspell’s first act, set significantly on July 4, 1879 and featuring three...
2864 words
Citation: Black, Cheryl. "Inheritors: A Play in Three Acts". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16002, accessed 09 December 2025.]
