Martin struggles to find a way to be meaningful to his wife without controlling her. Much of Martin’s speech, including the aforementioned quote comes in the form of long lecture-like monologues that depict him as relatively egotistical–impossibly consumed in the confusion of finding his own identity, but still demanding that Victoria find hers. David Waterman also insists that the characters in the second act are free of social control, however noting that “for all of their apparent freedom to perform their genders as they see fit, the characters in Act Two are obviously not emancipated from the matrix of power and its normative, regulatory function of maintaining social control” (91). While in Act I, Victoria is forced into an ultimate submission, in Act II, Victoria faces a new sort of constraint. She is no longer a dummy, but the nature of her relationship with Martin is restricting in a different, far more subtle manner. Martin, although to all intents and purposes is evidently in favor of Victoria’s liberation, manages to exert control by making her feel guilty for not responding positively to his attempts to satisfy her sexually. Only through a homosexual relationship with Lin can Victoria find a balance between love and liberation.

It is obvious that Act II is a significant improvement in terms of the freedom and independence the characters experience. However, there are still rather subdued indications of an underlying influence of the earlier instituted Victorian social standards. The most obvious exhibition of the continued effects we suffer under is the drastic distinction instituted between the male and female gender, and the specific traits attributed to them each. While the characters attempt to overpower the characteristics that have always been assigned to their gender, there are still specific obdurate characteristics that they continue to assign to the subsequent gender. Females are still associated with delicate frocks, playing with dolls, and caring motherhood, while males are connected with violence, force, and control. It may prove to be difficult to completely dissociate ourselves from the institutions we have so long internalised, as there has never been a time when our society had retained neutral connotations associated to the individualised genders. One must wonder how or even if our society will ever transcend beyond the restrictions of such classifications.