tions that she prefers to dress in skirts and act femininely, however her mother wishes to promote a more varied lifestyle that goes beyond what she understands as the feminine orientations. It is this moulding of the younger generation that points to the incomplete separation of the past. In a liberal society, one would possibly expect a parent allowing their son and/or daughter play with whatever doll and/or gun they wish for without fear of specific gender expectations. Perhaps some remnant from our categorised history can simply never be dissolved.

John Basourakos is of the opinion that Act II’s conflicts stem from a confusion due to the freedom they are all drenched in (14). When Martin says to Victoria, “God knows I do everything I can to make you stand on your own two feet. Just be yourself. You don’t seem to realize how insulting it is to me that you can’t get yourself together” (82), it is this statement that points to the more modern form of oppression the characters now struggle with. Martin’s control of Victoria is less severe than Clive’s influence in Africa. In fact, Martin’s control manifests itself as a willingness to give up control, or rather a forcible delegation of control. Martin says that he in fact favors Victoria’s independence. However, when she cannot “get herself together,” Martin is “insulted” because he has been rendered powerless by his inability to help her. Martin represents the ambivalence that comes with a shifting society in Act II. As the act’s only straight male, he struggles with where he fits in and what his status should in relation to his wife Victoria. He does not recognize that even the command to “just be yourself” is still a command and an exertion of his will upon Victoria. It is plain to see that Victoria can only find her true identity through her own action, or willingness to action.

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 charac