Character Analysis
Mrs. Smith, like her husband, is pretty one dimensional. She talks a lot like him too – in a string of clichés, non-sequiturs, and bland observations. Mrs. Smith kicks the play off by recounting all the things that she and her husband have eaten that evening. Then she continues to babble about a lot of other things that don't matter, like which grocer has the best oil.
Like her husband, Mrs. Smith can be seen as a parody of the middle class. Her emptiness and shallow concerns can be interpreted as a comment on the empty shallowness of the middle class as a whole. Also, like her husband Mrs. Smith's meaningless repetitive life can be seen as representing the meaningless repetitiveness of the lives of all of humanity (in the Absurdist view at least).
The only times Mrs. Smith seems to show any character at all is when she's bickering with her husband. He's constantly disagreeing with her and is sometimes downright rude. Mr. Smith calls her questions "idiotic" among other things (70). Mrs. Smith doesn't take any crap from her husband. She stands up for herself, baring her teeth, calling him names, and hurling socks at him. (Yeah, some socks – take that Mr. Smith!) Also, let us not forget her incredible tenacity in the great doorbell debate. She refuses to give in despite the ever growing evidence against her theory that, when the doorbell rings, no one is there. Despite all this, Mrs. Smith is still about as generic as a character can possibly get. This is made totally clear at the end of the play when Mrs. Martin takes over her role.