Betty

Character Analysis

The Devoted Wife

You can probably get a sense of how submissive a wife Betty is when the first words she says in the play are, "I live for Clive" (1.1.18). Clive is her husband, dudes. She follows up this nice self-introduction by saying that, "The whole aim of my life/ Is to be what he [Clive] looks for in a wife" (1.1.18-19). If we know how Churchill tends to treat the question of gender roles in her plays (she basically attacks them with a sledgehammer) we know that this whole submissive wife thing isn't going to last the whole play. But for those of us not in the know, Betty just seems like a totally doting wife at this point.

The first real crack we see in Betty's devotion comes in an exchange between Betty and Clive's best friend, Harry Bagley. We realize that Betty is in love with Harry and wants to run away with him. This probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, since it was hard to see how Betty's whole submissive wife shtick could have held up for the entire play. But even at this point, there's a big part of her that feels wrong for wanting to be with Harry. As she tells Ellen, "You're so good and I'm so wicked" (1.2.286-287). But that doesn't change the fact that she totally wants to get away from her happy homemaker life and be with Harry. It's just a shame she doesn't realize that Harry likes to have sex with little boys, ick ick ick.

But then Clive finds out about Betty's feelings for Harry and tells her not to be so foolish. Betty, of course, totally caves and apologizes to her husband, since there's no way she could ever look him in the eye and tell him she wants to be with another man. Instead, she says, "There is something so wicked in me Clive" (1.3.157), and she hates herself for being so weak and wrong. Clive, for his part, is more than happy with this explanation, since according to him, "Women can be treacherous and evil" (1.3.161-162).

And that's sort of where things stand with Betty at the end of Act 1. It's not until Act 2 that we see her try to break out of the prison that traditional gender roles have put her in. But rest assured, she is going to break out. In fact, you could argue that the main story of this complicated play is Betty's journey toward independence.

The Nervous Nellie

When Betty finally decides to leave her husband Clive in Act 2 of this play, it's not like everything is going to be magically be great from that point onward. Instead, Betty starts having a lot of trouble with her anxiety. It turns out you can't go your entire life seeking the protection of a man and then just launch out on your own one day. Right away, Betty tells her daughter Victoria, "I'll never be able to manage if I can't even walk down the street by myself. Everything looks so fierce" (2.2.274-275).

And it's not just herself that Betty gets nervous about. She also gets super nervous on behalf of other people, especially her grandson, Tommy. The first thing we hear from her in Act 2 is that she thinks Tommy might have a concussion because he got a slight bump on the head and isn't crying (2.1.145). When Victoria assures her that everything is fine, Betty insists, "If he's sick in the night, phone an ambulance" (2.1. 152). For the most part, Victoria tolerates this kind of behavior. What a good daughter.

But there are definitely times when it gets on her nerves and she gets frustrated with her mother.
Now that Betty has left her "doting wife" stage by leaving Clive, she seems to have entered a second, "Nervous Nellie" phase. And Act 2 of this play really focuses on how Betty can overcome (or at least work through) this second phase of her life.

Self-Acceptance

Toward the end of Cloud 9, Betty becomes increasingly aware of the fact that her nervousness and loneliness are deeply connected to her difficulty in learning to live for herself. On more than one occasion, she tells another character that "You don't know who to do things for" when you don't have a man in your life. And in both cases (with Lin and Gerry), the other characters tell her to live for "Yourself" (2.2.400). Betty, though, has a really tough time coming to terms with the idea of doing things just for herself.

For starters, Betty has never really explored what she wants, since she's spent her whole life sacrificing her desires for her husband and children. Now that she's on her own, though, she needs to start figuring out what she likes. Slowly but surely, she's able to start thinking a little more selfishly, and she tells Edward's lover Gerry that instead of making a big supper for other people, she might just "have a big piece of bread and dip it in very hot lime pickle" (2.4.231-232). It ain't exactly a raging night on the town, but it's a big step for Betty.

The biggest step Betty takes in Act 2 of the play is admitting that she has always liked sex and she wishes she had more of it in her life. Talking about her earlier years, she says, "I used to think Clive was the one who liked sex. But then I found I missed it" (2.4.117-118). By admitting that she likes sex, Betty takes ownership of her own body as something with its own desires. She goes on to talk about her enjoyment of masturbation, which also seems to be a big moment of liberation for her.

The last symbol of Betty's self-acceptance comes in the very final scene of the play. Clive walks onto the stage and tells Betty that she's "not that sort of woman" (2.4.273), meaning that she's not a woman who enjoys sex or who wants to hit on men. But Betty is able to make Clive go away, and the play ends with the image of Betty hugging the past version of herself—the male actor that played Betty in Act 1—onstage. This embrace definitely suggests that in old age, Betty has finally learned to accept herself as an individual with personal desires. It's a sweet ending, and by this point, you probably don't even notice the fact that Betty is hugging a man in drag dressed like her.

Probably.