Dark Humor In The Ladies Who Lunch

244 Words1 Pages
In Sondheim’s “The Ladies Who Lunch”, there is a sense of dark humor infused in the lyrics. On the surface, the content is presented as the ramblings of a woman who has had too much to drink. The subtext, however, presents startling truths about some of the most prevalent lifestyles of women in the 70s. Housewives, ambitious scholars, and even those who simply let life pass them by without resistance and drown their sorrows with alcohol, a jab that the character, Joanne, makes at herself. The descriptions of these women are apt depictions of women who are trying to come to grips with the changing roles of women. The song discusses the droll lives of many women were still in domestic roles, lamenting how little times have changed. Ironically,