Women in The Pirates of Penzance, by Gilbert and Sullivan

The female characters in the Savoy operas of Gilbert and Sullivan fall into three groups. There is a female chorus, the composition of which may or may not be believable; there is the female love interest, sung by a soprano; and there is an older woman, sung by a contralto. There are usually other female “semi-principals” who may be friends or close relations of the female lead; and occasionally there is a minor role for another contralto, this normally being played by a chorus member for a single scene.

Ladies of the Chorus

The Pirates of Penzance fits this pattern as neatly as any of the Savoy operas. The nature of the chorus is as absurd as one could wish, as all the women (there are supposed to be 24 of them) are the daughters of Major-General Stanley. Given that in most productions the chorus members all appear to be of roughly the same age, as is desired by the plot, the audience must start to wonder at the prevalence of multiple births in 19^th century Cornwall!

The chorus in G&S does not just comment on proceedings but has an integral part to play in the plot. This is certainly the case in “Pirates”, where the whole action devolves on the seizing by force of the female chorus by the male chorus (the pirates) in Act I and their rescue by the chorus basses (the policemen) in Act II.

One of the best comic scenes in the opera involves the interplay of the daughters and the policemen in Act II when the former persuade the latter to go and fight the pirates. The girls are convinced that nothing is more glorious than meeting one’s death fighting a terrible foe, and the policemen will live forever in their hearts should this happen, but the policemen would much prefer to carry on living in the real world for as long as possible!

The daughters are also essential to the plot because of their beauty. They have to present an obvious contrast to the older woman character, Ruth, so that the joke can be made about Ruth persuading the male lead, Frederic, that she is beautiful, simply because she is the only woman that Frederic has ever seen.

Mabel

Mabel is the principal daughter, supported by three semi-principals in Edith, Kate and Isabel. Mabel is one of the most difficult roles to cast in any production of Pirates, mainly because it is essential that she can carry off one of the most beautiful but difficult numbers in all of G&S, namely “Poor wandering one”.

It is with this song that she is introduced to the opera. Frederic, the apprentice pirate, has called on the chorus of beautiful maidens to say if there is not just one of them who could love somebody like him, and it is Mabel who responds to the call. 

Were we to attempt to analyse the motivations of the characters in terms of normal behaviour, we could only condemn Mabel as being revoltingly forward in offering herself to a man whom she has never seen before, although she does lay down a few conditions, namely that he must forswear his previous life of evil. Even so, we need to apply a considerable “suspension of disbelief” before this makes sense to us. On the other hand, if we can believe that Major-General Stanley has all those daughters of marriageable age …

Mabel is a typical Gilbertian heroine in that she is not only beautiful but resilient, with a mind of her own. She is not there just as the girl to be got by the guy. She is the one who is not afraid to stand out from the crowd, and she also shows courage when the pirates seize the daughters, warning them that their father is a major-general. In Act II she steels herself to the prospect of a long separation from Frederic (some 79 years in fact), and also takes the lead in sending the policemen off to do battle.

Ruth

The other main female character in “Pirates” is Ruth, the “pirate maid-of-all-work”, without whose initial mistake, many years ago, none of this would have happened. To modern sensibilities, this older woman role in G&S is somewhat embarrassing. Gilbert intends us to laugh at these old maids who are clearly past their prime but in whom there is still a strong sexual desire. Of course, we are supposed to think, you cannot be satisfied in love, the reason being that you are too old. You, whatever role you play, must make do with the worst outcome in love, and we will make fun of you for your presumption. Hence we have Katisha (“The Mikado”) Little Buttercup (“Pinafore”) and the Fairie Queen (“Iolanthe”) among others.

Ruth’s mistake was to be hard of hearing, even in her youth, and to have apprenticed young Frederic, at the age of eight, to a pirate instead of a pilot. Gilbert likes us to laugh at physical infirmities as well as increasing female age. A point is also made about Ruth’s loss of physical attractiveness, as Frederic exclaims in disgust that she is not at all beautiful in contrast to Mabel and her sisters.

However, there is more to Ruth than an embittered old maid (a la Katisha) and she emerges as one of the strongest characters in the opera. It is she (along with the Pirate King) who points out to Frederic that his apprenticeship is far from over, due to his having been born on 29^th February in a leap year, and that his 21^st birthday is therefore many years away. Having been his nursemaid all his life, she is the only person who would have known that fact.

It is also Ruth who delivers the final piece of Gilbertian “business”, namely that the pirates are all “noblemen who have gone wrong”, and therefore, as peers of the realm, are fully qualified to marry the daughters of Major-General Stanley. We can assume that Ruth ends up married to the Pirate King, although this is not actually stated.

Better characters than the men?

Although there are not many named women characters in the opera, their roles are essential to the plot. The male characters are a pretty insipid lot when it comes to taking action, with the possible exception of the Pirate King, and even he needs Ruth as his lieutenant. The Major-General fears for his life, the police sergeant is a coward, and Frederic is such a “slave to duty” (which is the subtitle of the opera) that he can take no action on his own initiative. The roles of the female characters are therefore central to “Pirates”, giving huge potential to women actors to have a great time playing the parts in question.

© John Welford