The Little Foxes

“It’s not I who play well, sir. It’s my aunt. She plays just wonderfully.”

Throughout the play, music (in particular, the piano) is an escape from the realities of Birdie’s life. Music is the one thing that Birdie longs for and clings to, especially when her husband isn’t around to critique her. Piano playing is also another way Birdie bonds with her niece, Alexandra, whom she admittedly loves more than her own son.

“Lionnet in its day was the best cotton land in the South.”

Lionnet was Birdie’s childhood family home, and part of the Southern aristocratic legacy she left behind when she married Oscar. Though it is not revealed until later, the marriage was more of a business transaction on Oscar’s part than a love affair. In losing control of her family inheritance via marriage to an abusive man, Birdie’s plight represents The Difficulties of Female Agency.

“A man ain’t only in business for what he can get out of it. It’s got to give him something here. (Puts hand on his breast.)”

Ben foreshadows one of the major conflicts of the play: the motivations behind business deals. While he and his siblings pretend to acknowledge that there is perhaps something more worthwhile and lasting to be gained than money, they don’t actually mean it. Instead, the siblings are consistently driven and defined by The Isolation of Greed.

“He’s my own son. My own son. But you are me to me—more to me than my own child. I love you more than anybody else.”

The relationship between Birdie and Alexandra is deeply intimate. In Alexandra, Birdie sees herself at that age, and knows what troubles in life her niece will have to face. While she was naïve at Alexandra’s age, she does what she can to warn her niece to learn from her own marriage. She would rather her niece have her freedom than her son to have more wealth.

“What do I care who gets my share? I been shaved already. Serve Ben right if he had to give away some of his.”

Even though the family consistently mentions not wanting to bring in any outsiders into the business deal with Marshall, none of them are slow in looking out for themselves, and themselves only, first and foremost. Oscar, who feels betrayed by Ben for agreeing to give a portion of his percentage to Regina in exchange for an arranged marriage between Alexandra and Leo, does not hesitate at the chance to get even with his brother.

“Never leave a meal unfinished. There are too many poor people who need the food.”

Lillian Hellman employs dramatic irony in this line. Birdie frequently asks her family to consider those less fortunate than themselves by not being greedy with money or with food (like Oscar’s shooting habit). Ben, who makes this remark, twists the idea into appreciating what they have because some have less, instead of acting on the fact that others have less. This once again reinforces Ben’s role as a passive character who enjoys the benefits of the systems that privilege him, watching as others suffer because of it. Ben’s attitude reflects the prevalence of Passive Violence Against Oppressed Communities in the play.

“But there I was and I got kind of used to it, kind of to like me lying there and thinking. (Smiles.) I never had much time to think before. And time’s become valuable to me.”

Horace’s illness and new perspective on mortality makes him more aware of the impact he will make when he dies. His time to reflect on his life gives him the courage to stand up to Regina and the rest of the family, rebelling against The Isolation of Greed.

“I didn’t think you did. I only thought you might catch a bad conscience—in bed as you say.”

Part of Regina’s resentment toward her husband is revealed to be tied to his extramarital affairs in the time before he got sick. Horace did grow a conscience while he was away, but in a different way than Regina is implying here.

“It’s unwise for a good-looking woman to frown […] Softness and a smile do more to the heart of men.”

Throughout the play, Ben tells Regina to smile more as a way of trying to make her feel inferior. Hellman uses this phrase, which has sexist connotations, to demonstrate the true family dynamic between Regina and her brothers and to gesture toward The Difficulties of Female Agency in a patriarchal society. Regina eventually ends up using this language against her brothers when she does smile, because she outsmarted them.

“You don’t want it but I do want it. I’m your wife. I have a right to expect that you will take care of my future. Of your child’s future.”

Horace will not invest in the cotton mill. For women like her, marriage is a business transaction and a means of buying security, reflecting The Difficulties of Female Agency. When Horace does not bend to her wishes, Regina must find other ways of making the deal work in her favor, all within the constructs of a patriarchal system.

“Your uncle doesn’t wish to know your friend’s name.”

Throughout the play, Ben does everything to avoid conflict and blame. The less he “knows” about the scheme to steal Horace’s bonds, the less he will be playing an active role in the crime. Meanwhile, Oscar and Leo are less careful to hide their part in it.

“All my life I’ve had to force you to make something out of yourself.”

Since Regina married Horace, she has been trying to coerce him into being as ambitious and money-driven as her brothers, so she could have the lavish lifestyle she wanted. Years of resentment have built up and made Regina start to hate her husband, making reconciliation between them impossible and reflecting The Isolation of Greed.

“You wreck the town, you and your brothers, you wreck the town and live on it. Not me. Maybe it’s easy for the dying to be honest. But it’s not my fault I’m dying.”

Horace’s battle with his health has significantly changed his perspective, and this shift ends up becoming the greatest obstacle to Regina’s plan. He starts to see his wife and her brothers for the greedy people they are, and wants no part of it. In this passage, he calls them out directly for their Passive Violence Against Oppressed Communities, as their exploitation “wreck[s] the town” instead of benefiting the community as a whole.

“She said she was old-fashioned, but not that way. She said she was old-fashioned enough not to like people who killed animals they couldn’t use, and who made their money charging awful interest to [people and] cheating them on what they bought.”

Birdie recounts a story of her mother, which expands upon the theme of The Isolation of Greed. Birdie here recalls how her mother disapproved of the Hubbards not because they worked in trade, but because they were greedy and amoral in their pursuit of wealth. The cycles of systemic inequality can only be broken when those who would benefit from it refuse to participate in it (such as Birdie and her mother, Horace, and Alexandra learn to do).

“Like I say, if we could only go back to Lionnet. Everybody’d be better there. They’d be good and kind. I like people to be kind.”

Birdie romanticizes her childhood home of Lionnet, and fantasizes about returning there when her life with Oscar becomes too much to bear. Oscar only married her because she was a Southern aristocrat. Now, even her home has been taken from her, along with the rest of her rights and her freedom, once more reflecting The Difficulties of Female Agency.

“Don’t love me. Because in twenty years you’ll just be like me. They’ll do all the same things to you.”

Birdie has the benefit of hindsight to recognize that her marriage to Oscar was not founded on love, but was a business transaction. Now, she is in an abusive, miserable marriage, and wants to do all she can to protect her beloved niece from the same fate. This quote builds upon the theme of The Difficulties of Female Agency in the play.

“So you didn’t want Zan to hear? It would be nice to let her stay innocent, like Birdie at her age.”

Throughout the play, the characters debate over whether Alexandra is an adult (and therefore of marriageable age, and able to travel on her own to retrieve her father) or a child who should be shielded from the harsher realities of adult life. When Horace discovers the plan to have Alexandra married off to Leo, he and Birdie both do what they can to enlighten Alexandra about the dangers of the life that’s been planned for her. Although she should be too young to have to worry about being treated as property, the truth is that 17 was seen as old enough to be coerced into such an arrangement. Society forces Alexandra to grow up faster than she should.

“You will not say anything as long as you live.”

This is a crucial turning point in the play. Regina, after talking to Horace, understands that as long as he lives, he will pose a threat to the life she wants. Her calm, collected response is a cold acknowledgement of the situation and a foreshadowing that Horace must die before the end of the play.

“Yes, I thought—but I was wrong. You were a small-town clerk then. You haven’t changed.”

More of Horace’s background, and his relationship with Regina, is revealed when the two of them are left alone. Regina married a man who had the potential to become as greedy and ambitious as her brothers, but he never fulfilled that potential. The only option for Regina, she thinks, is for Horace to be permanently out of her way. Her coldness toward him embodies The Isolation of Greed.

“Horace has already clipped your wings and very wittily. Do I have to clip them, too?”

Ben taunts Regina, lording it over her that she has been duped by her husband out of the money she fought to make from the deal with Marshall. He plays into the systemic mistreatment of women and The Difficulties of Female Agency, threatening to “[clip her] wings” by further undermining her. What he doesn’t know at the time of this quote is that Regina will soon be the one with power over her brothers.

“You couldn’t find a jury that wouldn’t weep for a woman whose brothers steal from her.”

Instead of fighting the system that hurts women, Regina’s tactic is to lean into it, using it to her advantage to gain sympathy by playing up her supposed helplessness. She knows that a court of law will be sympathetic toward a supposedly vulnerable woman, and decides to take advantage of that for her own gain.

“There are people who can never go back, who must finish what they start. I am one of those people, Oscar.”

Though Regina has hinted at her ruthlessness throughout the play, it isn’t until the end that the extent of her greed is fully revealed. Her brothers underestimate her, but Horace notes that they should have been paying closer attention—she is a sharp businesswoman. Oscar and Ben’s decision to underestimate their sister proves to be the one that secures Regina’s position of power.

“There are hundreds of Hubbards sitting in rooms like this throughout the country. All their names aren’t Hubbard, but they are all Hubbards and they will own this country some day. We’ll get along.”

This quote reveals the extent of systemic oppression and the Passive Violence Against Oppressed Communities in the deep South at the turn of the 20th century. The tragic unraveling of a family over money, especially at the cost of the women and other oppressed groups, is not unique to the Hubbards. While the Hubbards are one single family, they mirror an entire society that operates according to these exploitative rules.