The Open Door

My first reaction to The Open Door is that I love the way this play is written. It is not modern at all, rather quite eloquent and Sir Geoffrey and Lady Torminster are very prim and proper toward each other from the beginning of the play.

The Open Door is a story of a woman and a man (Lady Torminster and Sir Geoffrey) who love each other, but cannot be together because the woman is married to the man’s best friend. Instead of being unfaithful to her husband, Lady Torminster holds back her love for Sir Geoffrey and rejects any inappropriate actions from him until this one particular night when she realizes this may be her last chance to confess her love to her husband’s best friend.

When Lady Torminster tells Sir Geoffrey that she feels the same way about him that he does for her, things become hilariously funny because all of a sudden Sir Geoffrey begins to feel guilty and wrong for his feelings toward Lady Torminster and he regrets asking her to sit and talk with him. Lady Torminster assures Sir Geoffrey that she knew the way he felt for her all along and she appreciates him for loving her husband such that he never tried anything with her. 

The story is happy and sad all at once because on the one hand it’s good to know that both Lady Torminster and Sir Geoffrey were upright enough not to have an affair, but it’s sad to think that they cannot be together because when they met it was already too late. I enjoyed reading this play for both reasons.