None of the characters in Intimate Apparel are New York City natives, and yet all of them came to the city years prior to the start of the play in the hopes of achieving their dreams of success. For all of them, they define this as experiencing financial success and personal fulfillment, whether their dreams include opening a beauty shop, as in the case of Esther, or being the epitome of the perfect wife, as Mrs. Van Buren aspires to be. For a variety of reasons, however, the play suggests that the American dream is mostly unattainable for its characters, and the most that any of them can ask for or expect is survival.
Early on in the play, Esther confides in Mayme that she'd like to one day open a beauty shop that will serve black women and will be the kind of shop where her clients can feel pampered, beautiful, and fancy. Esther has spent the last eighteen years she's been in New York saving for this dream, and as such, she has a stash of money hidden in her crazy quilt. She says she doesn't yet have enough to open her beauty shop, but implies that she's well on her way. While hearing that Esther has this dream isn't shocking for Mayme, hearing that Esther is actively saving and planning for her shop is. Mayme, after working in the sex industry for years, has become extremely cynical about the ability of black women in particular to be able to move up in the world, and she long ago gave up on her dream of playing ragtime piano in fancy European clubs. Mayme is the first to introduce the idea that dreams like these can be dangerous. She tells Esther that "so many wonderful ideas been conjured in this room. They just get left right in that bed there, or on this piano bench. They are scattered all over this room." As far as Mayme is concerned, dwelling on her dreams takes away from her ability to do her job and earn enough money to make a living.
For the play's male characters, their versions of the American dream seem just as far away as Mayme's dream of playing piano does. While Mr. Marks is still doing business, he implies that he doesn't yet have enough money to bring his fiancée to America and furthermore, is losing customers and income, making it increasingly unlikely that he'll be able to send for her anytime soon. Because the reader can see how George thinks of the U.S. before he arrives in New York, it's even easier to see the American dream at work for him. Having seen white American men make their fortunes in Panama, George believes that he'll be able to emulate them by moving to their place of origin—something that ultimately proves impossible for him. As immigrants, Mr. Marks and George truly encapsulate the impossibility of the American dream for most people: they both gave up their homes abroad in the hope of making a better life for themselves in the U.S., but what they find is arguably just as dead-end and unfulfilling for them as what they left behind.
That this appears to hold true for all the characters who came to New York to chase their dreams, regardless of race or gender, suggests that the imagined ideal of the American dream is truly impossible for the vast majority of people. Instead, barring objective failure like George's eventual descent into gambling and debauchery, the most that anyone can hope to actually achieve is the opportunity to simply make enough of a living to survive—and to recognize that one's far-fetched dreams, while motivating, are more successful as entertainment than as actual plans for the future. In short, the play presents the pessimistic view that while America and New York may promise a bright future for everyone, in reality they can only deliver crushing reality and a dose of cynicism to anyone who doesn't already have the means to ensure their success.
Related Themes from Other Texts
The American Dream ThemeTracker
The American Dream Quotes in Intimate Apparel
Mayme: Let me tell you, so many wonderful ideas been conjured in this room. They just get left right in that bed there, or on this piano bench. They are scattered all over this room. Esther, I ain't waiting for anybody to rescue me. My Panama man come and gone long time now. It sweet that he write you but, my dear, it ain't real.
Esther: DON'T! This quilt is filled with my hard work, one hundred dollars for every year I been seated at that sewing machine. It's my beauty parlor. So you see I don't need Mr. Charles for his good job and position.
Esther: But this is a new country.
Marks: But we come with our pockets stuffed, yes. We don't throw away nothing for fear we might need it later...I wear my father's suit. It is old, I know, but this simple black fabric is my most favorite. Why? Because when I wear it, it reminds me that I live every day with a relationship to my ancestors and to God.
Mrs. Dickson: Bless his broken-down soul. He had fine suits and perfect diction, and was too high on opium to notice that he was married. But I would not be a washerwoman if it killed me. And I have absolutely marvelous hands to prove it.
George: 'Least in Panama a man know where 'e stand. 'E know 'e chattel. That as long as 'e have a goat 'e happy. 'E know when 'e drunk, 'e drunk and there ain' no judgment if so. But then 'e drink in words of this woman. She tell 'e about the pretty avenues, she tell 'e plentiful. She fill up 'e head so it 'ave no taste for goat milk. She offer 'e the city stroke by stroke. She tantalize 'e with Yankee words. But 'e not find she. Only this woman 'ere, that say, touch me, George.
Mayme: The world changing and he wants big strong horses. He made me laugh. He promised to take me out someplace special, but I didn't have nothing nice to wear. And honestly it made me think about how long it been since I done something for myself. Gone someplace like you said, where a colored woman could go to put up her feet and get treated good for a change. And I see the dice rolling, and I think Lord, God, wouldn't a place like that be wonderful. But every time the dice roll, that place is a little further away. Until it all gone.
Esther: LET HIM GO! Let him go. He ain't real, he a duppy, a spirit. We be chasing him forever.
