“Negative Power” and the Quest for Equality in Horton Foote’s Dividing The Estate

The present study attempts to explore the negative use of power and its  inevitable repercussions on the lives of the concerned characters in Horton Foote’s (1916-2009) Dividing The Estate (2008) in the light of Lynda Ann Ewen’s conception of ‘power’ in her book Social Stratification and Power in America: A View From Below . Ewen classifies power into “positive power” and “negative power”. Whereas “positive power” characterizes the relationship between equals, "negative power” creates what Ewen calls “social pain” by which she means that “someone in that relationship is being hurt by the exercise of that power. The person, or group, causing the hurt may or may not realize or understand the social pain being caused. But the fact that they don’t know, don’t understand, or deny the pain does not make the pain go away for the person who is suffering” (11). After displaying the negative use of power in Foote’s Dividing The Estate, the present study deals with the quest for equality on the part of the characters that experience feelings of oppression and degradation. Moreover, the paper investigates Foote’s insinuations as regards ways of getting out of the dilemma of the exercise of negative power, and of realizing equality and democracy. The study also attempts to point out that “the estate” can be considered as an epitome of the larger society in which the citizens should have equal access to the resources of the country in order to develop their different potentials on the basis of democracy and equality. Finally, the paper sheds light on the role of the theatre in exhibiting current individual and social issues; consequently, it explores how far the play transcends its regionalism to reach global implications.