Maude as a symbol of the past

“Thus contemporary critics and writers never discovered or articulated the main reason for Maude's supremacy on the American stage; that she served as a living symbol of the social; past; that she embodied and represented the old-fashioned ideals of antebellum true Womanhood at the time the vexing and fearsome New Woman was emerging on the scene to challenge the outmoded, restrictive rules governing female behavior and endeavor.” (Maude Adams, an American Idol: True Womanhood Triumphant in the Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth Century Theatre, doctoral thesis, 1984, Eileen Karen Kuehnl)

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