'The Gilded Age' Uses Historical Fiction To Highlight Modern Challenges In Friendships Between Black And White Women
essence.comThe Gilded Age we watch the beginnings of a platonic relationship between two women, living in the United States in the late 1800s.
Marian Brook, a white woman from a well-to-do family in Manhattan and Peggy Scott, a Black woman whose family belongs to the Black elite of Brooklyn.The women meet one another after Peggy, played by actress Denée Benton, loans Marian (Louisa Jacobson) train fare.
They remain in one another’s lives as Peggy takes a job working for Marian’s aunt Agnes in an attempt to stay in Manhattan and pursue her dream of becoming a published writer.
Marian and Peggy become friendly as they both attempt to navigate the world as young women. But, as you might assume, race and ignorance keeps Marian from fully understanding Peggy’s plight as a Black woman in a newly emancipated America.“We have to be honest and recognize that interracial friendships between young women in the 1880s was relatively rare,” Dr.
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