The Little Foxes (Plot Summary)

Plot Summary

Act One

The Little Foxes takes place in the living room of the Giddens house, in a small town in the deep South in 1900. At curtain rise, the black maid Addie is tidying up and Cal, the black porter, is setting out a bottle of the best port. Birdie Hubbard, a wellbred but faded woman enters from the dinner party offstage, obviously tipsy. Her husband Oscar follows, scolding her for boring their special guest. His sister Regina Giddens and brother Ben enter with Mr. William Marshall of Chicago, enjoying light-hearted banter after closing a deal to build a new cotton mill that will make all of them wealthy. Marshall is pleased by the Hubbards’s promise to prevent labor problems, a “certain benefit” of the southern locale. One family member who stands to gain from the transaction is missing — Horace Giddens, Regina’s husband, a banker. He is in Baltimore under the care of specialists for a heart condition. Leo, Oscar’s toady son, has been “keeping an eye on things” at his bank. Mr. Marshall and Regina flirt openly, and she promises to visit him in Chicago. Apparently her brothers approve of this potential affair, as it cements the business deal.

After Mr. Marshall leaves, the Hubbard family members speculate about how they will spend their millions. Birdie wants two things: to restore to its pre-Civil War elegance her family plantation Lionnet, now under the ownership of her husband and for Oscar to stop shooting the game their black neighbors need for sustenance. Oscar scornfully hushes her. Regina’s grand plan is to move to Chicago and become a member of high society. Ben interrupts the wish-making to suggest they assume a fifty-one percent controlling interest, with an investment of $225,000. Ben and Oscar pressure Regina to get her third of the investment money from Horace, who has not responded to Regina’s letters. Regina shrewdly manages to turn their skepticism to her benefit by fabricating that Horace is holding out for a larger share. The brothers grant their sister this coup just to keep the deal in the family; the difference will come out of Oscar’s share. In return Oscar wants Regina’s daughter Alexandra (Zan) to marry his son. Regina promises only to think about it.

Birdie promises Alexandra that she will not allow the family force her to marry Leo, and this earns her a slap on the face from her husband, which Birdie conceals from Zan. Regina announces that Alexandra is to leave the next morning to bring her father home. The curtain closes on Alexandra looking puzzled and frightened.

Act Two

One week later, the family nervously awaits Horace’s arrival. Cal makes an offhand remark about the meat Oscar is wasting, but Oscar cuts him off with an ominous threat. Leo and Oscar concoct a scheme to “borrow” $88,000 worth of Union Pacific bonds from Horace’s safe deposit box, giving them two-thirds of the investment, thus turning the tables on Ben. They would replace the bonds before Horace discovers them missing. Ben arrives and the siblings discuss Horace’s delay over breakfast offstage.

Addie rushes hopefully to the door at the sound of voices; it is Horace, looking completely exhausted, and Alexandra, covered in soot from the trip. Alexandra asks not for her mother, but for Aunt Birdie. Addie and Horace happily reminisce for a moment, then Horace asks her why he has been called home. She tells him about the plan to become “high-tone rich” and to marry Zan to Leo, muttering “over my dead body.” Sobered, Horace is announced. The family rushes to him, Regina greeting him with a warm kiss. It isn’t long, however, before the problems between Horace and Regina emerge again. Regina wonders if his “fancy women” caused his bad heart. She then forces a discussion of the investment, in spite of his obvious fatigue. Horace discovers that the Hubbards have promised Marshall low wages and no strikes; he dryly observes that Ben will certainly accomplish this by playing the workers off against each other. Horace intends to obstruct the Hubbards: by not allowing Leo to marry Zan and not giving Regina his money. Regina pursues him as he retires upstairs, even though Ben urges her to wait, to use “softness and a smile.” With their angry voices audible, Oscar puts forth his plan to circumvent Horace and Regina by “borrowing” $88,000 from “a friend” of Leo’s. Ben, guessing the friend’s identity, encourages them to proceed but refuses to shake Leo’s hand good-bye. Regina returns downstairs unsuccessful and barely acknowledges Alexandra’s plea to stop causing stress to her father. Regina turns instead to Ben, who shocks her with the news that everything is settled and that Oscar is going to Chicago. When Horace comes downstairs to relish the Hubbards’s dispute, Regina cruelly accuses him of wishing her ill because of his own impending death. Horace responds that he refuses to help the Hubbards “wreck the town and live on it.”

Act Three

On a rainy afternoon two weeks later, Birdie and Alexandra contentedly play a piano duet while Horace is nearby. Abruptly, Horace tells Cal to run to the bank with a puzzling message meant for Leo’s ears — that he has received the safe deposit box and now wants the manager to bring an attorney over that evening. Birdie’s indulgence in elderberry wine causes her to reminisce about the happy days when Horace used to play the fiddle. In her inebriated gaiety, Birdie relates that her mother would never associate with the Hubbards. She explains that she married Oscar because Ben wanted the Lionnet cotton, so Oscar “married it.” Birdie hopes Zan will not turn out like herself, unhappily trailing after the power holders. Addie’s remark sums up the play’s moral: “Well, there are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it. . . . Then there are people who stand around and watch them eat it.”

When Regina comes in, Horace announces that they have, after all, invested in the cotton mill. At first she thinks that Horace has decided to join her and she feels triumphant, but she has misunderstood. Horace will let the brother keep the stolen money, her only legacy in the new will he is about to write. In retaliation, she tells him that she has never loved him, that his impending death pleases her. This shocks Horace enough that he reaches for his heart medicine, but he drops the bottle and it breaks. He cannot even call to Addie for another bottle, and Regina makes no move to help him. He falls and is carried upstairs. When the brothers and Leo arrive, Regina divulges that she knows of their crime, and Ben and Oscar let Leo take the blame. Now she and Ben seem almost to relish fencing for the upper hand. If Horace lives, Ben and Oscar will “win,” but if he dies, Regina will triumph and send her brothers to jail. Betting that Horace will die, Regina blackmails them for a seventy-five percent share. Ben and Oscar are ready to give it to her to save themselves when Zan comes downstairs. Her posture indicates that Horace is dead; Regina has won. Regina reminds them of her sway over Mr. Marshall, who will abort the deal rather than risk a scandal — the brothers had better behave. Ben and Regina make amends, being cut of the same cloth. Only after Oscar departs does Ben deal his final blow: he shares Zan’s suspicions about Horace’s death. After Ben leaves, Regina commands Zan to accompany her to Chicago, then relents, not wanting to force her. She almost timidly inquires if Zan would like to sleep in her room. Zan, seeing a new side of her mother, asks,“Are you afraid, Mama?” Addie comforts Zan as the curtain falls.