"This living, this living, this living" : theme and style in Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker, although a widely read author, has suffered critical neglect. A consideration of her poems and stories reveals two major recurrent themes. The first is one of criticism of all sorts of pretension and hypocrisy. The second theme is of the futility, often attributable to the roles women are forced to play, of romantic relationships and marriage in our society. Parker's style in poetry and prose is perhaps the clearest hallmark of her work. Her prose shows an extraordinary economy of expression, and in her poetry Parker masterfully manipulates lexicon, form, and meter to achieve her witty and irreverent effect even in the face of her typically somber themes.