Chains: A Play, in Four Acts

by Elizabeth Baker

"Chains: A Play, in Four Acts" by Elizabeth Baker is a play first performed in 1909. Set in Edwardian England, it follows Charley Wilson, a London clerk trapped in suburban monotony, and his wife Lily as they struggle to make ends meet. When their lodger decides to abandon everything and emigrate to Australia, Charley dreams of escape too. But everyone around him—wife, family, friends—ridicules such ambition. As financial pressures mount and his wages are cut, Charley must choose between pursuing freedom or accepting the suffocating chains of respectability and duty.