Lessons in Chemistry

When Madeline is almost four, even though she is still too young for kindergarten, Elizabeth enrolls her in school by altering her birthdate on the certificate. Madeline is already physically bigger than most five-year-olds and is reading at a sixth grade level. Elizabeth’s decision is driven partly by her concern over Madeline’s shyness and introversion. Madeline also displays an uncanny ability to “sense exactly those things everyone wanted to hide” (170). In a chalk drawing she does of her life, among other things she draws a shower of tears, explaining that it represents Elizabeth’s sadness.

Elizabeth’s dwindling finances prompt her to return to Hastings and ask for a job. Donatti, who seems relieved to see her, agrees, though Harriet does not think it’s a good idea, especially after the way they treated her and Calvin. Donatti hires Elizabeth again because the abiogenesis investor is back and demanding to see “Mr. Zott’s” work on the subject. When Donatti questions the remaining chemists if they have anything to report on abiogenesis, Boryweitz reports that he does but is unable to explain his work. Boryweitz claims that he ran into Elizabeth and discussed the subject, and she happened to have the same results as him.

Elizabeth is welcomed back by Donatti with a new lab coat that reads “E.Z” instead of “E. Zott”, as it used to; she is met with laughter from her fellow chemists when she puts on the coat.

Donatti asks to see all of the work that Elizabeth has done so far on abiogenesis, and she is shocked that he knows of it at all. To her knowledge, the only person who could know of it was Boryweitz, whom she had caught going through her files the last time he visited her. Donatti calls Elizabeth “Luscious” and reveals that she will be working as a lab tech and not as a chemist as they had originally discussed. He hands her a brochure to a correspondence course in dictation, which Hastings is willing to pay for, before he leaves for a meeting.

A fuming Elizabeth runs into Frask in the bathroom, who is upset about having to report to a new hire, a young man, rather than having been promoted herself. She reveals to Elizabeth that the investor is back and asking about “Mr. Zott’s” abiogenesis research, accusing Elizabeth of posing as a man. Elizabeth angrily denies this, and a verbal altercation follows. In the process, both women discover that they had each been sexually assaulted by their thesis advisors, resulting in each of them being kicked out of their respective doctoral programs (Elizabeth in chemistry, Frask in psychology).

On Madeline’s first day of school, the teacher, Mrs. Mudford, sends home a note asking to see Elizabeth.

A few weeks into her job as a lab tech at Hastings, Elizabeth asks Frask for more information on the abiogenesis investor, but there is barely anything to be found. Frask gets fired by her new boss for gaining weight; before she leaves, she illegally gives Elizabeth all of Calvin’s work that had been boxed and kept in storage as a way to make amends for how Frask had treated Elizabeth in the past.

Walter worries about how to fill the empty afternoon programming slot; failing to do so, his boss has threatened to fire him. He only puts up with his boss for the sake of his job so that he can provide for his daughter, Amanda. Walter is a single parent and would do anything for Amanda. He remembers Elizabeth, who had visited him a few days ago to complain about Amanda’s lunch theft.

At the same time, Elizabeth discovers that two months after working at Hastings as a lab tech, Donatti has stolen her research and published it as his own in Science Journal, listing Boryweitz as his co-contributor. She confronts both Boryweitz and Donatti in a rage and quits.

At home, Harriet tells Elizabeth that she has been getting calls from Walter, and Madeline is horrified to find out that Elizabeth spoke to Amanda’s father. Madeline explains that Amanda brings a lunch that is “not normal,” but Elizabeth asserts that stealing is still wrong, reminded of Donatti and the paper. Madeline has also brought home a note from Mrs. Mudford.

Mrs. Mudford dislikes both Amanda and Madeline—Amanda because she finds the child difficult and doesn’t approve of the fact that it’s her father who is involved in her education rather than her mother, and Madeline because she is not only advanced in her reading and comprehension skills but also insists on doing things that boys do, such as kick a ball. This particular note complained about how Madeline has been requesting books by Vladimir Nabokov from the librarian.

Madeline tells Elizabeth that she doesn’t like school. She asks if they are poor, and Elizabeth remembers some of Calvin’s correspondence she had found in the boxes Frask had given her. Elizabeth found numerous offers from prestigious universities, but Calvin had chosen Hastings, the worst offer in terms of pay by far, because Wakely had once written that Commons, California, where Hastings is located, has the “best weather in the world” (193). Wakely had been attending Harvard Divinity School when Calvin was at Cambridge, and the two men had frequently corresponded on topics of faith and science. Elizabeth had discovered the final exchange in which Calvin professed that he hated his father and wished him dead; this confused her, as Elizabeth had believed Calvin’s parents to be dead. She also finds the correspondence from various people claiming to be long-lost family, including the woman claiming to be Calvin’s biological mother and offering him money for his research.

Walter calls again during dinner; he tells Elizabeth his idea for a cooking show that she would host. Although Elizabeth hates the idea of being reduced to “making food on TV for housewives” (199), she considers it since the proposed pay is good, and she needs the money after quitting her job at Hastings.

Walter’s boss Phil Lebensmal, the executive producer at KCTV, instructs Walter to make Elizabeth look “sexy” for TV, dressing her in skin-tight clothing and having her make a cocktail at the end of every episode. However, Elizabeth rejects every single wardrobe option calling the dresses uncomfortable and suggests that she wear a lab coat instead. She also asks to see the kitchen on set stocked with the lab equipment she has requested, but Walter lies that it isn’t quite ready yet. In truth, the set has been ready for a while, only modeled along an ideal “Good Housekeeping” kitchen and without the equipment, which Walter knows Elizabeth will hate.

Walter explains to Elizabeth that her role is to entertain the audience, especially because her show will be airing right after the “Afternoon Depression Zone” (205) of TV time. This is the time of day, between 1:30 and 5 PM, when productivity naturally drops for everyone. Shows aired at this time are usually children’s shows or game shows “designed to let the brain rest” (206). Homemakers, however, are forced to continue through this slump owing to the mountain of tasks still ahead of time. Elizabeth’s show, Supper at Six, will air at 4:30 PM, just as people are emerging out of the slump. Walter asserts that Elizabeth has a responsibility to her audience of housewives to energize them for their next task at hand (making dinner); thus, she must be entertaining.

Walter discovers that Elizabeth is unmarried and that Madeline’s father is dead; even as he sincerely consoles Elizabeth, he urges her not to reveal these details about her background to the show’s producers. Walter also reveals that he is not Amanda’s biological father. Despite this, he loves the child with all his heart. They also discover that Mrs. Mudford has summoned both of them to discuss their respective children, and they bond over the fact that she mistakenly believes each of them to be unfit parents for different reasons. Walter finally suggests that, although wearing a lab coat is out of the question, Elizabeth can wear something from her own closet for the show.

Elizabeth walks on to the set for the very first time as the show is being taped live, dressed in a drab dress with a number two pencil in her hair and test tubes in her hands. She calls the set “revolting” even as the cameras are rolling and strides off to confer with Walter, forcing the crew to cut to commercial. Walter informs her that no changes can be made to the set; it has been designed keeping the “average Jane” in mind, and this is whom Elizabeth ought to address.

When Elizabeth gets back in front of the camera, she completely ignores the cue cards. Women viewers are enthralled as Elizabeth speaks about how the work of wives, mothers, and women go unappreciated, and how she promises to do something meaningful with them in the 30 minutes she is on air. Lebensmal is furious and yells at Walter after the show, threatening to cancel it entirely. Walter begs Elizabeth to read the cue cards, but she refuses, saying that her conscience doesn’t allow her to. Her show also brings in a number of phone calls from people asking to clarify the shopping list Elizabeth mentioned on the show; the other show Walter had aired during the afternoon slot had never brought in a single phone call.

15 days into broadcasting, and Walter is exhausted. Elizabeth continues to argue for a different kitchen space on set, ignore the cue cards, and include scientific details for the audience as she is cooking. Walter brings in a live audience to help her see how boring her methods are and encourage her to be more entertaining.

To Walter’s horror, Elizabeth begins the show by “clean[ing] up” her kitchen space, giving away most of the set items to the audience members present. She proceeds to chop spinach for the casserole while offering information on the vegetable’s nutritive benefits. She asserts that cooking is chemistry, urges her viewers to take risks, and ends the show with her iconic sign-off: “Children, set the table. Your mother needs a moment to herself” (226). While the show is taped, Walter imagines his own funeral. His secretary, Rosa, and Elizabeth, wake him up, saying that he had been slumped over with an elevated heart rate. Elizabeth gives him the spinach casserole she has just made to take home for dinner. Despite his protestations that Amanda hates spinach, he takes it home, and Amanda declares it to be the best thing she has ever eaten.

In May 1961, Mrs. Mudford assigns the class a family tree assignment. Harriet is displeased with the assignment, correctly divining it as Mrs. Mudford being nosy and that “these trees are a poor attempt to feel like you’re somebody based on somebody else” (231).

In conversation with Madeline, Harriet learns that a number of Madeline’s classmates bring leftovers of the same dishes that Elizabeth cooks on the show, indicating that their mothers watch the show. Harriet is amazed, as she didn’t think Elizabeth’s serious manner and lessons in chemistry alongside cooking would have pulled in a large viewership. Owing to this, Harriet had been urging Elizabeth to “play along” with what the producers and sponsors wanted in terms of how she behaved on the show: smiling more, for instance. However, Elizabeth had stoutly refused to do so, unwilling to “perpetuate the myth that women are incompetent” (236). Harriet is Elizabeth’s only friend and they agree on most things, but Elizabeth entirely disagrees with Harriet’s view that men and women are different, the former needing coddling from the latter. In Elizabeth’s eyes, the limitations placed on women, as well as the elevation of men as greater than women, are not biological but entirely cultural.

Madeline worries that she doesn’t know enough about her father to fill in the family tree, but Harriet reassures her that she knows plenty, inadvertently revealing that Calvin had a godmother of sorts. Harriet discovered this once when she was snooping around Calvin’s house. He had accidentally left the front door open one day, and Harriet looked around inside before closing it for him; her search had revealed a letter from the boys’ home he was brought up in, asking if Calvin would be willing to make a donation, as they had recently lost a big donor. To Madeline’s further questions about the godmother, Harriet explains that the person was a “fairy godmother,” a philanthropist who donated money to the home. Harriet urges Madeline to keep the family tree assignment a secret from Elizabeth despite Madeline’s misgivings about this. Frustrated by Madeline’s questions, Harriet gives up and takes Madeline to the library.