"Dou E, who as a seventeen year old girl is given by her father, a poor Confucian scholar, to the widow Cai as payment for a debt. Ten years later, Dou E marries Cai's son byt soon finds herself a widow. When another debtor, Doctor Lu, attempts to stangle Cai instead of repaying what he owes, she is rescued by Old Zhang and his son Donkey, who seek to marry the women. Dou E refuses Donkey's proposal out of loyalty to her dead husband and the spurned suitor attempts to poison Cai, believing that the older woman's death will force Dou E to accept him. When instead Old Zhang drinks the poisoned soup and dies, Donkey accuses Dou E of murder and presents her with the choice of marrying him or going to court. Taken before the Prefect and beaten, Dou E maintains her innocence; but to spare her mother-in-law a beating, she falsely confesses to the crime and is sentenced to death."
(The Norton Anthology of Drama pg. 503) |