Madame X

Madame X (original title La Femme X) is a 1908 play by French playwright Alexandre Bisson (1848–1912).

[1] The play has been cited as an example of the literary tradition of portraying the mother figure as being "excessively punished for slight deviation from her maternal role".

[2] The protagonist is a woman who has been thrown out into the street without any money by her jealous husband, when he discovers she has been carrying on an affair.

He is puzzled and frustrated when she refuses to defend herself in court, or even to provide her name (which forces the tribunal to identify her as "Madame X").

When the defendant sees that her husband recognizes her and is about to speak out, she makes an impassioned plea, not for mercy but for understanding of what drove her to murder.

First edition of the novel adaptation by J. W. McConaughy illustrated by Edward Charles Volkert