Two plays by Marianne Ackerman. Woman by a Window externalizes one woman's struggle with her desire, her will and her soul as she attempts to renounce a man and food simultaneously. She attempts to distract herself from her hungers by reading Madame Bovary , with alternately hilarious and sad results. Céleste examines the relationship between David Temple, a modern philosopher, Isaac Hirscholm, his doctor friend, and Céleste, the woman who becomes Temple's housekeeper and eventually his wife. Ackerman masterfully uses this dramatic situation to explore some of the issues raised in the work of contemporary Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor.