Meaning, Control, and Agency Theme Analysis

I think I’ll have a fag. Give me a fag.

Pause.

I just asked you to give me a cigarette.

Pause.

Look what I’m lumbered with.

He takes a crumpled cigarette from his pocket.

I’m getting old, my word of honour.

He lights it.

You think I wasn’t a tearaway? I could have taken care of you, twice over. I’m still strong. You ask your Uncle Sam what I was. But at the same time I always had a kind heart. Always.

LENNY. What did you say?

MAX. I said shove off out of it, that’s what I said.

LENNY. You’ll go before me, Dad, if you talk to me in that tone of voice.

MAX. Will I, you bitch?

Max grips his stick.

LENNY. Oh, Daddy you’re not going to use your stick on me, are you? Eh? Don’t use your stick on me, Daddy. No, please. It wasn’t my fault, it was one of the others. I haven’t done anything wrong, Dad, honest. Don’t clout me with that stick, Dad.

SAM. After all, I’m experienced. I was driving a dust cart at the age of nineteen. Then I was in long-distance haulage. I had ten years as a tax-driver and I’ve had five as a private chauffeur.

MAX. It’s funny you never got married, isn’t it? A man with all your gifts.

Pause.

Isn’t it? A man like you?

MAX. Boxing’s a gentleman’s game.

Pause.

I’ll tell you what you’ve got to do. What you’ve got to do is you’ve got to learn how to defend yourself, and you’ve got to learn how to attack. That’s your only trouble as a boxer. You don’t know how to defend yourself, and you don’t know how to attack.

Pause.

Once you’ve mastered those arts you can go straight to the top.

TEDDY. What do you think of the room? Big, isn’t it? It’s a big house. I mean, it’s a fine room, don’t you think? Actually there was a wall, across there…with a door. We knocked it down…years ago…to make an open living area. The structure wasn’t affected, you see. My mother was dead.

RUTH sits.

TEDDY. Go to bed. I’ll show you the room.

RUTH. No, I don’t want to.

TEDDY. You’ll be perfectly all right up there without me. Really you will. I mean, I won’t be long. Look, it’s just up there. It’s the first door on the landing. The bathroom’s right next door. You…need some rest, you know.

Pause.

I just want to…walk about for a few minutes. Do you mind?

RUTH. Of course I don’t.

TEDDY. Well…Shall I show you the room?

RUTH. No, I’m happy at the moment.

TEDDY. You don’t have to go to bed. I’m not saying you have to. I mean, you can stay up with me. Perhaps I’ll make a cup of tea or something. The only thing is we don’t want to make too much noise, we don’t want to wake anyone up.

RUTH. I’m not making any noise.

TEDDY. I know you’re not.

RUTH. How did you know she was diseased?

LENNY. How did I know?

Pause.

I decided she was.

LENNY. [The ashtray] seems to be in the way of your glass. The glass was about to fall. Or the ashtray. I’m rather worried about the carpet. It’s not me, it’s my father. He’s obsessed with order and clarity. He doesn’t like mess. So, as I don’t believe you’re smoking at the moment, I’m sure you won’t object if I move the ashtray.

He does so.

And now perhaps I’ll relieve you of your glass.

RUTH. I haven’t quite finished.

LENNY. You’ve consumed quite enough, in my opinion.

RUTH. No, I haven’t.

LENNY. Quite sufficient, in my own opinion.

RUTH. Not in mine, Leonard.

Pause.

LENNY. Don’t call me that, please.

RUTH. Why not?

LENNY. That’s the name my mother gave me.

Pause.

Just give me that glass.

RUTH. No.

Pause.

Lenny. I’ll take it then.

RUTH. If you take the glass…I’ll take you.

LENNY. I’ll tell you what, Dad, since you’re in the mood for a bit of a…chat, I’ll ask you a question. It’s a question I’ve been meaning to ask you for some time. That night…you know…the night you got me…that night with Mum, what was it like? Eh? When I was just a glint in your eye. What was it like? What was the background to it? I mean, I want to know the real facts about my background. I mean, for instance, is it a fact that you had me in mind all the time, or is it a fact that I was the last thing you had in mind?

MAX. Before he died, Sam. Just before. They were his last words. His last sacred words, Sammy. A split second after he said those words…he was a dead man. You think I’m joking? You think when my father spoke—on his death-bed—I wouldn’t obey his words to the last letter? You hear that, Joey? He’ll stop at nothing. He’s even prepared to spit on the memory of our Dad. What kind of a son were you, you wet wick? You spent half your time doing crossword puzzles! We took you into the butcher’s shop, you couldn’t even sweep the dust off the floor. We took MacGregor into the shop, he could run the place by the end of a week. Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I respected my father not only as a man but as a number one butcher! And to prove it I followed him into the shop. I learned to carve a carcass at his knee. I commemorated his name in blood. I gave birth to three grown men! All on my own bat. What have you done?

Pause.

What have you done? You tit!

MAX. Who’s this?

TEDDY. I was just going to introduce you.

MAX. Who asked you to bring tarts in here?

TEDDY. Tarts?

MAX. Who asked you to bring dirty tarts into this house?

TEDDY. Listen, don’t be silly—

MAX. You been here all night?

TEDDY. Yes, we arrived from Venice—

MAX. We’ve had a smelly scrubber in my house all night. We’ve had a stinking pox-ridden slut in my house all night.

TEDDY. Stop it! What are you talking about?

MAX. I haven’t seen the bitch for six years, he comes home without a word, he brings a filthy scrubber off the street, he shacks up in my house!

TEDDY. She’s my wife! We’re married!

Pause.

MAX. I’ve never had a whore under this roof before. Ever since your mother died. My word of honour. […]

MAX. You a mother?

RUTH. Yes.

MAX. How many you got?

RUTH. Three.

He turns to TEDDY.

MAX. All yours, Ted?

Pause.

Teddy, why don’t we have a nice cuddle and kiss, eh? Like the old days? What about a nice cuddle and kiss, eh?

TEDDY. Come on, then.

[…]

MAX. You still love your old Dad, eh?

They face each other.

TEDDY. Come on, Dad. I’m ready for the cuddle.

MAX begins to chuckle, gurgling. He turns to the family and addresses them.

MAX. He still loves his father!

MAX. But you’re my own flesh and blood. You’re my first born. I’d have dropped everything. Sam would have driven you to the reception in the Snipe, Lenny would have been your best man, and then we’d have all seen you off on the boat. […] Anyway, what’s the difference, you did it, you made a wonderful choice, you’ve got a wonderful family, a marvellous career…so why don’t we let bygones be bygones?

Pause.

You know what I’m saying? I want you both to know that you have my blessing.

TEDDY. Thank you.

MAX. Don’t mention it. How many other houses in the district have got a Doctor of Philosophy sitting down drinking a cup of coffee?

RUTH. Don’t be too sure though. You’ve forgotten something. Look at me. I…move my leg. That’s all it is. But I wear…underwear…which moves with me…it captures your attention. Perhaps you misinterpret. The action is simple. It’s a leg…moving. My lips move. Why don’t you restrict…your observations to that? Perhaps the fact that they move is more significant…than the words which come through them. You must bear that…possibility…in mind.

TEDDY. Yes, they’re about six hours behind us…I mean…behind the time here. The boys’ll be at the pool…now…swimming. Think of it. Morning over there. Sun. We’ll go anyway, mmnn? It’s so clean there.

RUTH. Clean.

TEDDY. Yes.

RUTH. Is it dirty here?

TEDDY. No, of course not. But it’s cleaner there.

TEDDY. You wouldn’t understand my works. You wouldn’t have the faintest idea of what they were about. You wouldn’t appreciate the points of reference. You’re way behind. All of you. There’s no point in sending you my works. You’d be lost. It’s nothing to do with the question of intelligence. It’s a way of being able to look at the world. It’s a question of how far you can operate on things and not in things. I mean it’s a question of your capacity to ally the two, to relate the two, to balance the two. To see, to be able to see! I’m the one who can see. That’s why I can write my critical works. Might do you good…have a look at them…see how certain people can view…things…how certain people can maintain…intellectual equilibrium. Intellectual equilibrium. You’re just objects. You just…move about. I can observe it. I can see what you do. It’s the same as I do. But you’re lost in it. You won’t get me being…I won’t be lost in it.

LENNY. You took my cheese-roll?

TEDDY. Yes.

LENNY. I made that roll myself. I cut it and put the butter on. I sliced the piece of cheese and put it in between. I put it on a plate and I put it in the sideboard. I did all that before I went out. Now I come back and you’ve eaten.

TEDDY. Well, what are you going to do about it?

LENNY. I’m waiting for you to apologize.

TEDDY. But I took it deliberately, Lenny.

LENNY. You mean you didn’t stumble on it by mistake?

TEDDY. No, I saw you put it there. I was hungry, so I ate it.

Pause.

LENNY. Barefaced audacity.

Pause.

What led you to be so…vindictive against your own brother? I’m bowled over.

RUTH. I’d need an awful lot. Otherwise I wouldn’t be content.

LENNY. You’d have everything.

RUTH. I would naturally want to draw up an inventory of everything I would need, which would require your signatures in the presence of witnesses.

LENNY. Naturally.

RUTH. All aspects of the agreement and conditions of employment would have to be clarified to our mutual satisfaction before we finalized the contract.

LENNY. Of course.

Pause.

RUTH. Well, it might prove a workable arrangement.

Lenny. I think so.

TEDDY goes to the front door.

RUTH. Eddie.

Pause.

Don’t become a stranger.

TEDDY goes, shuts the front door.

MAX. […] I don’t think she got it clear.

Pause. You understand what I mean? Listen, I’ve got a funny idea she’ll do the dirty on us, you want to bet? She’ll use us, she’ll make use of us, I can tell you! I can smell it! You want to bet?

Pause.

She won’t…be adaptable!

He falls to his knees, whimpers, begins to moan and sob. He stops sobbing, crawls past SAM’s body round her chair, to the other side of her.

I’m not an old man.

He looks up at her.

Do you hear me?

He raises his face to her.

Kiss me.

She continues to touch Joey’s head, lightly. LENNY stands, watching.