quotes Flashcards
THEMES: madness, regret, denial (reality hitting), addiction
MEANING: she’s very nervous/anxious - her addiction
ANALYSIS: CRIPPLED - damaged, disabled - sign of her addiction
About Mary (stage direction): “humiliated by her inability to control the nervousness”
edmund has “the same nervourness”
THEMES: denial, blame, regret
MEANING: don’t allow Mary to keep making excuses, living in denial - will be worse when it hits
ANALYSIS: “kidding” “fooling” - denial
Jamie to Tyrone about Mary: don’t let her keep “kidding herself,” “fooling herself” - “make the shock worse when she has to face it”.
THEMES: blame, denial, guilt
MEANING: saying that Jamie is the reason why Edmund is sick (tuberculosis)
ANALYSIS: ‘rottenness” - something that was good that is now bad, “hero” the way Edmund looked up to him
Tyrone to Jamie about Edmund: “worst influence for him” - “admiring you as a hero” -[Gave advice on] “the ways of rottenness”
THEMES: blame, denial, guilt
MEANING: Mary has a lot of control right now, was better before Edmund’s sickness - in denial
ANALYSIS:
Tyrone: about her nerves - had control “she had until Edmund got sick.”
THEMES: denial, blame, isolation, belonging, regret, nostalgia
MEANING: shows that she does not fit in, is quite isolated, but they believe the town and the house will fix her - doctors would send people who were ill (mentally and physically) to the seaside for the air to make them better
ANALYSIS:
Mary: “I’ve always hated this town and everyone in it.” - but keeps coming back
THEMES: nostalgia, the past,
MEANING: don’t forget, you must remember and be aware
ANALYSIS: “on your guard” - metaphor, guard meaning like a prison guard, lifeguard - guarding over someone - protecting herself
Triadic
Edmund to Mary: “it’s bad for you to forget … So you’ll always be on your guard.”
THEMES: blame, isolation, belonging, mental illness
MEANING: she feels like they don’t trust her and she doesn’t trust them - shows how fragmented the family is
ANALYSIS: semantic field of distrust: ‘suspicion’, ‘spying’, ‘believe’, ‘trust’
infantilised
Mary: living in “constant suspicion, knowing everyone is spying on me”
“None of you believe in me, or trust me.”
Themes: denial, past, regret, disillusionment
Meaning:
Analysis: a contrast to Edmunds quote, juxtaposition “everything” with “nothing”, to \
alliteration
Tyrone: ‘forget everything and face nothing’
How does … bluntly express the emotional pain and shame caused by Mary’s drug addiction (“dope fiend”), highlighting the family’s internal suffering?
Edmund: “It’s pretty hard to take at times, having a dope fiend for a mother!”
How does … illustrate his belief in the impossibility of personal change (“can’t change a leopard’s spots”), highlighting the family’s cycle of repeated mistakes?
Jamie: “Oh, all right. I’m a fool to argue. You can’t change a leopard’s spots.”
How does … convey the inescapability of the past, emphasizing its continuous impact on the present and future?
Mary: “Why? How can I? The past is the present, isn’t it? It’s the future, too. We all try to lie out of that but life won’t let us”
How does … harshly condemn Jamie, emphasizing his hopeless decline due to alcoholism (“wreck,” “drunken hulk”)?
… suggests Jamie has reached a point of no return—morally, physically, and emotionally destroyed by alcohol and self-destructive behavior. He’s “done with” in the sense that he’s beyond saving or redeeming, having lost all potential and hope for a better future.
Tyrone “A waste! A wreck, a drunken hulk, done with and finished!
How does … reveal his desire to escape reality, reflecting his struggle with facing the painful truths of family life?
Edmund: “That’s what I wanted - to be alone with myself in another world where truth is untrue and life can hide from itself.”
How does … express his alienation and despair, linking his sense of displacement (“never feels at home”) to his fascination with death? death - escape, release from suffering
Edmund: “It was a great mistake, my being born a man… I will always be a stranger who never feels at home… who must always be a little in love with death!”
How does … justify negatively influencing Edmund, framing his actions as honesty intended to teach Edmund from his own failures?
Jamie: “All I did was make a pal of him and be absolutely frank so he’d learn from my mistakes…”
How does … highlight Tyrone’s close watch over his alcohol (“eye of a hawk”), reflecting his obsession with control and underlying mistrust within the family?
Cathleen: “The Master’s sure to notice what’s gone from the bottle. He has the eye of a hawk for that.”
How does … explain his stinginess, linking it to his impoverished past and inability to change?
Tyrone: “It was in those days I learned to be a miser … You have to look for bargains.”
How does … defend himself against blame for Mary’s addiction, emphasizing his powerlessness?
Tyrone: “As if I could do any good! You’d only postpone it. And I am not your jailer. This isn’t a prison.”
How does … mock Jamie’s interests, contrasting gambling (“the ponies”) with cultural values (“Shakespeare”)?
Tyrone: “If it takes my snoring to make you remember Shakespeare instead of the dope sheet on the ponies, I hope I’ll keep on with it”
How does … describe Mary’s addiction as a deliberate escape, symbolized by fog, isolating her from the family?
Edmund: “The hardest thing to take is the blank wall she builds around her… it’s more like a bank of fog in which she hides and loses herself… deliberately—to get beyond our reach.”
EDMUND: “As if I was a ghost belonging to the fog, and the fog was the ghost of the sea.”
THEMES: isolation, identity, nature, illusion v reality
MEANING: feels like a ghost and detached from humanity in the fog, sees himself part of the fog (ghostly remnant of the sea and symbol of the family’s inability to see the present) - loss of substance and meaning
ANALYSIS: EXTENDED METAPHOR - fog as a ghost, Edmund as a ghost - emptiness upon emptiness, complete loss of self. SYMBOLISM - the fog symbolises confusion, helplessness, emotional numbness. fully embraces the fog. NUMBNESS/DEATH - idea of being dead in life, physically alive but mentally dead
MARY ABOUT HER WEDDING DRESS: “I used to take it out from time to time when I was lonely, but it always made me cry”
THEMES: nostalgia, innocence, marriage, memory/regret, loneliness/isolation
MEANING: Mary confesses that although she tried to find comfort by revisiting the past, it only deepened her sorrow. The wedding dress, once a symbol of hope and a bright future, has become a reminder of everything she has lost.
ANALYSIS: SYMBOLISM - the dress is a symbol for her loss of hope - usually represents love, hope, youth but now symbolises decay, ruin, disappointment. EMOTIONAL IRONY - dress should bring joy but instead causes grief/tears - her memories are poisoned b the present. REPETITION/HABIT - ‘from time to time’ - repeated/compulsive need to return to the past - cycles through reality and fantasy
MARY ABOUT VIRGN MARY: “when She sees no one in the world can believe in me even for a moment anymore, then She will believe in me, and with Her help it will be so easy”
THEMES: faith, despair, religion, isolation, addiction, motherhood, innocence
MEANING: Mary believes that, when everyone else has given up on her, the Virgin Mary will still offer faith, forgiveness, and salvation. She imagines a kind of divine acceptance that contrasts with the disappointment and judgement she feels from her family.
ANALYSIS: RELIGIOUS IMAGERY - ‘She’ means virgin mary, implying she’ll forgive her and repent her - creates an innocent, childlike image of her turning to her actual mother. WISHFUL LANGUAGE - no one in the world will believe me but she will - implies that it will all be alright because she’ll be forgiven (and therefore go to heaven). EMOTIONAL REGRESSION - again, creates a childlike idea of herself, she’s going back to childhood, very immature idea - regressing to a fantasy world where all is forgiven
TYRONE ABOUT WHISKEY: “ I’ve always found that good whiskey, taken in moderation as an appetizer, is the best of tonics.”
THEMES: addiction, denial, illusion vs reality, self-destruction
MEANING: downplays his depenence on whiskey, which his sons also share.
ANALYSIS: EUPHEMISM - ‘tonic’ means a kind of medicine in the context, implies that it helps rather than harms. IRONY - ‘moderation’ implies that they don’t drink much, ironic because he and his sons do. DEFENSIVE TONE - he is trying to defend himself to act like his addiction is less than it is.
