Kate's Revelation
- Due to indulgent pride of Joe's health after George's compliment on her youth
- The character who is the most worried about George's arrival makes the fatal mistake.
George's Response
- Immediate and Challenging
Frank's Arrival
- Confirms Joe's role in the shop incident (which means Larry is 'dead')
Irony: Larry is alive --> Effect: creates a profound anti-climax and leaves them on tenderhooks.
- Frank is no longer necessary as it's meant to uphold Joe's innocence. With Joe's guilt exposed, Kate believes that Larry being alive is redundant.
Packing Ann's Bag
- To Mother, the marriage means that Joe is a murderer because it acknowledges that Larry is dead.
- Now, we understand Mother's subtle dislike for Ann
Response of the Keller Family
If your brother's alive, darling, because if he's dead, your father killed him... God does not let a son be killed by his father. (btw this scene really struck a chord in me)
- Mother's ideal: A Perfect Family. --> Her reality and denial is shaped by her notion of family.
- Her belief in this ideal leads her to deny the reality of the crime, guilt and deceit.
(slight digression: consider how mother makes an indirect connection between joe's crime and larry's discipline - she insists that larry's blood is on joe's hands. later on, we find out that joe had DIRECTLY caused larry's death because larry felt culpable for joe's crime. we'll touch more on this in 'law and justice')
Denial (1): Joe questions Kate's sanity several times.
Denial (2): Joe bases the seriousness of his crime on the fact that Larry was not involved in the shop incident, as he didn't fly a P-40. As Larry was not killed as a result of Joe's actions, his actions are forgivable. (consider: if larry was directly killed because of joe, what will happen?)
Denial (3) How could I kill anyone? - Joe was doing it for his livelihood and family. He implies that his actions were necessary and justifies it by the situation he was put in.
Denial (4) He did not have the opportunity to make amends due to the media catching hold of what happened. (consider: why doesn't joe read the news section of the newspapers?)
Chris's battered response: Moral responsibility, beyond the personal/family, they were his brothers/Joe's sons
Consider: Father and Son conflict is between Social and Personal. Where do their allegiance lie?
(with burning fury)
- Violent and animalistic response (untypical of Chris?)
For me! Where do you live, where have your come from? For me! - I was dying every day and you were killing my boys and you did it for me? What the hell do you think I was thinking of, the goddamn business? What is that, the world - the business? What the hell do you mean, you did it for me? Don't you have a country? Don't you live in the world? What the hell are you? You're not even an animal, no animal kills his own, what are you?
- Shows Chris's belief that humanity must be good.
- Keller is barbaric and inhumane, which shocks Chris, especially because he loves and respects his father.
- Chris is shocked at Joe's selfishness, lack of patriotism, lack of humanity.
- He is most provoked by Joe's profession that he did it for Chris. Chris is horrified at being tarred with the taint of Joe's crimes and he refuses to be Joe's unwitting accomplice.
- Chris cannot comprehend the reality of Joe's world.
What must I do to you? I ought to tear the tongue out of your mouth, what must I do?
- It's not just the act of murder that shocks Chris. It's also Joe's deceit and lying.
- I's not just Joe's morality or train of thought, but the entire reality of the wartime business seems to upset Chris (who understood firsthand what was going on).
(With his fist he pounds down upon his father's shoulder. He stumbles away, covering his face as he weeps.)
- This is the second occurrence of physical violence in the play. Chris hitting Joe is indicative of his rejection of his father, but by hitting him on the shoulder (and not on the face) may suggest that Chris cannot totally abandon Joe, because they are after all 'Father and Son'. (consider: does chris prioritize family?)
What must I do, Jesus God, what must I do?
- Repetition of 'what must I do' shows that the idealist tends to feel the burden of the world on themselves.
- Being the messianic figure in the play, Chris's idealism forces him to reckon with whether he can truly hold onto his ideals in the face of reality.
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