Week 14
Week 14
A011201101
Exercise 11
Act 1, Scene 4
STELLA. (Rises) No, it isn't all right for anybody to make such a terrible row, but-people do
sometimes. (Leans over chair by dressing-table.) Stanley's always smashed things. Why,
on our wedding night-soon as we came in here-he snatched off one of my slippers and
rushed about the place smashing the light-bulbs with it.
BLANCHE. He did-what?
STELLA. (Arranging dressing-table chair to face mirror, as she sits in it.) He smashed all the
light-bulbs with the heel of my slipper! (Laughs.)
BLANCHE. (Crossing to above dressing-table.) And you-you let him-you didn't run, you
didn't scream?
STELLA. I was sort of-thrilled by it. (Rises, moves stool below armchair into place, then
moves to L. of doorway.) Eunice and you had breakfast?
STELLA. (Below radio table, holding up some loose wires.) What other can I be? He's taken
the radio to get it fixed. (Gurgles pleasantly.) It didn't land on the pavement, so only one
tube was smashed.
BLANCHE. (Sits on bed.) Pull yourself together and face the facts.
STELLA. (Sits beside Blanche on bed-at Blanche's I.) What are they, in your opinion?
STELLA. No!
BLANCHE. Yes, you are, your fix is worse than mine is! Only you're not being sensible about
it. I'm going to do something. Get hold of myself and make a new life!
STELLA. Yes?
BLANCHE. But you've given in. And that isn't right, you're not old! You can get out,
STELLA. (Slowly and emphatically.) I'm not in anything I want to get out of.
STELLA. (Rises. Crosses below to door between rooms.) I said I am not in anything I have a
desire to get out of. (Surveys mess in living-room.) Look at the in this room!
A Roomfull of Roses
NANCY: I want you to be happy somewhere. If not with me, then somewhere else.
BRIDGET: I love it. The only thing I don't likeI don't like this conversation. And if it's all
right with you, I'li dress for dinner now.
BRIDGET: Listen! Don't say a thing like that to me. Don't you dare to be sorry for me!
NANCY: Bridget!
BRIDGET: Don't you dare! You have no right! (She starts up the stairs.)
NANCY: Bridie! You come back here. Don't ever speak to me in that tone again. I don't care
what you think I have done to you, you are never to speak to me in that way again. Do
you understand?
BRIDGET: Yes.
NANCY: All right. Now come over here and sit down.
NANCY: No. No, it isn't. There is something else. I knew-you would feel resentful and
hurt...But I didn't dream it would be like this. I've tried in every way I know to reach
you. I've stayed awake nights trying to think of a way-some way-of reaching you...
NANCY: Yes, if you want to put it that way. Bridie, you're a little girl still. In many ways a
very little girl. But soon-you will be a young woman. (Bridget starts to rise.) Now wait!
It's for your own sake I'm saying this. It's for you. Bridie, don't let the fact that there was
something very bad in your life once be the most important thing about you. Don't
blame everyone you meet for something that happened a long time ago.
BRIDGET: No, I don't hate you. I don't feel anything about you at all. Just blankness. And I
want to keep it that way.
BRIDGET: Bridie, it wasn't all my fault-what happened wasn't all my fault! I've never told
you this before, but your father was-Oh, dear.
BRIDGET: I don't care whose fault it was! You were the one who ran away!
NANCY: Not from you! I wanted you with me. I tried-you know I tried- didn't run away
from you.
BRIDGET: You ran away from Dad and me. Why? Because you liked Jay better?
BRIDGET: You're too late, Mother. I don't care anymore. That's funny. I cal you Mother. But
it's only because I don't know what else to call you. To me you aren't my mother. As far
as l'm concerned, my mother is dead. And I used to wish you had died. Oh, how I
wished...l'd lie awake in bed at night and pretend that you had died. Sometimes it
seemed so real-and l'd cry... All right, now you know what I really feel about you. Do
you still want me to stay?