Supporting Family

JACK: She can’t talk to me? It's all the same family, isn’t it? I’m her uncle, for God’s sake.
KATE: She doesn’t need an uncle tonight. She needs a father . . .

In Act One, Jack and Kate discuss talking to Nora about her desire to quit school and audition for the Broadway musical. With his words, Jack shows that he has willingly taken on all aspects of supporting his nieces, both financially and emotionally. In Jack’s mind, since he is Nora’s uncle and provides for her, just as her father would do, he makes an ideal substitute for dispensing advice. He wholeheartedly accepts his role as the patriarch of the household. Kate, on the other hand, understands the difference between financial support, even financial support given with love and without resentment, and paternal support. She understands that no matter how much a member of your family loves you, roles are not interchangeable. The lack of a parent, whether it be a father or mother, always creates a void.

Tell her, Kate, what it is to be an older sister. To suddenly be the one who has to work and shoulder all the responsibilities and not be the one who gets the affection and the hugs when you were the only one there.

Jack says these words in Act Two when he tries to help Kate and Blanche make up after their fight. Jack knows that Blanche, as the younger, pampered sister, has no idea of all the things that Kate gave up for her or did for her during their childhood. Jack’s words make it clear that sacrificing yourself for your family doesn’t come easily, even if you love them. If these responsibilities feel heavy at the time the person carries them, they still can feel that way in years to come. Jack’s words take on further resonance because the audience can infer that these words might apply equally to Nora, who is an older sister herself. One of the reasons Nora wants the dancer’s job is to make money for her family, while Laurie will use her physical condition as an excuse to get out of even the easiest task. Blanche truly needs to understand how Kate and Nora feel. 

STANLEY: You don’t go in the Army unless they come and get you. You go to college. You hear me? Promise me you’ll go to college.
EUGENE: I’ll probably have to stay home and work if you leave. We’ll need the money.

This exchange between Stanley and Eugene takes place in Act Two, just as Stanley is about to leave the family home. Although Stanley plans to join the Army so he can earn money for the family, he wants a better future for his younger brother. Stanley’s insistence that Eugene stay in school and go to college demonstrates how the members of this family support one another by imparting the lessons learned from experience. Stanley did not have the choice to go to college. He had to go straight to work after high school to help pay the household bills, and he wants better opportunities for his brother. Eugene, however, has taken the wrong lessons from Stanley’s path. Stanley has modeled for him that young men leave school to go to work and support their families, so that is what Eugene expects of himself.

Becoming an Adult

I mean, if you give in when you’re eighteen-and-a-half, you’ll give in for the rest of your life, don’t you think?

Stanley says these words to Eugene early in Act One, as the brothers are talking about the letter of apology that Stanley must write his boss if he wants to keep his job. Stanley is only eighteen years old, an adult in the eyes of his employer, but he is still young enough to retain the hope of living his life while holding his principles intact. Stanley was the only person at his workplace who spoke up on the janitor’s behalf, showing how rare it is for people to act out what they believe. Here, Stanley’s question raises an important but unfortunate truth: as people get older and have to navigate the real world, they often are forced to compromise on their ideals if they want to succeed. Stanley is not sure he is ready to commit to this facet of adulthood.

I guess there comes a time in everybody’s life when you say, “This very moment is the end of my childhood.” When Stanley closed the door, I knew that moment had come to me . . . I was scared. I was lonely. . . . I even hated Stanley a little because he left me there to grow up all by myself.

Eugene makes this statement in Act Two, right after Stanley has secretly left home to join the Army. Losing his older brother has a profound effect on Eugene. He has always relied on Stanley to guide him and explain the unknown, about everything from girls to his own body. With Stanley’s absence, Eugene will have to figure things out on his own. And part of what he has already come to understand is that you can love and hate someone at the same time. While Eugene may not be a man yet, he can no longer be considered a child if he has such adult realizations and doesn’t have an older brother to help him make sense of them.

You think your father’s a perfect human being? Some day I’ll tell you some other things I did that wasn’t so perfect. Not even your mother knows. If you grow up thinking I was perfect, you’ll hate yourself for every mistake you ever make. Don’t be so hard on yourself. That’s what you’ve got a mother and father to do.

Jack speaks these words to Stanley in Act Two when Stanley returns home after realizing his family needs him. Stanley confessed to Jack that he lost his salary gambling and vowed to earn it back, but Jack tries to provide his son with more perspective by explaining that all parents and adults, as perfect as they may seem, have made their share of bad decisions and mistakes. Jack correctly comprehends that his son regards him as some sort of perfect being instead of acknowledging that his father is human and once was young, just like him. Recognizing the foibles and imperfections in parents is part of growing up because it allows a child to cease attempting to do the impossible: live up to the idea of what they think the parent is.

How Ailments Shape Personality

LAURIE: Do you want me to speak to Mom? I could tell her I was getting flutters in my heart again.
NORA: (turns angrily) Don’t you ever say that! Don’t you pretend to be sick to get favors from anyone.
LAURIE: I’m not pretending. They’re just not big flutters.

In this exchange from Act One, Laurie volunteers to use her heart condition to get Blanche to submit to Nora’s desire to dance on stage. Laurie’s illness has nothing to do with Nora’s future, but Laurie knows that her health issue is one of her mother’s biggest areas of vulnerability. Laurie has learned how to use her weak heart to her advantage. While on one level, Laurie could be considered thoughtful to try to get something for her sister, if Nora let her do so, she would be complicit in needlessly causing their mother anxiety. Nora refuses to take part in this charade and speaks harshly to Laurie. This exchange also hints at an idea that will be more deeply explored in the next act: Laurie is not necessarily as sick as her mother thinks she is.

LAURIE: I don’t have any friends here anyway.
EUGENE: Because you’re always in the house. You never go out.
LAURIE: I can’t because of my condition.
EUGENE: You don’t look sick to me. Do you feel sick?
LAURIE: No. But my mother tells me I am.
EUGENE: I don’t trust parents anymore.
LAURIE: Why would she lie to me?
EUGENE: To keep you around.

This conversation between Laurie and Eugene takes place in Act Two when Laurie learns that she and her family will be moving soon. Eugene homes in on the crux of the matter of Laurie’s health ailment because he approaches the facts with the simplicity of a non-adult mind: Since Laurie doesn’t look sick, how do they know she is sick? This question is critical because Laurie’s heart ailment defines her personality, impacting every aspect of her life and those around her. Not only is she disengaged from her peers, but being excused from any responsibilities around the house keeps her apart from her own family. Until Laurie and Blanche confront the true nature of her heart condition, Laurie will never know who she really is.

. . . I have been jealous my whole life of Laurie because she was lucky enough to be born sick.… I used to pray I'd get some terrible disease or get hit by a car so I'd have a leg all twisted and crippled and then once, maybe just once, I’d get to crawl into bed next to you on a cold rainy night . . .

Nora speaks these words to Blanche in Act Two while they are fighting. In this pivotal speech, Nora shows that health ailments don’t only impact the person who suffers them but those in nearby proximity, such as members of the same household. Nora has always felt rejected by Blanche and has come to blame it on Laurie, or more precisely, Laurie’s weak heart, which requires extra care. Due to growing up in an environment where a parent is more solicitous of one child than the other, Nora’s personality has been twisted to the extent that she wishes for a disease or an injury severe enough to capture her mother’s attention. Knowing this truth about Nora sheds more light on why she so desperately longs to leave the family to perform on stage.

Take a Study Break