I get sick every time you come around. Then I get sick when you leave. You're like a disease to me. Besides, you got no right being jealous of me after all the bullshit I've been through with you.

May cannot live with or without Eddie. She is caught in his cycle of abandonment and returning. She cannot completely let go of her feelings for Eddie because a part of her still desires him when he arrives. When Eddie leaves, May is devastated, hurt and angry. She knows she cannot transform Eddie into a committed man but she also knows she cannot find another man about whom she feels more passionate. Eddie effects May so much that he feels like something inside of her. She is consumed by his love when things between them are well and she is consumed by the emptiness when he leaves. She is trapped unless she makes a decision to never see Eddie anymore. This is a decision May has made to get over Eddie once and for all. She hopes this diminishing of her feelings for Eddie will allow her to be free from his control. When Eddie arrives at the beginning of the play May tries her hardest to push him away and to stay closed to her feelings for him. Eddie reopens a wound in May that she has worked so hard to heal. Eddie also hurts May by denying his affair with the Countess. On top of this denial, Eddie has the gall to be jealous of May for preparing to go on a first date. May's speech here represents the vicious cycle she and Eddie find themselves in. The sickness and disease similes and metaphors she uses reflect her feelings of self-disgust for herself and hatred for Eddie that is caused by his lack of commitment and the incestuous nature of their relationship. The back and forth power struggle that the play's structure of exits and entrances suggests and Eddie and May's conversations express are also summarized here in her paradoxical explanation of her feelings for Eddie.

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