Mary quotes ★

‘Her hands on the tabletop moving restlessly’

Act 1 description of Mary

‘I wasn’t able to get much sleep with that awful foghorn going on.’

Act 1, foghorn = anxiety

‘It wasn’t until Edmund was born that I had a single grey hair (The girlishness fades from her face)’

Act 1, traumatic birth and subsequent addiction

‘Everything was done in the cheapest way. Your father would never spend the money to make it right.’

Act 1, discussion of finances and Tyrone’s avarice

‘You go out. But I am alone. I always have been.’

Act 1, Mary’s isolation

‘None of us can help the things life has done to us.’

Act 2, talking to Edmund and Jamie following her relapse

‘Could afford to continue buying property but never to give me a home.’

Act 2, said as Tyrone is leaving the room to answer the phone.

‘They’ll sell their souls!… They’ll sell yours… you find yourself in hell!’

Act 2, after Tyrone has called the doctor.

‘I wasn’t worthy to have another baby… God would punish me if I did.’

Act 2, Mary blames herself for her baby’s death

‘It kills the pain… only the past when you were happy is real.’

Act 3, Mary has returned from the pharmacy with Cathleen and is under the influence of morphine.

‘I used to take it out… when I was lonely… it always made me cry.’

Act 3, Mary talks about her wedding dress.

‘Blank wall she builds around her… it’s like in spite of loving us, she hated us!’

Act 4, Edmund describing Mary.

‘Marble mask of girlish innocence.’

Act 4, stage direction of Mary under the influence of morphine.