Stairs to the Roof by Tennessee Williams

Author:Tennessee Williams [Williams, Tennessee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Directions
Published: 2016-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

1 John Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.”

2 Hart Crane, “The Southern Cross” from The Bridge.

3 Henry IV: Part One, Act V, Scene IV, Hotspur.

scene six

“white lace curtains”

A spot comes up on the corner of the living room in Jim’s bungalow on Peach Street—or is it Elm? White lace curtains are at a window; there is a ridiculously large and ornate radio-Victrola with a goldfish bowl on top. On the wall above the radio is a picture of “Hope” seated blindfolded and playing a broken-stringed lyre. Jim is seated beside the radio-Victrola with a glass of ice water. He has on purple pongee pajamas with white-frogged buttonholes.

His wife Edna calls from offstage.

edna: Jim!

jim: Yep.

edna: Comin’ t’ bed?

jim: Soon as I cool off a little. I’m worried about Ben Murphy. I’m afraid he’s going to pieces.

edna: Ben has always been an absolute screwball. Even his wife admits it. She told me yesterday that he’s been going down to the office in cowboy boots! Confidentially, she said, I’m just about through!

jim: He’s plunging back into his adolescence. Talks about rebellion. Rebellion is all right for the upper classes and the lower classes, but for the middle classes—it will never do! The middle has always got to be the middle.

edna: Please close the bedroom door and talk the whole thing over with yourself.

jim [wearily]: Okay, sweetheart. [He steps out of the spot and can be heard closing the door. He returns and switches on the radio.]

h. v. kaltenborn1: Was described as being in a sea of flames: Very little damage was done to military objectives but the civilian population suffered terrible casualties. The sky at midnight was a blazing inferno. Wave after wave of dive bombers swooped down upon the already blasted metropolis. The whole residential section was laid to waste. Helpless women and children by the tens of thousands—

[Jim casually switches the dial.]

baby-talk singer: But this little piggy was a bad little piggy

baby-talk singer: And he boogie-woogied all the way home!

[The doorbell rings. Jim turns off the radio and moves out of the spot. He can be heard admitting the caller—Ben.]

jim: Aw, you again.

ben: Yeah. Me again.

[They step into the spot. Ben’s appearance is completely demonic.]

edna [sharply]: Who on earth was that ringing the doorbell at this time of night?

jim [puts finger to lips]: Nobody, sweetheart. Go to sleep.

edna: Nobody? Awwwww! —You mean Mr. Benjamin Murphy!

ben [sorrowfully]: What a dreadful bitch that woman is.

jim: Shhh! Sit down.

ben: It’s hot as blazes in here.

jim: Edna’s got the fan.

ben: So has Alma.

jim: Why are you barging in here at this time of night?

ben: Partly to ask your pardon for what I said at Mike’s. I didn’t mean to be nasty about your appearance.

jim: Oh, well. I’m not self-conscious. Besides—

ben: Huh?

jim: I recognized a certain amount of truth in some of your statements.

ben: Did you?

jim: Yes.

ben: Which ones? About your loss of resistance?

[Jim nods slowly.]

Then what’ll you do about it?

jim: Nothing.

ben: You’ll do nothing?

[Jim nods.]

Nothing at all?

jim: What can I do?

ben: Resist it!

jim: Resist what? How?

ben: In fighting gangrene they cut off the affected members.

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