The Chairs by SparkNotes

Author:SparkNotes [SparkNotes]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Part Three: From after second guest arrives until the room is filled

Summary

The doorbell rings. The Old Man tells the Old Woman to get another chair, and he opens the second door on the wall while she hobbles toward one of the concealed doors. He formally greets an invisible Colonel, stumbling over his words. While the man recounts a war story to the Colonel, the woman reprimands the Colonel for dropping cigarette butts on their floor. She enlists her husband in her argument against the Colonel. The doorbell rings and the man goes to answer it, but knocks over the invisible chair of the Lady. The woman leaves to find a chair, exiting and entering through different doors, while the man greets Belle, an elderly friend of his who was once beautiful, d her husband, a Photo-engraver. He tells the woman to find another chair; she does and sets them both down. He introduces the new guests to the others. The woman receives a gift of a painting from the photo-engraver. She calls him "Doctor" and complains of several ailments until the man reminds her he is a photo-engraver. She says it doesn't matter, as he's so charming. The man and the woman sit back to back and talk to Belle and the photo-engraver, respectively. He says he is flattered, and that he loved her years ago, but there has been a change. The woman repeats "Oh! Sir" to the photo-engraver.

The light brightens, and it continues to do so as more guests arrive. The man and woman carry on their conversations. The woman defies the photo-engraver's expectations about her age and sexuality and makes increasingly sexual gestures. The man reminisces with Belle about their romantic youth, and how they could have been happy together. The woman says the photo-engraver flatters her for calling her youthful-looking. The man speaks poetically of their cowardice in not partaking of their love, while the woman gets tickled by the photo-engraver and continues flirting with him. The man tells Belle that Semiramis has taken the place of his mother, and the woman expresses amazement at the photo- engraver's belief that one can have children at any age. The man tells Belle that his message has sustained him through the years, and the woman tells the photo-engraver that she has never betrayed her husband. She says she is "only his poor mamma," then sobs, and tells him to find someone else.

The man and woman seat Belle and her husband next to the other two guests, and then sit down on the opposite ends and listen to the conversations. The woman discusses their one son who left them when he was seven. The man says they never had a child. The woman recalls how their son accused them of killing birds, though they refuted this, then left them as he said, "It's you who are responsible." The man remembers how he let his mother die alone in a ditch. The woman says for them not to speak to her husband about their son, as he himself was a perfect son and his parents died in his arms.

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