Read Online Broken Glass by Arthur Miller - Free Book Online

looking for me.
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HYMAN: Who are they?
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SYLVIA: They’re Germans.
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HYMAN: Sounds like those photographs in the papers.
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SYLVIA, discovering it now: I think so, yes!
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HYMAN: Does something happen?
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SYLVIA: Well, I begin to run away. And the whole crowd is chasing after me. They have heavy shoes that pound on the pavement. Then just as I’m escaping around a corner a man catches me and pushes me down ... Breaks off.
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HYMAN: Is that the end of it?
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SYLVIA: No. He gets on top of me, and begins kissing me ... Breaks off.
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HYMAN: Yes?
    SYLVIA: ... And then he starts to cut off my breasts. And he raises himself up, and for a second I see the side of his face.
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HYMAN: Who is it?
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SYLVIA: ... I don’t know.
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HYMAN: But you saw his face.
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SYLVIA: I think it’s Phillip. Pause. But how could Phillip be like... he was almost like one of the others?
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HYMAN: I don’t know. Why do you think?
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SYLVIA: Would it be possible... because Phillip... I mean ... A little laugh ... he sounds sometimes like he doesn’t like Jews? Correcting. Of course he doesn’t mean it, but maybe in my mind it’s like he’s ... Breaks off.
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HYMAN : Like he’s what. What’s frightening you? Sylvia is silent, turns away. Sylvia?
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Hyman tries to turn her face towards him, but she resists.
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Not Phillip, is it?
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Sylvia turns to him, the answer is in her eyes.
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I see.
    He moves from the bed and halts, trying to weigh this added complication. Returning to the bedside, sits, takes her hand.
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I want to ask you a question.
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She draws him to her and kisses him on the mouth.
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SYLVIA: I can’t help it.
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She bursts into tears.
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HYMAN: Oh God, Sylvia, I’m so sorry ...
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SYLVIA: Help me. Please!
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HYMAN: I’m trying to.
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SYLVIA: I know!
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She weeps even more deeply. With a cry filled with her pain she embraces him desperately.
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HYMAN: Oh Sylvia, Sylvia....
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SYLVIA: I feel so foolish.
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HYMAN: No-no. You’re unhappy, not foolish.
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SYLVIA: I feel like I’m losing everything, I’m being torn to pieces. What do you want to know, I’ll tell you!
    She cries into her hands. He moves, trying to make a decision...
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I trust you. What do you want to ask me?
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HYMAN:—Since this happened to you, have you and Phillip had relations?
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SYLVIA, open surprise: Relations?
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HYMAN: He said you did the other night.
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SYLVIA: We had relations the other night?
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HYMAN: But that... well he said that by morning you’d forgotten. Is that true?
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She is motionless, looking past him with immense uncertainty.
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SYLVIA, alarmed sense of rejection: Why are you asking me that?
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HYMAN: I didn’t know what to make of it.... I guess I still don’t.
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SYLVIA, deeply embarrassed: You mean you believe him?
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HYMAN: Well ... I didn’t know what to believe.
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SYLVIA: You must think I’m crazy, -to forget such a thing.
    HYMAN: Oh God no!—I didn’t mean anything like that...
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SYLVIA: We haven’t had relations for almost twenty years.
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The shock pitches him into silence. Now he doesn’t know what or whom to believe.
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HYMAN: Twenty... ? Breaks off.
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S Y LVIA: Just after Jerome was born.
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HYMAN: I just... I don’t know what to say, Sylvia.
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SYLVIA: You never heard of it before with people?
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HYMAN: Yes, but not when they’re as young as you.
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SYLVIA: You might be surprised.
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HYMAN: What was it, another woman, or what?
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SYLVIA: Oh no.
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HYMAN: Then what happened?
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SYLVIA: I don’t know, I never understood it. He just couldn’t anymore.
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She tries to read his reaction; he doesn’t face her directly.
    You believe me, don’t you?
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HYMAN : Of course I do. But why would he invent a story like