Read Online Three Plays by Tennessee Williams - Free Book Online
Authors: Tennessee Williams
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do you think that I am making this up? I wint back to the hotel and said to Big Mama, Git packed! We're clearing out of this country....
BRICK : Big Daddy, you're on a talkin' jag tonight.
BIG DADDY [ignoring this remark] : Yes, sir, that's how it is, the human animal is a beast that dies but the fact that he's dying don't give him pity for others, no, sir, it——Did you say something?
BRICK : Yes.
BIG DADDY : What?
BRICK : Hand me over that crutch so I can get up.
BIG DADDY : Where you goin'?
BRICK : I'm takin' a little short trip to Echo Spring.
BIG DADDY : To where?
BRICK : Liquor cabinet....
BIG DADDY : Yes, sir, boy—
[He hands Brick the crutch.]
—The human animal is a beast that dies and if he's got money he buys and buys and buys and I think the reason he buys everything he can buy is that in the back of his mind he has the crazy hope that one of his purchases will be life everlasting!—Which it never can be—The human animal is a beast that—
BRICK [at the liquor cabinet] : Big Daddy, you sure are shootin' th' breeze here tonight.
[There is a pause and voices are heard outside.]
BIG DADDY : I been quiet here lately, spoke not a word, just sat and stared into space. I had something heavy weighing on my mind but tonight that load was took off me. That's why I'm talking.—The sky looks diff'rent to me....
BRICK : You know what I like to hear most?
BIG DADDY : What?
BRICK : Solid quiet. Perfect unbroken quiet.
BIG DADDY : Why?
BRICK : Because it's more peaceful.
BIG DADDY : Man, you'll hear a lot of that in the grave.
[He chuckles agreeably.]
BRICK : Are you through talkin' to me?
BIG DADDY : Why are you so anxious to shut me up?
BRICK : Well, sir, ever so often you say to me, Brick, I want to have a talk with you, but when we talk, it never materializes. Nothing is said. You sit in a chair and gas about this and that and I look like I listen. I try to look like I listen, but I don't listen, not much. Communication is—awful hard between people an'—somehow between you and me, it just don't—
BIG DADDY : Have you ever been scared? I mean have you ever felt downright terror of something?
[He gets up.]
Just one moment. I'm going to close these doors....
[He closes doors on gallery as if he were going to tell an important secret.]
BRICK : What?
BIG DADDY : Brick?
BRICK : Huh?
BIG DADDY : Son, I thought I had it!
BRICK : Had what? Had what, Big Daddy?
BIG DADDY : Cancer!
BRICK : Oh...
BIG DADDY : I thought the old man made out of bones had laid his cold and heavy hand on my shoulder!
BRICK : Well, Big Daddy, you kept a tight mouth about it.
BIG DADDY : A pig squeals. A man keeps a tight mouth about it, in spite of a man not having a pig's advantage.
BRICK : What advantage is that?
BIG DADDY : Ignorance—of mortality—is a comfort. A man don't have that comfort, he's the only living thing that conceives of death, that knows what it is. The others go without knowing, which is the way that anything living should go, go without knowing, without any knowledge of it, and yet a pig squeals, but a man sometimes, he can keep a tight mouth about it. Sometimes he—
[There is a deep, smouldering ferocity in the old man.]
—can keep a tight mouth about it. I wonder if—
BRICK : What, Big Daddy?
BIG DADDY : A whisky highball would injure this spastic condition?
BRICK : No, sir, it might do it good.
BIG DADDY [grins suddenly, wolfishly] : Jesus, I can't tell you! The sky is open! Christ, it's open again! It's open, boy, it's open!
[Brick looks down at his drink.]
BRICK : You feel better, Big Daddy?
BIG DADDY : Better? Hell! I can breathe!—All of my life I been like a doubled up fist....
[He pours a drink.]
Poundin', smashin', drivin' I—now I'm going to loosen these doubled up hands and touch things
BRICK : Big Daddy, you're on a talkin' jag tonight.
BIG DADDY [ignoring this remark] : Yes, sir, that's how it is, the human animal is a beast that dies but the fact that he's dying don't give him pity for others, no, sir, it——Did you say something?
BRICK : Yes.
BIG DADDY : What?
BRICK : Hand me over that crutch so I can get up.
BIG DADDY : Where you goin'?
BRICK : I'm takin' a little short trip to Echo Spring.
BIG DADDY : To where?
BRICK : Liquor cabinet....
BIG DADDY : Yes, sir, boy—
[He hands Brick the crutch.]
—The human animal is a beast that dies and if he's got money he buys and buys and buys and I think the reason he buys everything he can buy is that in the back of his mind he has the crazy hope that one of his purchases will be life everlasting!—Which it never can be—The human animal is a beast that—
BRICK [at the liquor cabinet] : Big Daddy, you sure are shootin' th' breeze here tonight.
[There is a pause and voices are heard outside.]
BIG DADDY : I been quiet here lately, spoke not a word, just sat and stared into space. I had something heavy weighing on my mind but tonight that load was took off me. That's why I'm talking.—The sky looks diff'rent to me....
BRICK : You know what I like to hear most?
BIG DADDY : What?
BRICK : Solid quiet. Perfect unbroken quiet.
BIG DADDY : Why?
BRICK : Because it's more peaceful.
BIG DADDY : Man, you'll hear a lot of that in the grave.
[He chuckles agreeably.]
BRICK : Are you through talkin' to me?
BIG DADDY : Why are you so anxious to shut me up?
BRICK : Well, sir, ever so often you say to me, Brick, I want to have a talk with you, but when we talk, it never materializes. Nothing is said. You sit in a chair and gas about this and that and I look like I listen. I try to look like I listen, but I don't listen, not much. Communication is—awful hard between people an'—somehow between you and me, it just don't—
BIG DADDY : Have you ever been scared? I mean have you ever felt downright terror of something?
[He gets up.]
Just one moment. I'm going to close these doors....
[He closes doors on gallery as if he were going to tell an important secret.]
BRICK : What?
BIG DADDY : Brick?
BRICK : Huh?
BIG DADDY : Son, I thought I had it!
BRICK : Had what? Had what, Big Daddy?
BIG DADDY : Cancer!
BRICK : Oh...
BIG DADDY : I thought the old man made out of bones had laid his cold and heavy hand on my shoulder!
BRICK : Well, Big Daddy, you kept a tight mouth about it.
BIG DADDY : A pig squeals. A man keeps a tight mouth about it, in spite of a man not having a pig's advantage.
BRICK : What advantage is that?
BIG DADDY : Ignorance—of mortality—is a comfort. A man don't have that comfort, he's the only living thing that conceives of death, that knows what it is. The others go without knowing, which is the way that anything living should go, go without knowing, without any knowledge of it, and yet a pig squeals, but a man sometimes, he can keep a tight mouth about it. Sometimes he—
[There is a deep, smouldering ferocity in the old man.]
—can keep a tight mouth about it. I wonder if—
BRICK : What, Big Daddy?
BIG DADDY : A whisky highball would injure this spastic condition?
BRICK : No, sir, it might do it good.
BIG DADDY [grins suddenly, wolfishly] : Jesus, I can't tell you! The sky is open! Christ, it's open again! It's open, boy, it's open!
[Brick looks down at his drink.]
BRICK : You feel better, Big Daddy?
BIG DADDY : Better? Hell! I can breathe!—All of my life I been like a doubled up fist....
[He pours a drink.]
Poundin', smashin', drivin' I—now I'm going to loosen these doubled up hands and touch things
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