Previous
Act One
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Absurd Person Singular, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Middle Class
Materialism
Fortune
Gender Roles
Summary
Analysis
Act Two takes place “This Christmas” in the kitchen of Geoffrey and Eva’s fourth-floor flat (apartment). The kitchen seems untidy—the appliances “have seen better days” and the furniture is plain. Eva sits at the kitchen table, writing something in a notepad. After a few moments of frustration, she tears up the page and starts again.
Act Two takes place in a very different kind of middle-class home, that of Geoffrey and Eva. Unlike Sidney and Jane, this couple doesn’t seem to place too much stock in appearances. Notice that the act opens with another image of repetition, echoing the end of the previous act.
Active
Themes
From offstage, Geoffrey plays with his dog, George. He walks into the kitchen and kisses Eva. Eva barely notices—she’s too busy writing. Geoffrey pours himself a drink and complains that Walter Harrison’s shopping complex, which he’s been designing, is proceeding slowly, and it’s going to cost twice as much as he’d thought.
Geoffrey and Eva show no fondness for each other: Eva doesn’t even kiss her husband, and Geoffrey seems much more concerned with his architectural project (the shopping complex mentioned in the previous act) than in his wife’s well-being.
Active
Themes
Geoffrey notices that Eva seems distracted. He points out that she’s still in her dressing gown. Then, he mentions the conversation they had last night. As they’d discussed, Geoffrey will go and live with Sally. He hopes that Eva isn’t bitter about what’s happened, and promises that eventually he’ll want to see Eva again. Finally, he claims that he’ll be moved out by Boxing Day.
Active
Themes
Geoffrey recalls that some friends will be coming by soon and realizes that there’s only a little bit of liquor in the flat. As he rummages through the drawers looking for alcohol, he reminds Eva that the people coming to the flat that night are really Eva’s friends, not his. One of these is “the up and coming Mr. Hopcroft,” and Geoffrey has no intention of being polite to him, even though Mr. Hopcroft wants Geoffrey to come work for him. Eva says nothing.
Get the entire Absurd Person Singular LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Geoffrey picks up a dishcloth and carries it around with him. He turns to Eva and claims, “I’m being very patient,” and then says that he might lose his temper, in which case he’ll probably hit Eva and she’ll “smash everything in the flat.” Just then, the bell rings. Geoffrey goes to answer the door and tells Eva to go to bed, so that things will be easier. Alone in the kitchen, Eva finishes writing her note. She pins it to the table with a kitchen knife.
Eva immediately turns to the window. She opens it and stands on the ledge. Geoffrey comes back into the kitchen, explaining that the “bloody Hopcrofts” have arrived. He cleans some glasses and complains that Jane Hopcroft is too fussy about cleanliness. Just then, he notices that Eva is standing by the window. He pulls her back inside, and she begins to moan and wail.
Active
Themes
Geoffrey notices Eva’s note on the table and reads it. He asks Eva, “what do you mean, a burden to everyone?” Suddenly, Eva stands up and tries to cut herself with a bread knife. Geoffrey stops her and says he needs to call a doctor, who’ll probably be able to “calm you down a bit.” He tells Eva to wait in the kitchen while he makes the call.
Alone, Eva writes another note. Then, she turns to the oven and sticks her head inside. Jane walks into the room, carrying some glasses. Eva tries to sit up, and bonks her head on the inside of the oven. Jane tells her, “You shouldn’t be on the cold floor in your condition, you know.” Jane notices that the oven is dirty and says, “I must clean that oven if it kills me.” She looks around the kitchen for oven cleaner.
Geoffrey walks back into the room, and Jane asks him if she could borrow an apron. Geoffrey nods and explains that he’s called a doctor, who’s out on another call. He decides to go out and find the doctor, which he claims should take no more than ten minutes. Jane promises to keep an eye on Eva while Geoffrey is gone. Geoffrey removes the knives from the room, and then walks out. He claims that he’s taking the knives downstairs to the group of Muslims having a big party. As Geoffrey walks out, the bell rings.
Active
Themes
Alone with Eva, Jane tells her that George is getting big. She adds that Dick Potter is very good with dogs. She also tells Eva that she usually prefers cleaning to socializing at parties—she’s never enjoyed drinking and chatting. As Jane talks, Eva finds a small pillbox and swallows a pill, then another. Then she spills the pills, and they disappear down the drain.
Sidney enters the room and sees Eva and Jane. He explains that the Brewster-Wrights have arrived. Seeing that Eva is trying to fish something out of the sink, she tells her, “You’ll never get a sink unblocked that way.” He looks under the cupboard and promises to fix the sink with a wrench. To explain things to Eva, he picks up Eva’s suicide note, glances at it, and then turns it over and draws a diagram of the sink and pipe. Jane smiles and tells Eva, “It’s at times like this you’re glad of your friends, aren’t you?”
Sidney steps out of the room, and Eva finds a piece of rope, climbs up on a chair, and begins to tie the rope around a ceiling light. She tears out the bulb and the fitting, and begins to yawn as a result of taking two sleeping pills. Suddenly, Ronald enters the kitchen, and behind him Lottie Potter’s laughter can be heard. He notices Eva standing on the table, and Jane tells him, “Bulb’s gone.” Ronald offers to fix the bulb for Eva. Meanwhile, Sidney has retrieved a heavy bag of tools, including a wrench, from his car, and begins fixing the pipes.
Active
Themes
Ronald gets up to change the bulb and notices that the fitting has been removed, leaving bare wires. Sidney offers to fix the light, and again writes on the back of Eva’s suicide note to explain what he’s doing. As he writes, Eva “scrawls another suicide note.” Then, she stands on the table again and reaches her hands out to the bare wires on the ceiling. Sidney and Ronald stop her, warning, “They might have been live.”
Active
Themes
Sidney checks to make sure the light is turned off, and tells Ronald that it’s safe to touch the wires. While Ronald and Sidney perform their respective jobs, Sidney asks what Marion is up to, and Ronald explains that she’s probably in the living-room, talking to the Potters, adding that Marion’s been “on her pins” lately. Ronald praises Sidney for having had a good year, and Sidney admits he’s had some “lucky hunches.”
While Jane, Sidney, and Ronald work, Eva writes yet another suicide note, and then finds a tin of paint stripper. She tries to pry open the tin, but can’t. Just then, Marion enters the room and says that something “ghastly” has happened—George has bitten Dick Potter’s leg. Meanwhile, Eva rummages through the bag and finds a screwdriver. Marion asks, “How’s the invalid?” and Ronald replies, “Very groggy.” Marion shrugs and offers everyone a drink. She gives a drink to Eva, just as she’s used the screwdriver to open the tin.
Active
Themes
Sidney suggests that the guests play a party game. Just then, Ronald drops a small “thing” that’s a part of the ceiling lights. Sidney crawls around on his hands and knees, trying to find the “thing.” Ronald decides he doesn’t need the “thing”—a nut—after all—he wants a screw instead. Marion puts the light on so make easier to see; just then Ronald, who’s touching the wires in the ceiling, begins to “vibrate” and moan. Marion turns off the light, and Sidney and Jane carry Ronald down. The guests cover Ronald, who seems cold and weak, in “an assortment of laundry, both male and female.”
Active
Themes
Marion offers Ronald a drink, and Ronald replies, in a strained voice, “I feel very peculiar.” Jane goes to wash her hands in the sink, and when she turns on the sink, water drips down the pipe and onto Sidney, who’s still underneath the sink. Sidney, irritated, tells Marion that she’s ruined a new shirt, and that he’s going to get his overcoat before he freezes. He angrily tells Eva, “That dog of yours is a liability,” and adds, “This is the last time I accept hospitality in this household.”
Faintly, Eva begins to sing, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” After each verse, a guest joins in—first Marion, then Jane, then Ronald, then Sidney. In the distance George barks. Suddenly, Geoffrey walks in. He’s astounded by the sound of his guests and his wife singing.
Active
Themes
