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Christianity and Oppression
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Blues for Mister Charlie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Blues for Mister Charlie represents sexuality as a flashpoint for violence in an anti-Black white supremacist society, as in order to reinforce racial hierarchy, white supremacists must deny certain forms of interracial attraction while infecting others with violence. In this context, love—truly knowing and caring for another person as an individual—is represented as an extraordinarily difficult achievement. This dynamic is clear in the sexual and emotional lives of Jo Britten, a conformist white woman, and Parnell James, a rich white man with progressive racial attitudes (relative to the setting of the U.S. South in the 1960s). Prior to her marriage, Jo feels that she must repress all her sexual thoughts, implicitly to live up to a white-supremacist ideal of sexually pure white Southern womanhood. Though she is sexually curious about both white and Black men, she interrupts any such curious thoughts by insisting to herself that her mind is a “citadel” that must not admit sin. Eventually, Jo lies that a young Black man, Richard Henry, sexually assaulted her to prejudice a jury against convicting her husband Lyle of Richard’s murder. In this way, Jo represents how a white-supremacist society denies the possibility that white women could be attracted to Black men, while insisting that Black men must be attracted to white women—and it uses the latter claim to justify violence against Black men.
Conversely, Parnell James’s first love at age 18 was a 17-year-old Black girl named Pearl. Parnell believes that they genuinely loved each other because they shared their dreams and knew each other as individuals. Yet Parnell knows that many of his white male peers harass and rape Black girls and women with impunity. His awareness that white-supremacist society taints white male attraction to Black women with violence makes him feel “sick” and uncertain in his relationship with Pearl. After Pearl’s mother discovers their relationship and sends Pearl away, Parnell never has another genuinely loving romantic relationship again. Instead, he has what he calls “black fever”—a desire to escape his guilt-ridden whiteness through sexual contact with Black people. Through Jo and Parnell, the play shows how in a white-supremacist society, interracial sexual attraction is fraught with violence while love is difficult, if not impossible, to find.
Related Themes from Other Texts
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Sexuality and Love ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Sexuality and Love appears in each act of Blues for Mister Charlie. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Sexuality and Love Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
Below you will find the important quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie related to the theme of Sexuality and Love.
Act 1 Quotes
Ken: How much does your wife charge?
Meridian: Now you got it. You really got it now. That’s them. Keep walking, Arthur. Keep walking!
Tom: You get your ass off these streets from around here, boy, or we going to do us some cutting—we’re going to cut that big, black thing off of you, you hear?
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Meridian Henry is a Black Christian minister who helps to organize protests for racial justice during the African-American civil rights movement (1954–1968). In this passage, he is coaching several Black students, including Ken, Tom, and Arthur, as they roleplay ignoring taunts or threats by white protestors during a nonviolent protest. During the roleplay, Ken and Tom taunt and threaten Arthur with distinctly sexual overtones, thereby emphasizing early in the play the importance of sexual stereotypes to anti-Black racism in a white-supremacist society. When Ken asks, “How much does your wife charge?”, he is imagining a white heckler who assumes—or pretends Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto
Richard: My mother fell down the steps of that damn white hotel? My mother was pushed—you remember yourself how them white bastards was always sniffing around my mother, always around her—because she was pretty and black!
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In a flashback, Richard Henry—who has returned to his childhood home after eight years in New York City to recover from a heroin addiction—is talking with his grandmother Mother Henry about his mother’s death, the event that led Richard to leave the South in the first place. Richard’s mother was found dead at the bottom of some rain-soaked stairs at a white hotel (presumably her place of employment). Though Mother Henry claims that Richard’s mother died in an accidental fall, Richard insists that she “was pushed.” Richard’s justification for believing that his mother was murdered illuminates the different ways that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Im
Richard: Every one of them’s got some piss-assed, faggoty white boy on a string somewhere. They go home and marry him, dig, when they can’t make it with me no more—but when they want some loving, funky, down-home, bring-it-on-here-and-put-it-on-the-table style—
Juanita: They sound very sad. It must be very sad for you, too.
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Richard, recently returned home to the South from New York City, has gone out with college students and racial-justice protestors Juanita and Pete for drinks and dancing. Richard is bragging about taking money from his white girlfriends who want him for his superior “loving,” i.e. sexual prowess. This quotation shows how Richard has reacted to feelings of being “emasculated” in a white-supremacist society with internalized racism and unproductive attempts at revenge. The audience already knows that Richard believes his mother was murdered by a white man whose sexual advances she refused; he feels that he and his father have been Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae co
Act 2 Quotes
Ellis: Mrs. Britten, if you was to be raped by a orang-outang out of the jungle or a stallion, couldn’t do you no worse than a nigger. You wouldn’t be no more good for nobody. I’ve seen it
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That’s why we men have got to be so vigilant.
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After the news that Lyle will be arrested for Richard Henry’s murder spreads through town, some white townspeople come to Lyle’s house to show support for Lyle. When the talk turns to race relations, the white townspeople begin to make racist and segregationist comments. Through one such comment, by a white man named Ellis, the play explores the dehumanizing racism and sexism behind white supremacy’s fear of interracial romantic relationships. Ellis dehumanizes Black men, referring to them using a racial slur, by comparing them to “a orang-outang” or a “stallion.” He is essentially claiming that Black men have animalistically large Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantiu
Parnell: It means that if I have a hundred dollars, and I’m black, and you have a hundred dollars, and you’re white, I should be able to get as much value for my hundred dollars—my black hundred dollars—as you get for your white hundred dollars. It also means that I should have an equal opportunity to earn that hundred dollars—
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Parnell is attempting to explain to a group of hostile white townspeople what he means by social justice. Though the white townspeople keep assuming he is talking about interracial romantic relationships, Parnell cashes out his concept of social justice in economic terms, arguing that social justice involves two elements: getting “as much value” for $100 regardless of your race, and having “an equal opportunity to earn” $100. In other words, Parnell believes that social justice involves equality among consumers and equality among jobseekers. Interestingly, although the white people around Parnell keep claiming they believe in segregation and white supremacy to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimu
Jo: It’s not different—how can you say that? White men ain’t got no more business fooling around with black women than—
Lyle: Girl, will you stop getting yourself into an uproar? Men is different from women—they ain’t as delicate.
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Jo and Lyle have been bantering with Parnell about Parnell’s early education in Switzerland, where Parnell was co-educated with upper-class African students who dated American and European white girls. When Lyle claims that he’d never let his daughter go to Switzerland but letting his son go and date African girls would be different, Jo angrily insists that it’s not “different”—but Lyle, talking over her, insists men and women are “different” because men are less “delicate.” The different reactions of Jo and Lyle to interracial romantic relationships illustrate two different forms of racism. Jo’s form of racism is purely segregationist: she Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro
Parnell: Nobody in the world knew about her inside, what she was like, and how she dreamed, but me. And nobody in the world knew about me inside, what I wanted, and how I dreamed, but her.
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When Jo Britten—anxious about rumors she has heard about her husband Lyle’s previous sexual relationships with Black women—asks Lyle’s friend Parnell whether Parnell has ever loved a Black woman, Parnell tells Jo about his high-school girlfriend Pearl, whom he believes he loved. When describing their relationship, he talks about it in terms of him and Pearl really knowing each other as individuals: he was the only one who “knew about her inside” and she was the only one who “knew about [him] inside.” This focus on Pearl and Parnell’s insides is clearly intended to exclude questions of skin color: knowing Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Duc
Richard: Maybe your wife could run home and get some change. You got some change at home, I know. Don’t you?
Lyle: I don’t stand for nobody to talk about my wife.
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In a flashback, Richard has entered Lyle’s store with the apparent intention of starting a fight with him—presumably to pay back Lyle for Lyle’s earlier rudeness to Richard’s friend and love interest Juanita. Richard’s main tactic for humiliating Lyle—and secondarily Lyle’s wife Jo—is to ask whether Jo can make change for $20 when Richard tries to buy two Cokes (which cost mere cents in 1964 when the play was first produced). When Jo is unable to make change for $20, Richard sarcastically claims that he “know[s]” the Brittens must have “some change at home”—and then asks, rhetorically, “Don’t you?” The Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas.
Act 3 Quotes
Juanita: I am not responsible for your imagination.
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Lyle Britten’s defense attorney, called The State, has been questioning Juanita about whether she had romantic relationships with Richard Henry, Meridian Henry, or Pete Spivey—and concludes by insinuating that Juanita is an unreliable witness because she is sexually promiscuous. Juanita simply replies, “I am not responsible for your imagination.” This reply is an important thematic statement for the play. Throughout the play, white characters have projected their own sexual anxieties and fantasies onto Black characters in a racist manner. For example, they have claimed that Black men are sexually predatory and that Black women are sexually promiscuous and generally “available.” Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debiti
Meridian: I don’t think that the alleged object was my son’s type at all!
The State: And you are a minister?
Meridian: I think I may be beginning to become one.
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At Lyle’s trial for Richard’s murder, Lyle’s defense attorney, called The State, attempts to get Lyle acquitted by prejudicing the jury against Richard in various ways—essentially putting Richard’s character on trial. While questioning Meridian, the State asks Meridian whether Richard ever showed him pornographic photos of white women—a clear attempt to activate racist stereotypes about predatory Black men interested in white women—and then accuses Richard of having attempted to rape Lyle’s wife Jo. Meridian, aware that the accusation is a ridiculous lie, mockingly replies: “I don’t think the alleged object [i.e. Jo] was my son’s type at all!” By ridiculing Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetu
