My Boy Jack

by

David Haig

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on My Boy Jack makes teaching easy.
Carrie is Rudyard’s wife and Jack’s mother. Unlike Rudyard, she doesn’t like the idea of Jack fighting in World War I, worrying that his nearsightedness will put him in grave danger on the battlefield. However, she has a hard time convincing Rudyard of the dangers of sending Jack off to war, since her husband has such romanticized beliefs about the value of honor, bravery, and duty. For the most part, Carrie keeps her reservations to herself, though she subtly challenges Rudyard’s beliefs in the lead-up to Jack’s death. Then, once they discover that Jack has died in action, she openly rails against Rudyard’s intense patriotism, taking no comfort in the idea that Jack died doing something honorable. She also accuses Rudyard of not fully believing in the value of “glory” and responsibility himself, suggesting that even he can’t find true relief in the idea that Jack died for a worthy cause. In this way, she exposes the tension between Rudyard’s idealistic beliefs and his personal grief.

Carrie Kipling Quotes in My Boy Jack

The My Boy Jack quotes below are all either spoken by Carrie Kipling or refer to Carrie Kipling. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Bravery, Duty, and Honor Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes

CARRIE. He's too young.

RUDYARD. He is not a boy, he is a young man. If you continue to pamper and paw him, you will turn him into something altogether weak and watery…the next few hours will be a serious point in his career.

CARRIE. Do you think it's fair to encourage him?

RUDYARD. I would think it very unfair if I didn't. Within a year, by the end of 1914, we shall be fighting for civilisation itself, one wouldn't want him to miss an opportunity to be part of that.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 8 Quotes

JOHN. […] Please God I mustn't let them down. Will I be brave? Will I fail?—Onto the firestep—keep the pistol out of the mud—left hand on the parapet—pull—right foot on the sand bags—push up—left leg over—Straighten—run—I mustn't let them down. Some of these men will be dead tonight. I may be dead tonight. Let me live. Stop raining—just for a second.

Oh Daddo—what luxury—to turn on a hot water tap—hot steaming water—evening clothes—dinner at the Ritz—the Alhambra afterwards. Elsie. Mother. Daddo.—My first action—Fifteen seconds—is that the whistle?—one clear blast—left hand—parapet—sand bags—over—run. Run fast and straight. Please God let me live. Pistol high—run, run, run.

Related Characters: John “Jack” Kipling (speaker), Rudyard Kipling, Carrie Kipling, Elsie “Bird” Kipling
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 1 Quotes

RUDYARD. […] Why should I stop him? If I had, he would have suffered a living death here, ashamed and despised by everyone. Could you bear that? … It's true. How would he hold his head up, whilst his friends risked death in France? How would he walk down the high street, or into a shop? He wouldn't. He would stay indoors, growing weaker and quieter by the day. Unable to leave his room. And he would wish he was dead.

CARRIE. People would understand.

RUDYARD. No they would not. They know what we are fighting for. They know we must go forward, willing to sacrifice everything to deliver mankind from evil.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

CARRIE. Yes that's very fine. But will you believe that tomorrow? Today is the last day you can believe that.

RUDYARD. Carrie, if by any chance Jack is dead, it will have been the finest moment in his young life. We would not wish him to outlive that.

CARRIE. You don't believe that Rud. I know you don't. There is no need to say that to me.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

RUDYARD. No sacrifice…is too great…no sacrifice, however painful, is too great…if we win the day…

ELSIE (angry and upset). You've missed the point haven't you? God! You just…You've no idea. God!

Silence. RUDYARD and CARRIE are helpless.

Don't you realise, he didn't give a damn about your cause? The reason he went to France, the reason he went to get his head shot off, was to get away from us! He couldn't bear us any more.

Short silence.

The suffocation, the love, the expectation. That's why he went.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Elsie “Bird” Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling , Carrie Kipling
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

RUDYARD. […] By all accounts he was very brave.

Silence.

He didn't have a long time in the trenches. But he had his heart's desire. So few of us have the opportunity to play our part. Properly. But he did. He worked like the devil. It's a shame that all the effort should end in one afternoon, but he achieved what he set out to achieve. It was a short life, but in a sense complete. I'm happy for him, and proud of him, aren't you?

[…]

CARRIE. I’m so relieved that you see the death of our only son as such a positive and uplifting event. I am sincerely relieved that you are at ease with it all.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:

RUDYARD. […] I find it a great comfort that so many are in our position, don't you? It is a common agony. A common sacrifice.

CARRE. No I don't find that comforting. I don't care how many people it's happened to. That doesn't help me at all. Not at all…no.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:

CARRIE. […] Your cruelty doesn’t surprise me. You are a cold fish, a very cold fish. But that's alright, I know that now. It doesn't hurt me, but don't pretend anymore. Jack was eighteen years and six weeks old. He died in the rain, he couldn't see a thing, he was alone, in pain, you can't persuade me there is any glory in that.

RUDYARD. I believe there is.

[…]

I must ‘believe’ in order to survive at all.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:

CARRIE. But I miss him.

RUDYARD. So do I.

He drops his head and cries. Silence. CARRIE walks to the desk and looks at the diary.

CARRIE. […] I feel…more dead than alive. When Josephine died, part of me died with her. But I sewed up the wound. I recovered, to a degree. But now I feel…more…dead than alive.

RUDYARD. We’ll manage.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:
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Carrie Kipling Quotes in My Boy Jack

The My Boy Jack quotes below are all either spoken by Carrie Kipling or refer to Carrie Kipling. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Bravery, Duty, and Honor Theme Icon
).
Act 1, Scene 1 Quotes

CARRIE. He's too young.

RUDYARD. He is not a boy, he is a young man. If you continue to pamper and paw him, you will turn him into something altogether weak and watery…the next few hours will be a serious point in his career.

CARRIE. Do you think it's fair to encourage him?

RUDYARD. I would think it very unfair if I didn't. Within a year, by the end of 1914, we shall be fighting for civilisation itself, one wouldn't want him to miss an opportunity to be part of that.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1, Scene 8 Quotes

JOHN. […] Please God I mustn't let them down. Will I be brave? Will I fail?—Onto the firestep—keep the pistol out of the mud—left hand on the parapet—pull—right foot on the sand bags—push up—left leg over—Straighten—run—I mustn't let them down. Some of these men will be dead tonight. I may be dead tonight. Let me live. Stop raining—just for a second.

Oh Daddo—what luxury—to turn on a hot water tap—hot steaming water—evening clothes—dinner at the Ritz—the Alhambra afterwards. Elsie. Mother. Daddo.—My first action—Fifteen seconds—is that the whistle?—one clear blast—left hand—parapet—sand bags—over—run. Run fast and straight. Please God let me live. Pistol high—run, run, run.

Related Characters: John “Jack” Kipling (speaker), Rudyard Kipling, Carrie Kipling, Elsie “Bird” Kipling
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 1 Quotes

RUDYARD. […] Why should I stop him? If I had, he would have suffered a living death here, ashamed and despised by everyone. Could you bear that? … It's true. How would he hold his head up, whilst his friends risked death in France? How would he walk down the high street, or into a shop? He wouldn't. He would stay indoors, growing weaker and quieter by the day. Unable to leave his room. And he would wish he was dead.

CARRIE. People would understand.

RUDYARD. No they would not. They know what we are fighting for. They know we must go forward, willing to sacrifice everything to deliver mankind from evil.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

CARRIE. Yes that's very fine. But will you believe that tomorrow? Today is the last day you can believe that.

RUDYARD. Carrie, if by any chance Jack is dead, it will have been the finest moment in his young life. We would not wish him to outlive that.

CARRIE. You don't believe that Rud. I know you don't. There is no need to say that to me.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

RUDYARD. No sacrifice…is too great…no sacrifice, however painful, is too great…if we win the day…

ELSIE (angry and upset). You've missed the point haven't you? God! You just…You've no idea. God!

Silence. RUDYARD and CARRIE are helpless.

Don't you realise, he didn't give a damn about your cause? The reason he went to France, the reason he went to get his head shot off, was to get away from us! He couldn't bear us any more.

Short silence.

The suffocation, the love, the expectation. That's why he went.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Elsie “Bird” Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling , Carrie Kipling
Page Number: 52
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 2, Scene 3 Quotes

RUDYARD. […] By all accounts he was very brave.

Silence.

He didn't have a long time in the trenches. But he had his heart's desire. So few of us have the opportunity to play our part. Properly. But he did. He worked like the devil. It's a shame that all the effort should end in one afternoon, but he achieved what he set out to achieve. It was a short life, but in a sense complete. I'm happy for him, and proud of him, aren't you?

[…]

CARRIE. I’m so relieved that you see the death of our only son as such a positive and uplifting event. I am sincerely relieved that you are at ease with it all.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 76
Explanation and Analysis:

RUDYARD. […] I find it a great comfort that so many are in our position, don't you? It is a common agony. A common sacrifice.

CARRE. No I don't find that comforting. I don't care how many people it's happened to. That doesn't help me at all. Not at all…no.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 77
Explanation and Analysis:

CARRIE. […] Your cruelty doesn’t surprise me. You are a cold fish, a very cold fish. But that's alright, I know that now. It doesn't hurt me, but don't pretend anymore. Jack was eighteen years and six weeks old. He died in the rain, he couldn't see a thing, he was alone, in pain, you can't persuade me there is any glory in that.

RUDYARD. I believe there is.

[…]

I must ‘believe’ in order to survive at all.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 78
Explanation and Analysis:

CARRIE. But I miss him.

RUDYARD. So do I.

He drops his head and cries. Silence. CARRIE walks to the desk and looks at the diary.

CARRIE. […] I feel…more dead than alive. When Josephine died, part of me died with her. But I sewed up the wound. I recovered, to a degree. But now I feel…more…dead than alive.

RUDYARD. We’ll manage.

Related Characters: Rudyard Kipling (speaker), Carrie Kipling (speaker), John “Jack” Kipling
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis: