HELEN: Well! This is the place.
JO: And I don’t like it.
HELEN: When I find somewhere for us to live I have to consider something far more important than your feelings … the rent. It’s all I can afford.
In the opening lines of dialogue, Delaney immediately sets the play's comedic tone. Having just moved into a poorly maintained lodging house, Helen tries half-heartedly to drum up excitement. Jo, however, bluntly expresses her dismay. Helen responds with an unsympathetic reminder that they are broke and the rundown place is all she can afford. With this exchange, Delaney establishes the intimately abusive codependent relationship between Helen and Jo.
HELEN: Where? What were you given eyes for? Do you want me to carry you about? Don’t stand there shivering; have some of this if you’re so cold.
JO: You know I don’t like it.
HELEN: Have you tried it?
JO: NO.
HELEN: Then get it down you!
Although Helen complains of a cold, she is quick to knock back whiskey upon arriving at the new flat. When her eighteen-year-old daughter refuses to join her in drinking on the grounds that she doesn't like alcohol, Helen attempts to pressure her into at least trying the whiskey before making up her mind. The half-joking, half-sincere effort by Helen reveals her poor boundaries with Jo, who likely doesn't drink herself because she has witnessed firsthand the unpleasant side of her mother's alcohol dependency.
HELEN: Why, are you still set on leaving school at Christmas?
JO: Yes.
HELEN: What are you going to do?
JO: Get out of your sight as soon as I can get a bit of money in my pocket.
HELEN: Very wise too. But how are you going to get your money in the first place? After all, you’re not very fond of work, are you?
JO: No. I take after you.
Later in the first scene, this exchange establishes Jo's ambition to gain independence from her mother by leaving secondary school and getting a job. Helen insultingly suggests that Jo's plan may be difficult to see through because of her laziness; Jo hits back by suggesting that she inherited Helen's work-shy attitude. Even though Jo phrases it as a joke, as the play progresses, the audience will discover that Jo does take after her mother more than she would like to admit.
HELEN: I think I’ll hang this on the wall somewhere. Now, where will it be least noticeable? Don’t snatch. Have you no manners? What’s these?
JO: Self-portraits. Give ‘em here.
HELEN: Self-portraits? Oh! Well, I suppose you’ve got to draw pictures of yourself, nobody else would. Hey! Is that supposed to be me?
JO: Yes.
HELEN: Don’t I look a misery? They’re very artistic though, I must say. Have you ever thought of going to a proper art school and getting a proper training?
While unpacking after their move, Helen discovers Jo's drawings. From Helen's reaction, it seems that this is the first time she has learned of her daughter's artistic talent, which Jo has presumably hidden from her bitingly critical mother. In Helen's dialogue, Delaney perfectly expresses Helen's unique mix of cruelty and affection, which is on full display as she deftly switches from implying that Jo is unattractive and to encouraging Jo to use her talent at art school.
BOY: What will your mother say?
JO: She’ll probably laugh.
BOY: Doesn’t she care who her daughter marries?
JO: She’s not marrying you, I am. It’s got nothing to do with her.
BOY: She hasn’t seen me.
JO: And when she does?
BOY: She’ll see a coloured boy.
JO: No, whatever else she might be, she isn’t prejudiced against colour. You’re not worried about it, are you?
BOY: So long as you like it.
In the second scene of the first act, Delaney juxtaposes Jo and Helen's bickering with a scene in which Jo and Jimmie express unrestrained excitement and affection. The intimate dialogue eventually reaches a subject that Jimmie is concerned about: will Helen's white mother accept a Black son-in-law? Jo is quick to reassure Jimmie and explain that, for all of Helen's defects, she isn't racially prejudiced. However, when Jo later conceals the fact of Jimmie's race when describing him to Helen, the audience realizes that Jo may not have been entirely truthful when she reassured Jimmie.
JO: You can have it back if I can see the others.
PETER: Which others? What are you talking about?
JO: Do you want me to tell my mother?
PETER: I don’t give a damn what you tell your mother.
JO: They’re all women, aren’t they? I bet you’ve had thousands of girl friends. What was this one with the long legs called?
PETER: Ah! Yes, number thirty-eight. A charming little thing.
While Jo initially distrusts Peter, in their second interaction she appears more willing to engage with him. In an instance of dramatic irony, Helen is out of the room while Jo makes Peter show him the photos of women he keeps in his wallet. Although Jo is accusing him of having more than one woman, Peter feigns innocence and lets her look, even playing along with a joke that implies he has had as many as thirty-eight girlfriends. But despite Peter trying to make it appear he has nothing to hide, Delaney sows seeds of doubt about his fidelity.
HELEN: I’ll see you when the honeymoon’s over. Come on, give us a kiss. You may as well. It’s a long time since you kissed me.
JO: Keep it for him.
HELEN: I don’t suppose you’re sorry to see me go.
JO: I’m not sorry and I’m not glad.
HELEN: You don’t know what you do want.
At the end of Act One, Helen is preparing to leave for her wedding, which Jo isn't attending ostensibly because she has a cold and needs to stay home. In a rare moment of sincerity and vulnerability, Helen asks Jo to give her a kiss; however, Jo rejects her mother's request, making it clear that she resents Helen for moving out to live with Peter. Jo also claims that she is neither upset nor happy for Helen to leave, despite stating in the first scene a desire for independence from her mother. This contradictory mix of emotions speaks to Jo's codependent enmeshment with Helen, from whom she craves affection while expecting disappointment.
GEOF: She won’t go out anywhere, not even for a walk and a bit of fresh air. That’s why I came to you.
HELEN: And what do you think I can do about it? In any case, bearing a child doesn’t place one under an obligation to it.
GEOF: I should have thought it did.
HELEN: Well, you’ve got another thing coming. If she won’t take care of herself that’s her lookout. And don’t stand there looking as if it’s my fault.
In Act Two, Geoffrey goes behind Jo's back to contact Helen once it becomes clear that Jo has no plans to inform Helen of her pregnancy. To Geoffrey's surprise, Helen is unsympathetic when she learns of Jo's predicament. In a statement that reveals her selfish attitude toward parenthood, Helen suggests that just because you give birth to a child doesn't mean you are responsible for it. Predictably putting her own interests first, Helen also defends herself from accepting any responsibility for her eighteen-year-old daughter winding up a single mother.
JO: You’ve got nice hands, hard. You know I used to try and hold my mother’s hands, but she always used to pull them away from me. So silly really. She had so much love for everyone else, but none for me.
GEOF: If you don’t watch it, you’ll turn out exactly like her.
JO: I’m not like her at all.
GEOF: In some ways you are already, you know.
In this exchange, Jo comments on how she used to seek affection from her mother, whose instinct was to reject Jo—a minor but meaningful abandonment of Jo's emotional being. Jo further comments on how difficult it was for her to watch her mother give "love" to so many men while refusing Jo. Geoffrey replies by suggesting that Jo, having been treated so poorly, may repeat Helen's mistakes unless she makes an active effort to end the cycle of dysfunctional parenting. Jo, however, exposes her sense of denial by claiming she is nothing like Helen.
JO: My baby may be black.
HELEN: You what, love?
JO: My baby will be black.
HELEN: Oh, don’t be silly, Jo. You’ll be giving yourself nightmares.
JO: But it’s true. He was black.
HELEN: Who?
JO: Jimmie.
HELEN: You mean to say that … that sailor was a black man? … Oh my God! Nothing else can happen to me now. Can you see me wheeling a pram with a … Oh my God. I’ll have to have a drink.
JO: What are you going to do?
HELEN: I don’t know. Drown it. Who knows about it?
At the end of the play, Helen, having been kicked out by Peter, seeks refuge at Jo's flat. However, Helen returns without humility and rudely reclaims the territory by being unpleasant to Geoffrey. Having pushed him out, Helen acts as though she is there to look after Jo during her labor. However, the news that Jo's son will be mixed-race prompts Helen to reveal that she's a racist—something Jo earlier claimed Helen was not. Helen's selfishness is on display as she comments on how she can't imagine herself appearing in public with the child because of what people might think. Helen also jokes about drowning the unborn baby, bluntly dehumanizing the child. Ultimately, Helen's reaction—as cruel as it is—is likely one that Jo could have predicted. When Helen leaves the flat and Jo smiles to herself, the audience is left to wonder whether Jo meant to provoke Helen and make her go away.
