"...no brighter light has ever dazzled the eye than Eve Harrington. Eve. But more of Eve later. All about Eve, in fact."
The film begins at the end—or near the end, at any rate, and the main action takes the form of a flashback that reveals the story of how everyone ended up at the ceremony where Eve receives the Sarah Siddons awards. Here, Addison DeWitt tells the viewer in voiceover that Eve, the recipient of the Sarah Siddons award, is going to play a central role in the action. Indeed, Addison promises to reveal all there is to know about Eve. This line has the effect of building suspense about Eve and her identity, creating the sense that there is a great deal to learn.
“Three months ago I was forty years old. Forty. Four-oh.”
Here Margo laments her age, which is a central problem for her throughout the film. She worries that she is too old, that she will soon be replaced by the much more youthful Eve Harrington. One would think that 40 years old would not be Margo's cut-off for a successful career as an actress, but apparently her age is holding her back in the business. Margo knows that show business is shallow, and here she laments the fact that she has to age out of parts that she still has the energy to play.
"She reminds me of an agent with one client."
Birdie, Margo's dresser, used to work in vaudeville and has a biting, sardonic sense of humor that delights Margo. Her time in show business has given her a keen eye for intuiting a person's character. From their first meeting, Birdie sees through Eve’s performance of gratitude and helpfulness, noting her underlying ambition. Here she notes that Eve is so attentive to Margo and her needs that it is almost inappropriate. She compares Eve to a talent agent who only has one client and has too much time on her hands.
"They want you. You belong. Just that alone is worth everything."
Here, Eve talks about the virtues of being an actress as she sits on the stairs at Bill's birthday party. She begins to talk about why she wants so badly to be an actress. Here, “they” refers to the audience. Eve is extolling the virtue of having the attention of every eye in an audience. Eve exhibits a pure passion for both performing and for the attention it brings her, while also revealing a kind of desperation. Eve craves attention, affirmation, and belonging with such a singleminded passion, which is what allows her to triumph in show business. According to Eve, no sacrifice is too great if it means that one wins the love and adoration of an audience.
"Funny business, a woman's career - the things you drop on your way up the ladder so you can move faster. You forget you'll need them again when you get back to being a woman."
While they sit in a car that has run out of gas, Margo reflects on her bad behavior over the past few weeks, apologizing to Karen for being so temperamental and ruminating on the plight of women. According to her, a woman must sacrifice a life as a woman, a life of femininity, if she wants to be independent and have a career. In order to "move faster," in her words, she has had to leave certain things behind and sacrifice having a home life and a family life. Margo is defeated in this moment, and in contrast to Eve, she is not so convinced that fame and glory make those sacrifices worth it. Now, in her 40s, with her power in the business compromised, Margo feels that she has to remember feminine virtues and reconnect with her role as a woman.
"You can always put that award where your heart ought to be."
After Eve receives the Sarah Siddons award, Margo approaches her and delivers this barb. In her speech, Eve pronounced that even though she is going to star in a Hollywood film, her heart will always be in New York with her friends in the theater. Referring to this insincere proclamation, Margo bitchily suggests that Eve can put the award in her heart's place. In other words, she is suggesting that Eve is heartless and ruthless, having climbed on everyone and disregarded the feelings of others in order to have her career. The award is the prize for Eve's ruthlessness, but as Margo suggests, nothing can replace an empty place where a heart should be.
"Then you must ask Miss Harrington how to get one. Miss Harrington knows all about it."
When the young aspiring starlet Phoebe answers the door of Eve's apartment to find Addison standing in the doorway with Eve's forgotten award, she admits that she harbors a secret desire to become a great actress and win an award just like her idol. This is Addison’s cool response, an oblique reference to the fact that Eve told a lot of lies and burned a lot of bridges to be where she is. Addison is sarcastic and withholding in this moment, seeing in Phoebe the same mercenary spark that Eve once had.
"A lost lamb loose in our stone jungle."
Long before Margo comes to see Eve's true colors, she falls under Eve's spell and perceives her as a lost and helpless young innocent. While talking to Bill, she refers to Eve as a "lost lamb in our stone jungle." The stone jungle is the world of New York City society and the theater world. It is a jungle because it is filled with some beastly and ruthless people. Little does she know that Eve is the beastliest of them all.
"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
On the night of Bill's birthday party, which Eve planned without Margo's consent, Margo becomes livid that Bill seems distracted with the young ingenue to such an extent that he isn't paying attention to her, his girlfriend. In the living room, after downing a martini and baiting people with insults and bitchy comments, Margo storms off to get another drink and make her annoyance known to the party at large. Before leaving Bill, Karen, and Lloyd, she warns them that "it's going to be a bumpy night." Here, she celebrates her own power to set the tone of the party according to her whim and mood. If Margo is unhappy, she is sure to make sure that others are as well, even if it's a birthday party. This quotation illuminates Margo's big personality, her need for control, and her vengeful temperament.
Karen: You're Margo, just Margo.
Margo: And what is that, besides something spelled out in light bulbs, I mean—besides something called a temperament, which consists mostly of swooping about on a broomstick and screaming at the top of my voice? Infants behave the way I do, you know. They carry on and misbehave—they'd get drunk if they knew how—when they can't have what they want, when they feel unwanted or insecure or unloved.
In the broken down car, Margo becomes uncharacteristically vulnerable, and admits to Karen that she doesn't know who she is anymore, so consumed by her role as a stage star has she become. When Karen tries to console her by informing her that she's just a normal person like everyone else, this does little to convince Margo. In an unusually self-aware and contrite moment, Margo expresses remorse for her attention-seeking and difficult antics over the past few weeks. She confides in Karen that she feels as though she has turned into a name in lights on a marquee and that she has lost her true identity and become a bitter and immature woman.
