Summary
Public Gar tells Kate that he buys eggs from farms and sells them to McLaughlin's Hotel at a much higher price, making some extra money from it. Kate insists that they have to go and ask her parents' approval immediately, but Gar is less sure, certain "they'll wipe the bloody floor with me!" As they go to her house and Kate calls for her parents, Gar begins to feel hesitant and unsure, suggesting that they perhaps should wait.
Doogan, Kate's father comes in.
Before Gar can say anything, Doogan tells Kate that someone named Francis has come to pay her a visit. She goes into the other room to see Francis, leaving Gar and Doogan alone. Doogan tells Gar that Francis is getting a new dispensary job, and that he and Kate's mother are hoping that Kate marries Francis. Doogan goes on a long monologue about how he even knows Francis' father from his university days. As he rattles on, Private Gar urges Public to just give up and leave.
Doogan asks after Gar's father, and Gar tells him he's well, before excusing himself. As Gar goes to leave, Doogan tells him, "Kate is our only child, Gareth, and her happiness is all that is important." Gar rushes off as Doogan lights a pipe. When Kate comes back into the room, she is disappointed to hear that Gar did not ask for her hand in marriage.
Back in the present, Public Gar puts the photograph away, as Private discusses the fact that Kate married Francis, with a honeymoon in Mallorca. Private asks Public if it hurts at all, as Public begins to sing "Philadelphia, Here I Come!" Private then comforts him by suggesting that there will be other women and suggesting that had he married Kate, he would have had to be subservient to Doogan, a senator, whom he thinks is hypocritical and for whom he has no respect.
Private and Public playact a conversation between him and his father. Pretending to be S.B., Private says that traveling does not agree with his bowels. Madge comes in suddenly and says, "I bathed you every Saturday night till you were a big lout of fourteen! Your tea's cold waiting." She then tells him that Nelly, her niece, had a baby girl that morning, which means she now has four grandnieces and three grandnephews. She says that the child is going to be called Madge.
S.B. comes into the house and hangs up his shop keys and apron, before sitting down to eat. Meanwhile, Private narrates his movements in a theatrical fashion. Public and S.B. have a very slow and quiet conversation, which Private makes fun of all the while. S.B. takes out his teeth and wraps them in a handkerchief. Private says, "Now, even though you refuse to acknowledge the fact, Screwballs, I'm leaving you forever. I'm going to Philadelphia, to work in an hotel. And you know why I'm going, Screwballs, don't you. Because I'm 25, and you treat me as if I were 5—I can't order even a dozen loaves without getting your permission. Because you pay me less than you pay Madge." Gar desperately wants his father to ask him to stay, but S.B. says nothing.
Public calls to Madge and asks for more bread and Madge suggests that he can get it himself, but goes to get it. Private Gar goes on a tangent, wishing his father would speak, and suggesting that Gar is a sex addict. Master Boyle comes in, a 60-year-old white-haired man described by Friel as "handsome, defiant." Boyle is a former teacher of Gar's and bids him farewell on the eve of his journey, also telling him that he may be traveling to Boston to work at a university. When Gar tells Boyle he'll be working in a hotel, Boyle says, "You'll do all right. You're young and strong and of average intelligence."
Gar tells Boyle he will be staying with his Aunt Lizzy, and asks if Boyle knew his aunt. Boyle says he did, as Private Gar suggests that Boyle was in love with his mother. Boyle gives Gar a book of his own poems, self-published, as a going-away present, and urges him to become 100 percent American, never looking back. When Boyle asks for some money to fund his heavy drinking at the bar, Gar hands it over. Then, Boyle abruptly hugs Gar, saying he'll miss him. With Boyle's departure, Public Gar begins to cry, scolded by Private Gar, who urges him to think of the future.
Analysis
In this section of the play, we learn more about Gar's romantic life, particularly his relationship with Kate. Kate comes from a slightly wealthier family than Gar, and expects him to provide for her in the way that her financially sensible father has. Before we see their relationship dramatized, we learn that it has ended and that its ending was complicated. In a flashback that takes place on stage, Gar dreams about a life in which they can raise many children and he can devise a scheme to make some extra cash. Kate is less sure about these schemes, and as much as she wants to marry him, feels like she needs her more conservative parents' approval.
Gar is devastated when he hears Doogan tell him that he is hoping that Francis King will ask Kate to marry him. Francis fits in with Kate's class position and his father knew Doogan when they were young, and Gar is humiliated to hear Doogan express his approval for a man who has a higher status than himself. He gives up completely on his ambition to ask for Kate's hand. However, at the last minute, when Gar seems to be about to leave, Doogan implies that he would be happy with any man that Kate picks for a husband. While it seemed that Doogan is attached to the security of his class position in such a way that excludes him from entertaining the thought of her marrying Gar, he proves to be more openminded than Gar imagined and hints that he would approve of Gar's proposal.
In spite of this opening, Gar fails to ask Doogan for Kate's hand in marriage, rushing off in embarrassment about his lower-class rank. This is a moment of devastating irony, in which the audience sees Doogan giving Gar a clear opportunity to ask for Kate's hand in marriage, but Gar gets too overcome with shame to take that opportunity. It is a complicated moment, coming on the heels of Doogan extolling the virtues of another man in competition for Kate's heart, but one that nonetheless presents Gar with the opportunity to go after what he wants. In this moment, we see the ways that the tug between Gar's Public and Private selves can distract him from what is important, pulling him away from the things he most wants.
Through Private's narration, we learn a great deal about Gar and S.B.'s relationship, which otherwise is marked mostly by silence. As they sit down to a quiet and uneventful dinner, Private calls attention to the fact that S.B. will not even acknowledge Gar's imminent departure, and has always treated him like a child. S.B.'s sin, according to Gar, is his predictability and his complete lack of expressivity, and it is these very qualities that are sending Gar packing. More than his desire for opportunity, or his romantic humiliation, Gar's lack of paternal guidance and his deep feelings of worthlessness and alienation brought on by his taciturn father are the forces most powerfully driving him towards his new life.
For the first time in the play, we see Gar overcome with emotion when he has to say goodbye to the drunken schoolmaster, Boyle. Boyle comes to his house to bid him farewell, give him a book of self-published poems, and ask for some money for the bar. Gar's relationship with Boyle is complicated, at once affectionate and resentful. This complication is made all the more pointed by the fact that he knows that Boyle used to date his mother. Gar knows that he could have had a father like Boyle, verbose and expressive, but has instead been raised by a father who can barely say a word to him. The episode ends with Gar having a weak moment of emotion, before being reminded to keep looking ahead by his Private self.
