Summary
Act Seven
It is eleven years later, the scene set in a posh Park Avenue apartment belonging to the Evanses. Nina is 35, still beautiful but with a strain in her eyes. Darrell is with her, gray and stout and possessive of an air of aimlessness. Gordon is a young boy of eleven, handsome with eyes “full of quick-tempered sensitiveness” (170). He is wondering why Darrell, whom he does not like, is always hanging around. It is the boy’s birthday.
Nina loves her son but is conflicted about Darrell, wondering if he loves her and thinking it would just be better if he went back to the West Indies where he’d been doing work. For his part, Darrell feels bound to her and wishes he could just break loose. He envies the blithely ignorant and happy Sam.
Nina abruptly asks him when he is going back to the West Indies. He sighs and says because of how rich Sam has made him, his work is done and he just has “hobbies” now. He is grateful that his colleague, Preston, is able to keep things going well at the Station, and bitterly says he will be a good man if he doesn’t undertake the same sort of “human experiments” Darrell did.
Nina quietly asks how he can be so bitter, especially on their son’s birthday. He does not claim the boy as his own; if anything, he is Gordon’s boy and Sam’s boy.
The boy Gordon is rude to Darrell and Nina chastises him, sending him away. He thinks he hates her when she sides with Darrell. Darrell resignedly says it makes sense that the boy hates him; after all, maybe he subconsciously knows the truth so he is a rival in his love for her. Nina is exasperated and tells him to shut up. She is tired of this old rigamarole they go through; it seems like they never learn anything about how to be better.
Darrell sadly says he brought a present for the boy and it is out in the hallway, but it would not be surprising if he just smashed it to bits. Nina feels tortured by him but he tells her that she did give him the only happiness he’d ever experienced. They share pleasant goodbyes and a kiss, which unbeknownst to them the boy observes.
Gordon moves away and announces Uncle Charlie is downstairs. Nina thinks his voice sounds weird, but she does not know why. Darrell sneers that Marsden is an old woman and does not know why he keeps coming by. It seems like he is jealous of him, Nina decides, but Darrell says he doesn’t like him because he wanted to put up all the money for Sam and then Marsden decided he had to be in on it as well. It seems like he did so to spite him.
Marsden enters, older and immaculately dressed, with a sort of peace in his expression. He greets them all. Darrell replies snarkily about being Sam’s counterfeit and silent partner and Nina is annoyed, thinking of how Marsden has been a comfort of late to her.
When Darrell mentions he is leaving soon to go back to his work, Marsden internally rolls his eyes, deciding the man is a scientific dilettante. He says out loud that he wishes he knew more about biology, which is “interesting,” but his tone stings Darrell, who snaps back that Marsden ought to study it so his novels could be more about actual life. Marsden has to admit to himself that this is true. As for the dynamics of the group, he also thinks he detects a fraying of the bond between Nina and Darrell, and knows she’s never felt anything for Sam. This means that he, Marsden, is important to her. He thinks his love for her is finer than theirs because he does not lust for her; he is a platonic hero.
Nina wonders about Marsden as well. She thinks he would be a wonderful lover for old age, not now, because there is no passion there. All of these men make her sick, she decides, and young Gordon is her only man.
Marsden and Nina leave to make a dressing for lunch. Gordon comes into the room, tremulous and upset as he holds the gift of a model yacht in his hands. His hate-filled eyes meet Darrell’s and he asks if the gift is from him. When Darrell says yes, in a fit of anguish he destroys it. Darrell is shocked and angry for a moment, then sighs that the boy should not have done that no matter who gave it to him. Gordon is sad that he broke it and admits he saw his mother and Darrell kissing. Darrell says it was just a friendly kiss goodbye but the boy does not believe him. Trying a different tack, Darrell says the boy must be a man of honor and there are certain things one never tells their mother or father. Gordon is terribly confused and upset but Evans comes in.
Oblivious and enthusiastic in his greeting of Darrell, Sam is the picture of success and competence. He asks Darrell to stay for lunch but it is too painful for Darrell to be around his son. He leaves.
Sam suspects nothing, and he, Gordon, Nina, and Marsden sit for lunch. Evans asks his boy to sit on his lap. Gordon suddenly asks why he is named Gordon. Gordon knows the story but suspects more, that Darrell hates Gordon because Nina loved him more than him. He asks about which man would best the other in a fight, and Nina is disturbed at his line of questioning. She is uncomfortable that her son seems to cling to Sam more than her.
She decides to say negative things about Darrell, such as the fact that she is happy he is leaving. When Gordon perks up at this she continues, lying about how when they said goodbye she made him promise not to come back for two years and then he got sentimental and kissed her and she kissed him too for good luck. Evans laughs heartily and Gordin is relieved. He happily comes into his mother’s lap and she embraces him. He kisses her and tells her he is going to be like the brave Gordon Shaw.
For a moment Nina feels a twinge of guilt for being cruel to her dear Ned, as she does love him and it is their son there in her lap. But Gordon picks up on this and tenses, and she realizes what has happened. Gordon jumps off her lap and she nervously asks what is wrong. Sam chides her for babying him. Her eyes fill with scorn.
Act Eight
It is ten years later on the afterdeck of the Evanses’ boat anchored with a line of yachts near the finish line at Poughkeepsie. Nina’s hair is completely white and she is obviously desperate to retain a vestige of her beauty. Her body is still lovely, which contrasts jarringly with her heavily made-up face. Darrell once again looks young and handsome, his face tan from the tropics. Marsden is aged greatly, again besieged by grief but this time due to the death of his sister. Evans is stout, balding, and amiable in appearance. Madeline Arnold is a pretty 19-year-old woman with a frank, appealing personality. They are all gathered to watch Gordon row crew in his last varsity race.
Nina’s thoughts center on her dislike for Madeline because she thinks she is losing her son. Evans is only concerned with Gordon’s race. Darrell is pleased with himself because he is no longer beguiled by Nina. Marsden does not even know why he is there, as he is consumed by his sorrow over losing his sister.
They occasionally talk about Gordon, with Sam smiling that his son is a ringer for Gordon Shaw, and Nina scoffs and says her son is him—Evans—because he is a fine athlete. Sam takes it as an insult and becomes angry, which she cautions him against because of his blood pressure.
Evans regains his cool and asks Marsden to come inside the yacht for a drink. Madeline joins them at Evans’s request. Left alone, Nina and Darrell look at each other. Darrell can barely believe what they went through together was ever real. Nina too feels odd, like “the only living life is in the past and future…the present is an interlude…strange interlude in which we call on past and future to bear witness we are living!...” (193).
They try to be friendly with each other, Nina asking what his secret is to aging well. She seems depressed at the loss of her own looks. He explains that he is very interested in biology and not for selfish reasons. He and Preston have made some very important discoveries. Nina can barely hear what he is saying, concluding he is bitter that their love ruined his career. She also hates hearing about this man who it seems has become a substitute for Gordon. When she mentions this, he says yes, he does have an unconscious paternal attitude toward Preston.
Sadly, Nina asks if she is the ideal of a happy mother. He softens and asks what she means and she says she has lost her son, that young Gordon became Sam’s over so gradually a time that she barely noticed. Darrell knows she just wishes the boy would have been like Gordon Shaw but she protests that.
Madeline bursts in with an announcement that Gordon is in third place. Nina is annoyed by her youth and beauty, and Darrell thinks that it is absurd that women act like this about the “Gordons.” After she leaves, Nina criticizes the girl and claims she is not very pretty and is stupid. Darrell knows she is just jealous and she admits as much, crying that if he marries her he will forget as completely about her as Sam did about his mother. She’ll use her body to make Gordon forget his mother, she says fiercely, and clutches Darrell. At her touch, he remembers when they were intimate so long ago.
Nina wants Darrell to say something to Gordon, but he refuses. He does love her a little, he says, but he will not meddle in her life and she ought to not do that either. They talk about Sam for a bit. Nina postulates that Sam’s mother might have lied about the insanity. Darrell replies that when she told him so many years back, he actually went up and investigated and found out it was true.
Nina tells Darrell she loves him and wants to tell Sam the truth. They’ve suffered their whole lives to make him rich and happy. If she said something alone he would not believe her, but if Darrell does, then he will. She wishes she’d gone away with him years ago, but that cannot be changed. Now, if he loves her, he will have to say something. Darrell is dazed with the intensity of it all, but decides he cannot do so; after all, Gordon is really Gordon’s son, not even his own.
Marsden comes in, fantastically drunk. He sees the two of them and laughs that it seems they don’t love each other anymore. He also says he does not care if Gordon wins; he doesn’t like the boy because he always calls him an old woman. Darrell goes inside. Marsden tries to drunkenly comfort Nina by saying it’s the Gordons who always get everything they want, and soon enough he and Nina will marry and be happy together.
Everyone else comes out before she can answer, screaming for Gordon. Nina is seething. She decides she will tell Madeline about the Evanses' curse and then she won’t marry him and everything will turn out okay. Marsden keeps talking to her, telling her after they marry he will write his first real novel; he won’t be a “hush-hush whisperer of lies” and will now “give an honest healthy yell” (202). He’s seen everything and can write about it now. She is barely listening and only thinking about ruining Madeline.
Nina grabs the reluctant Madeline, who would rather watch the race. She begins to explain that Madeline must break off the engagement. Darrell comes over and sharply tells Nina to stop, that Madeline must not listen to Mrs. Evans because she is not well. He alludes to her going through menopause and that she is “morbidly jealous of you and subject to queer delusions" (204). Madeline thanks him and rushes away.
Nina is despondent, but Darrell is firm, saying he will not meddle anymore. He leaves. Nina turns in a dreamlike stupor to Marsden and tells him the truth about Sam’s family being insane and how she deliberately slept with Darrell to have a child with him. Marsden is shocked and horrified but then strokes her paternally and sighs that she must have suffered greatly and he forgives her everything. She calls him “Father.”
Meanwhile, Darrell is shouting for the other guys to win, angering Sam, but he recovers and pretends to cheer on Gordon. Gordon is coming into view. Nina is feeling insane, screaming in her head to Mother God to take her son from her before Madeline takes him down into hell.
Gordon wins and the group is exultant. Nina slumps down, though, and cries out one last protest that Gordon is not Sam’s but only hers and Gordon Shaw’s. He cuddles her sympathetically and says of course he was. But suddenly Sam collapses in pain, and Darrell reaches down to look at him. He proclaims it is a bad stroke. Nina is spooked and quietly wonders if they did this to him, and Darrell sternly rebukes her and says she will have to provide good care for him. She dully says she will never leave his side or tell him anything to disturb his peace. Marsden is happy because he knows he will not have much time to wait anymore. Everyone seems consumed with love for Sam and guilt over their own actions. Madeline, by contrast, is looking out at Gordon, happy he will be hers at last.
Analysis
It is now ten years later and the torrid relationship between Nina and Darrell is still ongoing, albeit marked by periods of Darrell’s absence in the West Indies. Though everyone is older, no one seems wiser. The two haven’t told Gordon the truth of his parentage, Gordon has a strong intuitive hate of Darrell and suspicion of his mother, Darrell’s business deal with Sam and complicated feelings about Nina have pretty much ended his career, Nina has aged badly and still can’t decide if she loves her husband and is shamefully jealous of her son’s fiancee, Sam is successful but blithely ignorant and in ill health, and Marsden is still pining after Nina. All of the asides O’Neill offers us indicate just how tempestuous, stressful, and almost crippling these secrets are for their bearers (except Sam, but ironically he is the one who dies of a physical ailment).
Gordon Evans is now a character in his own right, but he’s not very nuanced. As Donald Heiney writes, “All now realize that Gordon is a sort of reincarnation of the dead Gordon Shaw; thus Nina and Sam root for him to win [in the crew race] but Darrell and Marsden, who have always resented the ghost of Shaw which has hung over Nina’s life, hope young Gordon’s boat will lose.” Gordon is handsome and athletic, but he is also superficial, self-absorbed, and petulant. He might be Darrell’s offspring but he is Sam Evans’s son because of how he was raised and Gordon Shaw’s son in terms of the quasi-mystical power that man held over Nina.
Gordon belongs to none of the men and somehow all of the men, but of course he is Nina’s son first and foremost. Sadly, though she’d assumed having a child would bring her happiness, the way Gordon was begat precludes that from being the case. She is just as tortured and miserable as ever, consumed by the power of the past. At one point she bemoans this situation, saying, “the only living life is in the past and future…the present is an interlude…strange interlude in which we call on past and future to bear witness we are living!...” (193).
While Nina is obsessed with the past, Marsden looks to the future when he can finally be with Nina. The character of Marsden offers a lot of fodder for discussion. From the very first time we meet him, it is suggested that he is simultaneously a homosexual, obsessed with Nina, and possessed by an Oedipal complex—and all of those things are constants throughout the play. O’Neill had written in his notebook that Marsden was bisexual; at the very least he possesses complicated feelings about sex, which we discern in his remembrance of his first sexual experience. Critic Bette Mandl notes, “In a characterization shaped with some daring, O'Neill suggests a gender indeterminacy, as well as a sexual anxiety, that influences everything that follows.” He is certainly the artist figure, probably based on the real artists Charles Demuth and Marsden Hartley, both homosexual, but he is not the artist-as-hero and has “a Prufrockian timidity about his art and his life. His inhibitions deprive him of an outlet in his novels for expressing what he understands.” He is attracted to Nina, but it’s not as straightforward as the attraction Gordon, Sam, and Ned feel for her. Rather, “his connection to her reveals more than ignition. It is deeply implicated in a pattern of shifting triangular configurations with the other men in her life.” Mandl acknowledges that many texts emphasize homosocial bonding, but she argues “that the presence of Marsden, though it highlights the homosocial preoccupations of the men, also disrupts the binarism that structures the rigidities of the gender arrangements that the play otherwise reflects. The gender ambiguities that O'Neill assigns to Marsden have an ultimately subversive impact, offering an implicit challenge to the gender roles occupied by all his other characters.” At the end of the novel when Marsden has “won,” Mandl claims that “O’Neill manages to take Marsden and Nina to a place ‘beyond desire’...and beyond gender.”
A final note on the Oedipal complex. Firstly, here is the definition provided by Simply Psychology: “The Oedipal complex is a term used by Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychosexual stages of development, and is the generic term for both Oedipus and Electra complexes. The Oedipal complex occurs during the Phallic stage of development (ages 3-6) in which the source of libido (life force) is concentrated in the erogenous zones of the child’s body (Freud, 1905). During this stage, children experience an unconscious feeling of desire for their opposite-sex parent and jealousy and envy toward their same-sex parent.” The term derives from the Greek myth of Oedipus, who accidentally fulfilled a prophecy saying that he would marry his mother and kill his father. O’Neill strongly suggests that Marsden has these inclinations, as he is obsessed with his mother and often invokes her when he is thinking about Nina. Furthermore, there is a turn to the Electra complex, the female version of the Oedipal complex, when Nina decides to marry her father-figure Marsden at the end of the play.
