"Come my darling, close the window. There's a bad smell from that stagnant water, and besides the mosquitoes are coming in."
The opening lines of the play suggest the problems looming over the characters. The line about closing the window immediately foreshadows that the play will end with one or both of them leaping out of it. The stagnant water and mosquitos imply the state of the couple's relationship as well as the mediocrity of the man's career. The foreboding quality of these lines sets up the mood of the play, revealing the characters to be trapped in an untenable situation that will only end with their deaths.
"I have a message, that's God's truth, I struggle, a mission, I have something to say, a message to communicate to humanity, to mankind..."
In this moment, the man is describing what he views as his life's mission. Having had a fairly unremarkable career, he hopes to redeem himself with this message that he expects to fundamentally change humanity. The hyperbolic tone that he uses to describe his message provides a sense of his absurd self-importance. Likewise, the vagueness of its content gives the reader the distinct feeling that the message will never be able to live up to the standards he has set for it and may not contain anything coherent at all.
"Again? ... I'm sick of it... 'Then at last we arrived?' That again... you always ask for the same thing! … 'Then at last we arrived...' But it’s monotonous... For all of the seventy-five years that we've been married, every single evening, absolutely every blessed evening, you've made me tell the same story, you've made me imitate the same people, the same months... always the same... let's talk about something else..."
In this moment, the man captures both the continued stagnation of their relationship as well as the stale quality of their communication. The man expresses his desire to stop repeating the same story over and over about their arrival at a garden in Paris. The exasperation in his voice gives a sense of how intensely routine this story has become, as the woman asks him to retell it every single evening, taking particular relish in one specific phrase. His intense frustration shows that this repetition has become dull and tiresome to him.
“Come on now, imitate the month of February.”
This strange line gives the impression that the couple has moved far away from the use of concrete language to refer to different things. In asking the man to perform the "month of February," the woman is giving him a task that he cannot actually complete, as it is too large and abstract for him to manage. Later, when he attempts a strange imitation of the month by scratching his head, his action still implies failure and absurdity. This relates to the novel's larger ideas about language and failure, as it shows how overwhelmingly complex certain words and ideas are, like the month of February.
"It's really he, he exists. In flesh and blood."
Despite expecting the orator to arrive and speak, the old woman and man are both shocked when he actually appears. Unlike the other guests, who are invisible, the orator is physically present. The woman's surprise gives the interesting suggestion that she never really expected the orator to show up. Similarly, it also implies that the other guests may not actually be real, even though the couple has been speaking to them all evening. Finally, it is made all the more strange because the orator does not interact with the couple, even though he is technically "flesh and blood."
"He, mme, mm, mm. Ju, gou, hou, hou. Heu, heu, gu gou, gueue."
This moment is the play's climax, when the orator finally delivers the old man's message to the audience. When the orator speaks, all of his comments come out as incomprehensible gibberish, as he is both deaf and mute. This fits the play's overall absurdity and dark humor, as the culmination of the old man's life and work is rendered as meaningless sounds. It is the ultimate failure of communication in the play; the man's central message is presented in a way that no one can understand, meaning his work has all been for nothing.
"Not for you, you're not like other people, you are much greater, and moreover you'd have done much better if you had got along with other people, like other people do. You've quarreled with all your friends, with all the directors, with all the generals, with your own brother."
In this scene, the old woman says that the man might have been more successful if he had been better able to get along with the people in his life. She says that he has had difficulties with all of the figures of power in his life, as well as his own family. These comments seem to both support and undermine her previous remarks about his potential for a great career. On the one hand, it gives the sense that had he been more agreeable, it may have been easier for him to be promoted. On the other hand, it is a departure in tone from her previous comments, and shows her actually criticizing his behavior. On the whole what it seems to say about the old man is that he has always been opinionated and difficult, stuck in his perspective about things.
"Hi, hi, hi! My mamma! Where is my mamma? I don't have a mamma anymore."
In this moment, the old man is addressing his wife in strange, childish language. His repetition of the word mamma, as well as the initial repetition of the word hi, suggest that he has regressed into the psychological state of a baby or child. This characterizes the bizarre nature of his relationship with his wife, as he seeks parental validation and comfort from her. It also shows yet another breakdown in language, as he is not actually able to verbalize his needs and is instead forced to pretend to be a child to get the emotional support he wants from the old woman.
"Will you be my Isolde and let me be your Tristan? Beauty is more than skin deep, it's in the heart... Do you understand? We could have had the pleasure of sharing, joy, beauty, eternity... an eternity... Why didn't we dare? We weren't brave enough... Everything is lost, lost, lost."
In this scene, the old man is addressing Madame Belle, one of the invisible guests. It is suggested that they had a love affair at some point and that the old man still holds unrequited feelings for her. These comments have a wildly dramatic tone and focus on the idea of their relationship as being part of some lost or negated life they could have had together. The final repetition of the word lost gives the strong feeling that there is no hope for this relationship or for the man's ability to connect with other people.
"I want to see... move aside... I want... the celestial gaze, the noble face, the crown, the radiance of His Majesty... Sire, deign to turn your illustrious face in my direction, toward your humble servant... so humble...Oh! I caught sight of him clearly that time... I caught sight..."
Here, the man is describing the emperor, who is invisible to the audience, with fawning devotion. His lengthy compliments show his intense admiration for the emperor. His word choice shows that he is obsessed with the emperor's status and tries to use his compliments to ingratiate himself with powerful people. The dramatic tone of his language also shows how all of his efforts have been geared towards impressing the emperor and the other nobles and that this speech is not just an attempt to communicate something meaningful but also to establish his status in this strange world.
