Act Two
Summary
The back room is prepared for a party and everyone is standing or sitting. The girls are arranging flowers and the cake and presents. All except Hugo seem drunk, and an air of nervousness and irritation pervades the gathering.
Cora, Margie, and Pearl are proud of their work but Rocky grumbles that Hope doesn’t need a cake. They all almost break into a larger fight but Rocky says he isn’t looking for any trouble. The girls, mollified, say they aren’t either.
What also seems to be bugging them is that Hickey has taken Hope's birthday on like it was his own. Rocky grumbles that he is trying to run this dump and everyone in it. The girls agree that he has done that to them too, and Rocky continues, saying Hickey keeps giving people that bull that they have to be honest with themselves and be who they are. This annoys Rocky because he does not think he has a pipe dream. When Pearl and Margie snicker at him, he sharply lashes out at them and then proclaims again that he wishes Hickey had never come.
Chuck and Cora begin to argue about Hickey’s insinuations about their pipe dream of marrying. Cora suggests angrily that Chuck should just do it. Pearl jeers Cora about being a bride and the two almost come to blows before Rocky and Chuck pull them apart. Tensions remain high, though, with Rocky about to call Pearl a whore and exasperatedly asking if she thinks she is a virgin or something.
Cora stands up for Pearl and says to Rocky that he shouldn’t treat them his girls that. Pearl adds that if they are whores then they know what Rocky is. Margie outright announces Rocky is a pimp. He slaps her, then Pearl. Their eyes hard, they say he is only proving their point. Pearl laughs that he is giving up his pipe dream on account of Hickey. Furious and confused, Rocky yells that they must lay off him. When Chuck defends the girls, Rocky goes after him.
Before they can continue, Larry bursts into a laugh. Rocky indignantly demands he say what he is laughing about, and Larry says they’re all watching the Revolution happen around them and it’s because of Hickey. Hugo looks at them and drinks and sings and denounces Larry. He sneers that Hickey is bourgeois swine but his mood changes and becomes wheedling and silly again and calls them all little monkey faces.
Cora uneasily says Hickey has even gotten to Hugo. Larry replies that he told them so. Pearl calls out Larry for thinking he is the exception. Larry evades the assertion and compliments the girls for being beautiful. They relax and embrace Larry.
After a moment they ask about Parritt and he replies he wishes the young man were a thousand miles away.
Rocky claims he will stand up to Hickey if he tries his behavior again. Cora wonders about the iceman gag and if Hickey really caught his wife with him. Rocky retorts that it is bunk and if he had caught her, he’d be incredibly drunk and on a rampage.
Joe enters with a swagger. He complains about having to be a doorman and tell people to keep away. Joe also complains about Hickey and aggressively tells them all that they shouldn’t think he is pretending to be someone he is not or they will have trouble. Chuck moves toward him angrily but Joe relents and says he likes them all but Hickey has messed with his head.
Cora says she understands but that it is still hard to stay mad at Hickey when he is around. Larry broods that Hickey seems to be holding something in, though, and wants to tell them.
At that moment Hickey enters, full of supplies and cheer. He asks for help and everyone, incapable of being mad at him, starts helping. Hickey chuckles at Larry that he heard him talking and that in truth Larry is wrong and he’s not afraid of anything. Larry glowers. Hickey smiles that Larry ought to look at himself and find peace. After the others start to complain, Hickey says he won’t ruin the party and jovially announces he has an exciting surprise. Chuck and Rocky drag in a large amount of champagne. The girls are excited, especially when he says it is mostly for them, but they become sullen when he insinuates they are whores.
Nevertheless, excitement begins to pervade the room again. Joe muses that he will have champagne when he opens his new gambling den. Hickey tries to get Hugo to be honest with himself, but Larry chides that the man spent ten years in prison for his faith and should be left to his dream.
Hickey blinks in surprise and puts his arm companionably around Larry. He explains that he’s seen the light and now has pity; he wants to rid people of the lies that make poor slobs worse off because they feel guilty. He wants the men to find peace and be happy and he knows from experience it’s hard to face yourself in the mirror with “the whiskers off” (101). He encourages Larry to face life and death and not give a damn.
Larry stares at him in wonder and comments that he is going mad and is a liar. Hickey is hurt and asks Larry to simply suspend judgment and give his philosophy a chance. Hickey adds that it is tough because he has the ability to size up guys and see their insides – even kids like Parritt who is licked and has only one way out.
Larry, bemused, asks what he means. Hickey shakes his head. The kid will keep after Larry until Larry helps him; he has to be punished and can’t manage it alone. Larry is skeptical but Hickey insists he knows what he is talking about. Hickey posits that maybe the trouble is about a woman but Larry will give nothing away, only saying the boy lost his faith in the Movement.
Hickey gives him a squeeze and says he will be there when Larry needs him. He then surveys everything for the party. Cora begins to practice on the piano. Willie, sleepy and with haunted eyes, wanders in. The young man says slowly that he is on the wagon and that his room upstairs has frightened him. Tomorrow he is going to get his clothes and visit the D.A.’s office for a job. He says it is thanks to Hickey, but still looks miserable.
Parritt slinks in with a frightened expression. He goes to Larry and tensely tells him Hickey knocked on his door and he wants the man to leave him alone. He wonders why Hickey said that he knows what Parritt is facing. Larry snaps that he doesn’t know what it means, but is concerned when Parritt says Hickey said Larry will have to choose between life and death. Parritt sneers that he has Larry’s number but then apologizes.
He then waxes poetic about how much his mother loved Larry. He insists that he was on Larry’s side when they argued about his Mother’s views on free love vs. Larry’s jealousy. Larry fumes that he never called her a whore but Parritt dreamily goes on about how much he hated his home. Larry keeps yelling at him to stop, and Parritt vacillates between bitterness and feverish begging.
Parritt tries to tell Larry something but the older man won’t hear it. He talks a bit about reading history and how it made him patriotic, but Larry tells him he’s lying. Suddenly Parritt implores Larry to know that he did not mean his Mother to be caught. Anguished, Larry bemoans his life and says all he wants is to be alone. Parritt jeers that he is indeed an old Foolosopher.
Pearl and Margie enter and call out to Parritt. He sits far from them. From the hall come sounds of a scuffle, and Rocky and Chuck come in pulling Wetjoen and Captain Lewis apart. It seems Hickey spoke to them and they fought over each other’s insinuations that the other would never achieve his dream. They stiffly apologize.
Mosher and McGloin enter, talking about how they can’t let Hope take his walk tomorrow. Respectively, they are worried he will talk to Bessie’s’ relatives and get advice not to tolerate them anymore. They also start to bicker and turn against each other. Rocky and Chuck pull them apart.
Finally, everyone settles down long enough for Hope and Jimmy to enter the room. They all burst into “Happy Birthday.” The men are both drunk, Hope appearing pugnacious and Jimmy withdrawn. Hope yells at them that they are too loud and calls out the girls for being “hookers” in a “dollar cathouse” (119). Hickey sternly reproaches him and he looks chagrined and apologizes.
Hope tells Jimmy today is the day for him, but Jimmy does not look at all excited. Hickey is thrilled, though, and tells Jimmy to lay off the booze.
Hope displays mixed feelings, sadly looking at the cake that reminds him of Bessie and grumbling that he doesn’t want presents. When Hickey makes a subtle insinuation about Bessie, Hope retorts that he did truly love her. Hickey says he didn’t say anything and only Hope knows the truth, a comment that confuses Hope.
Jimmy mentions his own former flame Marjorie and Hickey laughs that they all know the story of her romping with another man. Hickey encourages him to remember that he needs to admit she was frustrated with him for getting drunk. For a moment he looks confused, and Larry seizes on this and asks if the iceman gag came home to roost.
Hickey immediately reverts back to his normal jolly self and changes the subject to the champagne. Everyone drinks and Hickey stands to propose a toast, even saying he will drink a bit of champagne. At first they are all pleased, for Hickey toasts to Hope and says what a wonderful friend he is. Their spirits flag, though, when Hickey turns to how this will be the biggest day in Hope’s life.
Rocky growls that he ought to sit down and Hickey amiably agrees and calls for Hope to give a speech. Hope bitterly asserts that today really will be a big day and that “this dump has got to be run like other dumps” (127). He knows that they all think he’s a faker and has his pipe dream but he will show them. After a nervous look around he apologizes for his comments.
Hickey bounds up and goes on about how he has to help them and is damned sorry that he was a busybody. He feels like he knows them all by heart and that he would never go on and on if he didn’t know that in the end this ridding of pipe dreams would be good for them. He concludes fervently that the peace is real.
After Hickey sits down Larry asks if he could actually tell them what is responsible for his conversion. When he mentions the iceman, everyone else’s faces light up vindictively. They throw out taunts and suppositions and sing along to Willie’s dirty “Sailor Lad” ditty.
Hickey remains impassive, smiling, and finally tells them that his poor Evelyn is dead. They gasp in shock and Larry shrinks back with a feeling of superstition. Everyone begins to say they are sorry, but to their surprise Hickey says he is fine and feels no grief. Evelyn went through a lot married to him but now that she is dead she is at peace and he cannot be sad because she never would have wanted him to feel that way. When he stops speaking, he looks out at the sea of incredulous, stunned faces.
Analysis
Act II features the long-awaited Hickey, the sad spectacle of Harry Hope’s birthday party, and clear indications that Hickey’s presence is disrupting the dynamics of the group. In regards to that last point, while the men and women always teased each other, now the teasing has a darker, more judgmental air. The tenuous, mostly unspoken arrangement Rocky and the girls have begins to fray. Chuck and Cora are increasingly offended that people don’t think they will get married. Joe is quick to be offended when the white men utter racist comments, and those white men are quicker to resort to them in the first place. Critic David Aaron Murray notes, “it is precisely in their mutual maintenance of each other’s illusions that they must show one another the greatest compassion. The project of maintaining each other’s pipe dreams makes real communication possible for the characters. The pipe dreams make the characters dependent on one another…” Hickey's changed presence throws off this delicate balance.
Willie, Jimmy, and Hope decide that, based on Hickey’s urging, they will set out into the world to carry out their dreams. For Willie and Jimmy, this means getting dressed and seeking out an old job lost due to the pleasures of whiskey, but for Hope it’s even more fraught: he must step outside after 20 years and take a walk out in the old neighborhood among people he once knew, and consider getting back into local politics. Because Hope is so beloved by the men, his growing discomfort, irritability, and anxiety are very disconcerting to the group. More than once Larry bitterly tells Hickey to leave Hope alone.
Hickey simply cannot do this, of course. He cheerfully views himself as a savior of sorts, come to release the men from the putative pain of their clinging to useless pipe dreams. And, interestingly, Hickey is actually quite insightful as to what plagues them. He brags, “I can size up guys, and turn ‘em inside out, better than I ever could. Even when they're strangers like that Parritt kid” (102). He adds, “I’ve had hell inside me. I can spot it in others” (103). Hickey’s right about Parritt and he’s right about Larry, who certainly does have a pipe dream he can’t immediately grasp. However, where Hickey goes wrong is that the men might not be better off if they discard such dreams.
Of all the characters Hugo may be the most enigmatic. O’Neill provides a physical description and the fact of his spending ten years in prison for his role in the anarchist Movement, but other than that we don’t know much about him. When he wakes up from his naps he speaks in near-riddles, wheedling and laughing and mocking before slumping right back into slumber. One of his frequent comments is about the willow tree. He giggles, “Ve vill trink vine beneath the villow trees!” (101), and in Act I he said at least twice, “The days grow hot, O Babylon! ‘Tis cool beneath thy villow trees!” (32). By the end of Act III, though, he is frightened and murmuring, “Always there is blood beneath the villow trees! I hate it and I am afraid!” (176). The quote has been traced to the German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath’s 1850 poem “Die Revolution.” Freiligrath was a romantic and a radical; he commended the 1848 Revolution, was jailed for subversion and later freed, and eventually escaped to London to avoid persecution. He is an apt figure for Hugo to quote, but as Hugo begins to fear what Hickey is doing, the imagery of the willow tree becomes more terrifying.
In his Critical Companion to Eugene O’Neill, Robert Dowling references the work of another scholar, Stephen A. Black, who uses psychology to explain what is going on with the characters. They have created “intrapsychic defenses” that allow them to create an internal defense against “thoughts and feelings that threaten their psychic equilibrium.” These defenses help the characters deal with the nightmare that is living. While some people may be better able to deal with their stressors, “O’Neill shows that it is only a matter of degree.” For even if their pipe dreams remain unfulfilled, they are the difference between hope and despair.
