How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue.
Quote #1
Keller: She thinks he's coming back, Chris. You marry that girl and you're pronouncing him dead. Now what's going to happen to Mother. Do you know? I don't. (1.208)
Joe needs Kate's support. In his effort to sustain a delicate situation, Joe tries to guilt Chris into protecting his mother.
Quote #2
Mother: Everybody was in such a hurry to bury him. I said not to plant it yet. [To Keller] I told you to…! (1.272)
Kate blames Joe for accepting Larry's death too soon – and perhaps for the romance unfolding between Chris and Ann that she's anxious to prevent.
Quote #3
Mother: You above all have got to believe, you…
Keller: [rises] Why me above all?
Mother: …Just don't stop believing…
Keller: What does that mean, me above all? (1.309-312)
Kate doesn't say much, but she says it clearly enough for Joe to understand. He above all has to believe that Larry is still alive, because if Larry is dead, then Joe killed him.
Quote #4
Chris: I felt wrong to be alive, to open the bank-book, to drive the new car, to see the new refrigerator. (1.541)
When he returns from the war, Chris suffers survivor's guilt. This guilt is informed not only by his own experience of war, but by his buried suspicion that his father is a war profiteer.
Quote #5
Keller: It's crazy, but it comes to my mind. She don't hold nothin' against me, does she? (1.573)
With George calling from the prison where his father is held, Joe gets paranoid. Perhaps Ann has come to trap him too? A guilty conscience starts to dampen his good mood.
Quote #6
George: He's a little man. That's what happens to suckers, you know. It's good I went to him in time – another year there'd be nothing left but his smell. (2.225)
This is George's introduction to the topic of "Ann, there's no way in hell you are marrying into this family." George includes Chris in his condemnation of Joe.
Quote #7
Keller: That's the way they do, George. A little man makes a mistake and they hang him by the thumbs; the big ones become ambassadors. (2.411)
Joe tries to deflect George's anger and blame by sympathizing with Steve.
Quote #8
Ann: I'll do nothing about Joe, but you're going to do something for me. You made Chris feel guilty with me. Whether you wanted to or not, you've crippled him in front of me. (3.86)
Ann has her own selfish motivations here. She wants Kate to clear the slate so she can get on to building a life with Chris.
Quote #9
Chris: Yesterday they flew in a load of papers from the States and I read about Dad and your father being convicted. I can't express myself. I can't tell you how I feel – I can't bear to live any more. (3.162)
We learn from his letter that Larry takes the full weight of his father's guilt on himself. As Chris says in an earlier monologue, it's the really brave ones who never made it back from the war.