When cheating (and even just love in general) is involved, jealousy is often not too very far away. That's definitely the case in Fool for Love. With all the deep, complicated feelings May and Eddie have for each other comes a metric ton of crazy jealousy.
At first, it seems like May is the main victim of the green-eyed monster—and she has reason to be. Eddie carried on a long affair with someone called the Countess, leaving May for her and then returning over and over again. Then Eddie, for his part, gets pretty ruffled when he finds out May has moved on (after his most recent departure) and starts threatening to beat up her new beau. That definitely looks like jealousy to us, even if he denies it.
Questions About Jealousy
- Why does Eddie pretend that he's not jealous of Martin, when he clearly is?
- Do you think May's jealousy is reasonable, given her circumstances/past with Eddie? Or is she a little off the rails? What about Eddie?
- Is jealousy portrayed as natural? Poisonous? Both?
Chew on This
May's jealousy seems a bit extreme at first, but ultimately you realize that all her "crazy" behavior is totally reasonable, given her history with Eddie.
All the jealous behavior is how we know everyone in the play is totally nuts.