From Here to Eternity Scene 4 Summary

  • Warden and Karen go to the beach, stripping down to their bathing suits and then jumping into the waves.
  • Back at the New Congress Club, Prewitt continues sulking. Lorene comes back and they argue over Prewitt's behavior. He admits he was jealous, and things calm down.
  • Lorene invites him upstairs to hang out and have a drink. He accepts.
  • As a wave crashes on the beach, Karen and Warden make out in the surf (the famous scene).
  • Back on their beach towel, Karen says Warden's a good kisser. But Warden acts jealous, and asks her angrily about the other men she's had affairs with.
  • Karen explains that her husband is a serial adulterer and that she's just been seeing other men because her marriage is so terrible.
  • She tells him about how, when she was pregnant, her husband once got drunk after being out with another woman.
  • He passed out, failed to get her medical attention, and she gave birth to a stillborn baby and lost the ability to have children.
  • Warden apologizes and they confess their love for each other.
  • Back at the New Congress Club, Lorene tells Prewitt about her life. She says she was dating a guy who left her for a more high status woman in her home state, Oregon. After that, she came out to work in Hawaii.
  • Maggio comes in bringing a bottle of whiskey. He gives some to Prewitt, but Lorene doesn't drink. Maggio chats and leaves.
  • Lorene asks Prewitt about "The Treatment" and he explains how the other guys have been bullying him.
  • He also tells her about how he accidentally blinded his friend, Dixie Wells, in the ring. She empathizes.