How we cite our quotes: (Name of Play, Act #)
Quote #1
LAVINIA: I've heard that he loved the Canuck nurse girl who was taking care of Father's little sister who died, and had to marry her because she was going to have a baby; and that Grandfather put them both out of the house and then afterwards tore it down and built this one because he wouldn't live where his brother had disgraced the family. But what has that old scandal got to do with--
SETH: Wait. Right after they was throwed out they married and went away. There was talk they'd gone out West, but no one knew nothin' about 'em afterwards--'ceptin' your Grandpaw let out to me one time she'd had the baby--a boy. He was cussin' it. (then impressively) It's about her baby I've been thinkin', Vinnie. (Homecoming, Act 1)
This is our first glimpse into the Puritanical society of the 1800s, where out-of-wedlock sex, especially with someone of a lower social class than you, was considered such a disgrace that people were tossed out of the family without a thought and their memories erased. David Mannon wasn't married at the time; he probably just fell in love with the beautiful, friendly young nursemaid who was caring for his sick little sister. He ended up doing the right thing, but it was too late. He ended up killing himself because of his family's rejection.
Quote #2
LAVINIA: I remember your admiration for the naked native women. You said they had found the secret of happiness because they had never heard that love can be a sin.
BRANT: So you remember that, do you? Aye! And they live in as near the Garden of Paradise before sin was discovered as you'll find on this earth! Unless you've seen it, you can't picture the green beauty of their land set in the blue of the sea! The clouds like down on the mountain tops, the sun drowsing in your blood, and always the surf on the barrier reef singing a croon in your ears like a lullaby! The Blessed Isles, I'd call them! You can forget there all men's dirty dreams of greed and power!
LAVINIA: And their dirty dreams—of love?
BRANT: Why do you say that? What do you mean, Lavinia?
LAVINIA: Nothing. I was only thinking--of your Blessed Isles. (Homecoming, Act 1)
Lavinia lives up to her appearance as a cold, repressed woman with no patience for romance. She shoots down Brant's romantic ideas about sex without guilt. Guilt is where she lives. Brant inherited his mother's more open attitudes, we suppose.
Quote #3
CHRISTINE: No. I loved him once--before I married him--incredible as that seems now! He was handsome in his lieutenant's uniform! He was silent and mysterious and romantic! But marriage soon turned his romance into--disgust!
LAVINIA: So I was born of your disgust! I've always guessed that, Mother--ever since I was little--when I used to come to you--with love--but you would always push me away! I've felt it ever since I can remember--your disgust! (then with a flare-up of bitter hatred) Oh, I hate you! It's only right I should hate you!
CHRISTINE: I tried to love you. I told myself it wasn't human not to love my own child, born of my body. But I never could make myself feel you were born of any body but his! You were always my wedding night to me--and my honeymoon! (Homecoming, Act 2)
Christine's romantic ideas about her handsome lieutenant were dashed on her wedding night. We're spared the gory details, but something happened that turned her off to Ezra forever. She's still a sensual person who's sought out a lover to meet her needs, but there are hints that Ezra just treated her body as an object and that sex was just an animal act for both of them. We're personally grateful we never had to have a conversation like this with our mother.