ACT 1, SCENE i
SCENE ONE
The YOUNGER living room would be a comfortable and
well-ordered room if it were not for a number of inde-
structible contradictions to this state of being. Its furnish-
ings are typical and undistinguished and their primary
feature now is that they have clearly had to accommodate
the living of too many people for too many years and
they are tired. Still, we can see that at some time, a time
probably no longer remembered by the family {except
perhaps for MAMA), the furnishings of this room were
actually selected with care and love and even hope and
brought to this apartment and arranged with taste and
pride.
That was a long time ago. Now the once loved pattern
of the couch upholstery has to fight to show itself from
under acres of crocheted doilies and couch covers which
have themselves finally come to be more important than
the upholstery. And here a table or a chair has been
moved to disguise the worn places in the carpet; but the
carpet has fought back by showing its weariness, with
depressing uniformity, elsewhere on its surface.
Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything
has been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too
often. All pretenses but living itself have long since van-
ished from the very atmosphere of this room.
Moreover, a section of this room, for it is not really a
room unto itself, though the landlord's lease would make
it seem so, slopes backward to provide a small kitchen
area, where the family prepares the meals that are eaten
in the living room proper, which must also serve as dining
room. The single window that has been provided for these
"two" rooms is located in this kitchen area. The sole
natural light the family may enjoy in the course of a day is
only that which fights its way through this little window.
At left, a door leads to a bedroom which is shared by
MAMA and her daughter, BENEATHA. At right, opposite, is
a second room (which in the beginning of the life of this
apartment was probably a breakfast room) which serves
as a bedroom for WALTER and his wife, RUTH.
Time: Sometime between World War II and the present.
Place: Chicago's Southside.
At Rise: It is morning dark in the living room. TRAVIS
is asleep on the make-down bed at center. An alarm clock
sounds from within the bedroom at right, and presently
RUTH enters from that room and closes the door behind
her. She crosses sleepily toward the window. As she passes
her sleeping son she reaches down and shakes him a little.
At the window she raises the shade and a dusky Southside
morning light comes in feebly. She fills a pot with water
and puts it on to boil. She calls to the boy, between yawns,
in a slightly muffled voice.
RUTH is about thirty. We can see that she was a pretty
girl, even exceptionally so, but now it is apparent that
life has been little that she expected, and disappointment
has already begun to hang in her face. In a few years, be-
fore thirty-five even, she will be known among her people
as a "settled woman"
She crosses to her son and gives him a good, final,
rousing shake.
RUTH Come on now, boy, it's seven thirty! (Her son sits
up at last, in a stupor of sleepiness) I say hurry up,
Travis! You ain't the only person in the world got to
use a bathroom! (The child, a sturdy, handsome little
boy of ten or eleven, drags himself out of the bed and
almost blindly takes his towels and "today's clothes"
from drawers and a closet and goes out to the bath-
room, which is in an outside hall and which is shared
by another family or families on the same floor. RUTH
crosses to the bedroom door at right and opens it and
calls in to her husband) Walter Lee! . . . It's after seven
thirty! Lemme see you do some waking up in there
now! (She waits) You better get up from there, man!
It's after seven thirty I tell you. (She waits again) All
right, you just go ahead and lay there and next thing
you know Travis be finished and Mr. Johnson'll be in
there and yo.u'll be fussing and cussing round here like
a madman! And be late too! (She waits, at the end of
patience) Walter Lee it's time for you to GET UP!
(She waits another second and then starts to go
into the bedroom, but is apparently satisfied that
her husband has begun to get up. She stops, pulls
the door to, and returns to the kitchen area. She
wipes her face with a moist cloth and runs her
fingers through her sleep-disheveled hair in a vain
effort and ties an apron around her housecoat. The
bedroom door at right opens and her husband
stands in the doorway in his pajamas, which are
rumpled and mismated. He is a lean, intense young
man in his middle thirties, inclined to quick nervous
movements and erratic speech habits and always
in his voice there is a quality of indictment)
WALTER Is he out yet?
RUTH What you mean out? He ain't hardly got in there
good yet.
WALTER (Wandering in, still more oriented to sleep than
to a new day) Well, what was you doing all that
yelling for if I can't even get in there yet? (Stopping and
thinking) Check coming today?
RUTH They said Saturday and this is just Friday and I
hopes to God you ain't going to get up here first thing
this morning and start talking to me 'bout no money
'cause I 'bout don't want to hear it.
WALTER Something the matter with you this morning?
RUTH No I'm just sleepy as the devil. What kind of
eggs you want?
WALTER Not scrambled. (RUTH starts to scramble eggs)
Paper come? (RUTH points impatiently to the rolled up
Tribune on the table, and he gets it and spreads it out
and vaguely reads the front page) Set off another bomb
yesterday.
RUTH (Maximum indifference) Did they?
WALTER (Looking up) What's the matter with you?
RUTH Ain't nothing the matter with me. And don't keep
asking me that this morning.
WALTER Ain't nobody bothering you. (Reading the news
of the day absently again) Say Colonel McCormick
is sick.
RUTH (Affecting tea-party interest) Is he now? Poor
thing.
WALTER (Sighing and looking at his watch) Oh, me.
(He waits) Now what is that boy doing in that bathroom
all this time? He just going to have to start getting up
earlier. I can't be being late to work on account of
him fooling around in there.
RUTH (Turning on him) Oh, no he ain't going to be get-
ting up no earlier no such thing! It ain't his fault that
he can't get to bed no earlier nights 'cause he got a
bunch of crazy good-for-nothing clowns sitting up run-
ning their mouths in what is supposed to be his bed-
room after ten o'clock at night . . .
WALTER That's what you mad about, ain't it? The things
I want to talk about .with my friends just couldn't be
important in your mind, could they?
(He rises and finds a cigarette in her handbag on
the table and crosses to the little window and looks
out, smoking and deeply enjoying this first one)
RUTH (Almost matter of factly, a complaint too automatic
to deserve emphasis) Why you always got to smoke
before you eat in the morning?
WALTER (At the window) Just look at 'em down there
. . . Running and racing to work . . . (He turns and
faces his wife and watches her a moment at the stove,
and then, suddenly) You look young this morning, baby.
RUTH (Indifferently) Yeah?
WALTER Just for a second stirring them eggs. Just for
a second it was you looked real young again. (He
reaches for her; she crosses away. Then, drily) It's gone
now you look like yourself again!
RUTH Man, if you don't shut up and leave me alone.
WALTER (Looking out to the street again) First thing
a man ought to learn in life is not to make love to no
colored woman first thing in the morning. You all some
eeeevil people at eight o'clock in the morning.
(TRAVIS appears in the hall doorway, almost fully
dressed and quite wide awake now, his towels and
pajamas across his shoulders. He opens the door
and signals for his father to make the bathroom
in a hurry)
TRAVIS (Watching the bathroom) Daddy, come on!
(WALTER gets his bathroom utensils and flies out
to the bathroom)
RUTH Sit down and have your breakfast, Travis.
TRAVIS Mama, this is Friday. (Gleefully) Check coming
tomorrow, huh?
RUTH You get your mind off money and eat your
breakfast.
TRAVIS (Eating) This is the morning we supposed to
bring the fifty cents to school.
RUTH Well, I ain't got no fifty cents this morning.
TRAVIS Teacher say we have to.
RUTH I don't care what teacher say. I ain't got it. Eat
your breakfast, Travis.
TRAVIS I am eating.
RUTH Hush up now and just eat!
(The boy gives her an exasperated look for her
lack of understanding, and eats grudgingly)
TRAVIS You think Grandmama would have it?
RUTH No! And I want you to stop asking your grand-
mother for money, you hear me?
TRAVIS (Outraged) Gaaaleee! I don't ask her, she just
gimme it sometimes!
RUTH Travis Willard Younger I got too much on me
this morning to be
TRAVIS Maybe Daddy
RUTH Travis!
(The boy hushes abruptly. They are both quiet and
tense for several seconds)
TRAVIS (Presently) Could I maybe go carry some gro-
ceries in front of the supermarket for a little while
after school then?
RUTH Just hush, I said. (Travis jabs his spoon into his
cereal bowl viciously, and rests his head in anger upon
his fists) If you through eating, you can get over there
and make up your bed.
(The boy obeys stiffly and crosses the room, al-
most mechanically, to the bed and more or less
folds the bedding into a heap, then angrily gets his
books and cap)
TRAVIS (Sulking and standing apart from her unnaturally)
I'm gone.
RUTH (Looking up from the stove to inspect him auto-
matically) Come here. (He crosses to her and she
studies his head) If you don't take this comb and fix
this here head, you better! (TRAVIS puts down his books
with a great sigh of oppression, and crosses to the
mirror. His mother mutters under her breath about his
"slubbornness") 'Bout to march out of here with that
head looking just like chickens slept in it! I just don't
know where you get your slubborn ways . . , And get
your jacket, too. Looks chilly out this morning.
TRAVIS (With conspicuously brushed hair and jacket) Tm
gone.
RUTH Get carfare and milk money (Waving one finger)
and not a single penny for no caps, you hear me?
TRAVIS (With sullen politeness) Yes'm.
(He turns in outrage to leave. His mother -watches
after him as in his frustration he approaches the
door almost comically. When she speaks to him,
her voice has become a very gentle tease)
RUTH (Mocking; as she thinks he would say it) Oh,
Mama makes me so mad sometimes, I don't know
what to do! (She waits and continues to his back as he
stands stock-still in front of the door) I wouldn't kiss
that woman good-bye for nothing in this world this
morning! (The boy finally turns around and rolls his
eyes at her, knowing the mood has changed and he is
vindicated; he does not, however, move toward her yet)
Not for nothing in this world! (She finally laughs aloud
at him and holds out her arms to him and we see that
it is a way between them, very old and practiced. He
crosses to her and allows her to embrace him warmly
but keeps his face fixed with masculine rigidity. She
holds him back from her presently and looks at him
and runs her fingers over the features of his face. With
utter gentleness ) Now whose little old angry man
are you?
TRAVIS (The masculinity and gruff ness start to jade at
last) Aw gaalee Mama ...
RUTH (Mimicking) Aw gaaaaalleeeee, Mama! (She
pushes him, with rough playfulness and finality, toward
the door) Get on out of here or you going to be late.
TRAVIS (In the face of love, new aggressiveness) Mama,
could I please go carry groceries?
RUTH Honey, it's starting to get so cold evenings.
WALTER (Coming in from the bathroom and drawing a
make-believe gun from a make-believe holster and
shooting at his son) What is it he wants to do?
RUTH Go carry groceries after school at the supermarket.
WALTER Well, let him go ...
TRAVIS (Quickly, to the ally) I have to she won't gimme
the fifty cents . . .
WALTER (To his wife only) Why not?
RUTH (Simply, and with flavor) 'Cause we don't have it.
WALTER (To RUTH only) What you tell the boy things
like that for? (Reaching down into his pants with a
rather important gesture) Here, son
(He hands the boy the coin, but his eyes are di-
rected to his wife's. TRAVIS takes the money hap-
pily)
TRAVIS Thanks, Daddy.
(He starts out. RUTH watches both of them with
murder in her eyes. WALTER stands and stares
back at her with defiance, and suddenly reaches
into his pocket again on an afterthought)
WALTER (Without even looking at his son, still staring
hard at his wife) In fact, here's another fifty cents . . .
Buy yourself some fruit today or take a taxicab to
school or something!
TRAVIS Whoopee
(He leaps up and clasps his father around the
middle with his legs, and they face each other in
mutual appreciation; slowly WALTER LEE peeks
around the boy to catch the violent rays from his
wife's eyes and draws his head back as if shot)
WALTER You better get down now and get to school,
man.
TRAVIS (At the door) O.K. Good-bye.
(He exits)
WALTER (After him, pointing with pride) That's my boy.
(She looks at him in disgust and turns back to her
work) You know what I was thinking 'bout in the bath-
room this morning?
RUTH No.
WALTER How come you always try to be so pleasant!
RUTH What is there to be pleasant 'bout!
WALTER You want to know what I was thinking 'bout
in the bathroom or not!
RUTH I know what you thinking 'bout.
WALTER (Ignoring her) 'Bout what me and Willy Harris
was talking about last night.
RUTH (Immediately a refrain) Willy Harris is a good-
for-nothing loudmouth.
WALTER Anybody who talks to me has got to be a
good-for-nothing loudmouth, ain't he? And what you
know about who is just a good-for-nothing loudmouth?
Charlie Atkins was just a "good-for-nothing loud-
mouth" too, wasn't he! When he wanted me to go in
the dry-cleaning business with him. And now he's
grossing a hundred thousand a year. A hundred thou-
sand dollars a year! You still call him a loudmouth!
RUTH (Bitterly) Oh, Walter Lee . . .
(She folds her head on her arms over the table)
WALTER (Rising and coming to her and standing over her)
You tired, ain't you? Tired of everything. Me, the boy,
the way we live this beat-up hole everything. Ain't
you? (She doesn't look up, doesn't answer) So tired
moaning and groaning all the time, but you wouldn't do
nothing to help, would you? You couldn't be on my side
that long for nothing, could you?
RUTH Walter, please leave me alone.
WALTER A man needs for a woman to back him up , . .
RUTH Walter
WALTER Mama would listen to you. You know she listen
to you more than she do me and Bennie. She think
more of you. All you have to do is just sit down with
her when you drinking your coffee one morning and
talking 'bout things like you do and (He sits down be-
side her and demonstrates graphically what he thinks her
methods and tone should be) you just sip your coffee,
see, and say easy like that you been thinking 'bout that
deal Walter Lee is so interested in, 'bout the store and
all, and sip some more coffee, like what you saying ain't
really that important to you And the next thing you
know, she be listening good and asking you questions
and when I come home I can tell her the details. This
ain't no fly-by-night proposition, baby. I mean we
figured it out, me and Willy and Bobo.
RUTH ( With a frown ) Bobo?
WALTER Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in
mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the
initial investment on the place be 'bout thirty thousand,
see. That be ten thousand each. Course, there's a couple
of hundred you got to pay so's you don't spend your
life just waiting for them clowns to let your license get
approved
RUTH You mean graft?
WALTER (Frowning impatiently) Don't call it that. See
there, that just goes to show you what women under-
stand about the world. Baby, don't nothing happen
for you in this world 'less you pay somebody off!
RUTH Walter, leave me alone! (She raises her head and
stares at him vigorously then says, more quietly) Eat
your eggs, they gonna be cold.
WALTER (Straightening up from her and looking off)
That's it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got
me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. (Sadly,
but gaining in power) Man say: I got to take hold of
this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your
eggs and go to work. (Passionately now) Man say: I
got to change my life, I'm choking to death, baby! And
his woman say (In utter anguish as he brings his fists
down on his thighs) Your eggs is getting cold!
RUTH (Softly) Walter, that ain't none of our money.
WALTER (Not listening at all or even looking at her) This
morning, I was lookin' in the mirror and thinking about
it ... I'm thirty-five years old; I been married eleven
years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room
(Very, very quietly) and all I got to give him is stories
about how rich white people live . . .
RUTH Eat your eggs, Walter.
WALTER (Slams the table and jumps up) DAMN MY
EGGS DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS!
RUTH Then go to work.
WALTER (Looking up at her) See I'm trying to talk to
you 'bout myself (Shaking his head with the repetition)
and all you can say is eat them eggs and go to work.
RUTH (Wearily) Honey, you never say nothing new. I
listen to you every day, every night and every morning,
and you never say nothing new. (Shrugging) So you
would rather be Mr. Arnold than be his chauffeur. So
I would rather be living in Buckingham Palace.
WALTER That is just what is wrong with the colored
woman in this world . . . Don't understand about build-
ing their men up and making 'em feel like they some-
body. Like they can do something.
RUTH (Drily, but to hurt) There are colored men who do
things.
WALTER No thanks to the colored woman.
RUTH Well, being a colored woman, I guess I can't help
myself none.
(She rises and gets the ironing board and sets it
up and attacks a huge pile of rough-dried clothes,
sprinkling them in preparation for the ironing and
then rolling them into tight fat balls)
WALTER (Mumbling) We one group of men tied to a race
of women with small minds!
(His sister BENEATHA enters. She is about twenty,
as slim and intense as her brother. She is not as
pretty as her sister-in-law, but her lean, almost
intellectual face has a handsomeness of its own.
She wears a bright-red flannel nightie, and her
thick hair stands wildly about her head. Her speech
is a mixture of many things; it is different from the
rest of the family's insofar as education has per-
meated her sense of English and perhaps the
Midwest rather than the South has finally at last
won out in her inflection; but not altogether, be-
cause over all of it is a soft slurring and trans-
formed use of vowels which is the decided influ-
ence of the Southside. She passes through the
room without looking at either RUTH or WALTER
and goes to the outside door and looks, a little
blindly, out to the bathroom. She sees that it has
been lost to the Johnsons. She closes the door with
a sleepy vengeance and crosses to the table and sits
down a little defeated)
BENEATHA I am going to start timing those people.
WALTER You should get up earlier.
BENEATHA (Her face in her hands. She is still fighting the
urge to go back to bed) Really would you suggest
dawn? Where's the paper?
WALTER (Pushing the paper across the table to her as he
studies her almost clinically, as though he has never
seen her before) You a horrible-looking chick at this
hour.
BENEATHA (Drily) Good morning, everybody.
WALTER (Senselessly) How is school coming?
BENEATHA (In the same spirit) Lovely. Lovely. And
you know, biology is the greatest. (Looking up at him)
I dissected something that looked just like you yes-
terday.
WALTER I just wondered if you've made up your mind
and everything.
BENEATHA (Gaining in sharpness and impatience) And
what did I answer yesterday morning and the day
before that?
RUTH (From the ironing board, like someone disinterested
and old) Don't be so nasty, Bennie.
BENEATHA (Still to her brother) And the day before that
and the day before that!
WALTER (Defensively) I'm interested in you. Something
wrong with that? Ain't many girls who decide
WALTER and BENEATHA (In unison) "to be a doctor."
(Silence)
WALTER Have we figured out yet just exactly how much
medical school is going to cost?
RUTH Walter Lee, why don't you leave that girl alone
and get out of here to work?
BENEATHA (Exits to the bathroom and bangs on the door)
Come on out of there, please!
(She comes back into the room)
WALTER (Looking at his sister intently) You know the
check is coming tomorrow.
BENEATHA (Turning on him with a sharpness all her own)
That money belongs to Mama, Walter, and it's for her
to decide how she wants to use it. I don't care if she
wants to buy a house or a rocket ship or just nail it up
somewhere and look at it. It's hers. Not ours hers.
WALTER (Bitterly) Now ain't that fine! You just got your
mother's interest at heart, ain't you, girl? You such a
nice girl but if Mama got that money she can always
take a few thousand and help you through school too
can't she?
BENEATHA I have never asked anyone around here to do
anything for me!
WALTER No! And the line between asking and just ac-
cepting when the time comes is big and wide ain't it!
BENEATHA (With jury) What do you want from me,
Brother that I quit school or just drop dead, which!
WALTER I don't want nothing but for you to stop acting
holy 'round here. Me and Ruth done made some sacri-
fices for you why can't you do something for the
family?
RUTH Walter, don't be dragging me in it.
WALTER You are in it Don't you get up and go work
in somebody's kitchen for the last three years to help
put clothes on her back?
RUTH Oh, Walter that's not fair . . .
WALTER It ain't that nobody expects you to get on your
knees and say thank you, Brother; thank you, Ruth;
thank you, Mama and thank you, Travis, for wearing
the same pair of shoes for two semesters
BENEATHA (Dropping to her knees) Well I do all
right? thank everybody! And forgive me for ever
wanting to be anything at all! (Pursuing him on her
knees across the floor) FORGIVE ME, FORGIVE
ME, FORGIVE ME!
RUTH Please stop it! Your mama'll hear you.
WALTER Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor?
If you so crazy 'bout messing 'round with sick people
then go be a nurse like other women or just get
married and be quiet . . .
BENEATHA Well you finally got it said ... It took you
three years but you finally got it said. Walter, give up;
leave me alone it's Mama's money.
WALTER He was my father, too!
BENEATHA So what? He was mine, too and Travis'
grandfather but the insurance money belongs to
Mama. Picking on me is not going to make her give it
to you to invest in any liquor stores (Underbreath,
dropping into a chair) and I for one say, God bless
Mama for that!
WALTER (To RUTH) See did you hear? Did you hear!
RUTH Honey, please go to work.
WALTER Nobody in this house is ever going to under-
stand me.
BENEATHA Because you're a nut.
WALTER Who's a nut?
BENEATHA You you are a nut. Thee is mad, boy.
WALTER (Looking at his wife and his sister from the door,
very sadly) The world's most backward race of peo-
ple, and that's a fact.
BENEATHA (Turning slowly in her chair) And then there
are all those prophets who would lead us out of the
wilderness (WALTER slams out of the house) into
the swamps!
RUTH Bennie, why you always gotta be pickin' on your
brother? Can't you be a little sweeter sometimes? (Door
opens. WALTER walks in. He fumbles with his cap, starts
to speak, clears throat, looks everywhere but at RUTH.
Finally:)
WALTER (To RUTH) I need some money for carfare.
RUTH (Looks at him, then warms; teasing, but tenderly)
Fifty cents? (She goes to her bag and gets money)
Here take a taxi!
(WALTER exits. MAMA enters. She is a woman in
her early sixties, full-bodied and strong. She is
one of those women of a certain grace and beauty
who wear it so unobtrusively that it takes a while
to notice. Her dark-brown face is surrounded by
the total whiteness of her hair, and, being a woman
who has adjusted to many things in life and over-
come many more, her face is full of strength. She
has, we can see, wit and faith of a kind that keep
her eyes lit and full of interest and expectancy.
She is, in a word, a beautiful woman. Her bearing
is perhaps most like the noble bearing of the
women of the Hereros of Southwest Africa
rather as if she imagines that as she walks she still
bears a basket or a vessel upon her head. Her
speech, on the other hand, is as careless as her car-
riage is precise she is inclined to slur everything
but her voice is perhaps not so much quiet as
simply soft)
MAMA Who that 'round here slamming doors at this
hour?
(See crosses through the room, goes to the win-
dow, opens it, and brings in a feeble little plant
growing doggedly in a small pot on the window
sill. She feels the dirt and puts it back out)
RUTH That was Walter Lee. He and Bennie was at it
again.
MAMA My children and they tempers. Lord, if this little
old plant don't get more sun than it's been getting it
ain't never going to see spring again. (She turns from
the window) What's the matter with you this morning,
Ruth? You looks right peaked. You aiming to iron all
them things? Leave some for me. I'll get to 'em this
afternoon. Bennie honey, it's too drafty for you to be
sitting 'round half dressed. Where's your robe?
BENEATHA In the cleaners.
MAMA Well, go get mine and put it on.
BENEATHA I'm not cold, Mama, honest.
MAMA I know but you so thin . . .
BENEATHA (Irritably) Mama, I'm not cold.
MAMA (Seeing the make-down bed as TRAVIS has left it)
Lord have mercy, look at that poor bed. Bless his
heart he tries, don't he?
(She moves to the bed TRAVIS has sloppily made
up)
RUTH No he don't half try at all 'cause he knows you
going to come along behind him and fix everything.
That's just how come he don't know how to do nothing
right now you done spoiled that boy so.
MAMA (Folding bedding) Well he's a little boy* Ain't
supposed to know 'bout housekeeping. My baby, that's
what he is. What you fix for his breakfast this morning?
RUTH (Angrily) I feed my son, Lena!
MAMA I ain't meddling (Underbreath; busy-bodyish)
I just noticed all last week he had cold cereal, and
when it starts getting this chilly in the fall a child ought
to have some hot grits or something when he goes out
in the cold
RUTH (Furious) I gave him hot oats is that all right!
MAMA I ain't meddling. (Pause) Put a lot of nice butter
on it? (RUTH shoots her an angry look and does not
reply) He likes lots of butter.
RUTH (Exasperated) Lena
MAMA (To BENEATHA. MAMA is inclined to wander con-
versationally sometimes) What was you and your
brother fussing 'bout this morning?
BENEATHA It* s not important, Mama.
(She gets up and goes to look out at the bath-
room, which is apparently free, and she picks up
her towels and rushes out)
MAMA What was they fighting about?
RUTH Now you know as well as I do.
MAMA (Shaking her head) Brother still worrying his-
self sick about that money?
RUTH You know he is.
MAMA You had breakfast?
RUTH Some coffee.
MAMA Girl, you better start eating and looking after
yourself better. You almost thin as Travis.
RUTH Lena
MAMA Un-hunh?
RUTH What are you going to do with it?
MAMA Now don't you start, child. It's too early in the
morning to be talking about money. It ain't Christian.
RUTH It's just that he got his heart set on that store
MAMA You mean that liquor store that Willy Harris
want him to invest in?
RUTH Yes
MAMA We ain't no business people, Ruth. We just plain
working folks.
RUTH Ain't nobody business people till they go into
business. Walter Lee say colored people ain't never
going to start getting ahead till they start gambling on
some different kinds of things in the world investments
and things.
MAMA What done got into you, girl? Walter Lee done
finally sold you on investing.
RUTH No. Mama, something is happening between
Walter and me. I don't know what it is but he needs
something something I can't give him any more. He
needs this chance, Lena.
MAMA (Frowning deeply) But liquor, honey
RUTH Well like Walter say I spec people going to al-
ways be drinking themselves some liquor.
MAMA Well whether they drinks it or not ain't none of
my business. But whether I go into business selling it
to 'em is, and I don't want that on my ledger this late
in life. (Stopping suddenly and studying her daughter-
in-law} Ruth Younger, what's the matter with you to-
day? You look like you could fall over right there.
RUTH I'm tired.
MAMA Then you better stay home from work today,
RUTH I can't stay home. She'd be calling up the agency
and screaming at them, "My girl didn't come in today
send me somebody! My girl didn't come in!" Oh, she
just have a fit ...
MAMA Well, let her have it. I'll just call her up and say
you got the flu
RUTH (Laughing) Why the flu?
MAMA 'Cause it sounds respectable to 'em. Something
white people get, too. They know 'bout the flu. Other-
wise they think you been cut up or something when you
tell 'em you sick.
RUTH I got to go in. We need the money.
MAMA Somebody would of thought my children done all
but starved to death the way they talk about money
here late. Child, we got a great big old check coming
tomorrow.
RUTH (Sincerely, but also self-righteously) Now that's
your money. It ain't got nothing to do with me. We all
feel like that Walter and Bennie and me even Travis.
MAMA (Thoughtfully, and suddenly very far away) Ten
thousand dollars
RUTH Sure is wonderful.
MAMA Ten thousand dollars.
RUTH You know what you should do, Miss Lena? You
should take yourself a trip somewhere. To Europe or
South America or someplace
MAMA (Throwing up her hands at the thought) Oh,
child!
RUTH I'm serious. Just pack up and leave! Go on away
and enjoy yourself some. Forget about the family and
have yourself a ball for once in your life
MAMA (Drily) You sound like I'm just about ready to
die. Who'd go with me? What I look like wandering
'round Europe by myself?
RUTH Shoot these here rich white women do it all the
time. They don't think nothing of packing up they suit-
cases and piling on one of them big steamships and
swoosh! they gone, child.
MAMA Something always told me I wasn't no rich white
woman.
RUTH Well what are you going to do with it then?
MAMA I ain't rightly decided. (Thinking. She speaks now
with emphasis) Some of it got to be put away for
Beneatha and her schoolin' and ain't nothing going to
touch that part of it. Nothing. (She waits several sec-
onds, trying to make up her mind about something,
and looks at RUTH a little tentatively before going on)
Been thinking that we maybe could meet the notes on a
little old two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis
could play in the summertime, if we use part of the
insurance for a down payment and everybody kind of
pitch in. I could maybe take on a little day work again,
few days a week
RUTH (Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concen-
trating on her ironing, anxious to encourage without
seeming to) Well, Lord knows, we've put enough
rent into this here rat trap to pay for four houses by
now
MAMA (Looking up at the words t( rat trap" and then
looking around and leaning back and sighing in a
suddenly reflective mood ) "Rat trap" yes, that's
all it is. (Smiling) I remember just as well the day me
and Big Walter moved in here. Hadn't been married
but two weeks and wasn't planning on living here no
more than a year. (She shakes her head at the dissolved
dream) We was going to set away, little by little, don't
you know, and buy a little place out in Morgan Park.
We had even picked out the house. (Chuckling a little)
Looks right dumpy today. But Lord, child, you should
know all the dreams I had 'bout buying that house and
fixing it up and making me a little garden in the back
(She waits and stops smiling) And didn't none of it
happen.
(Dropping her hands in a futile gesture)
RUTH (Keeps her head down, ironing) Yes, life can be
a barrel of disappointments, sometimes.
MAMA Honey, Big Walter would come in here some
nights back then and slump down on that couch there
and just look at the rug, and look at me and look at
the rug and then back at me and I'd know he was
down then . . . really down. (After a second very long
and thoughtful pause; she is seeing back to times that
only she can see) And then, Lord, when I lost that
baby little Claude I almost thought I was going to
lose Big Walter too. Oh, that man grieved hisself ! He
was one man to love his children.
RUTH Ain't nothin' can tear at you like losin' your baby.
MAMA I guess that's how come that man finally worked
hisself to death like he done. Like he was fighting
his own war with this here world that took his baby
from him.
RUTH He sure was a fine man, all right. I always liked
Mr. Younger.
MAMA Crazy 'bout his children! God knows there was
plenty wrong with Walter Younger hard-headed,
mean, kind of wild with women plenty wrong with
him. But he sure loved his children. Always wanted
them to have something be something. That's where
Brother gets all these notions, I reckon. Big Walter
used to say, he'd get right wet in the eyes sometimes,
lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes
and say, "Seem like God didn't see fit to give the
black man nothing but dreams but He did give us
children to make them dreams seem worth while."
(She smiles) He could talk like that, don't you know.
RUTH Yes, he sure could. He was a good man, Mr.
Younger.
MAMA Yes, a fine man just couldn't never catch up
with his dreams, that's all.
(BENEATHA comes in, brushing her hair and look-
ing up to the ceiling, where the sound of a vacuum
cleaner has started up)
BENEATHA What could be so dirty on that woman's rugs
that she has to vacuum them every single day?
RUTH I wish certain young women 'round here who I
could name would take inspiration about certain rugs
in a certain apartment I could also mention.
BENEATHA (Shrugging) How much cleaning can a house
need, for Christ's sakes.
MAMA (Not liking the Lord's name used thus) Bennie!
RUTH Just listen to her just listen!
BENEATHA Oh, God!
MAMA If you use the Lord's name just one more time
BENEATHA (A bit of a whine) Oh, Mama
RUTH Fresh just fresh as salt, this girl!
BENEATHA (Drily) Well if the salt loses its savor
MAMA Now that will do. I just ain't going to have you
'round here reciting the scriptures in vain you hear
me?
BENEATHA How did I manage to get on everybody's
wrong side by just walking into a room?
RUTH If you weren't so fresh
BENEATHA Ruth, I'm twenty years old.
MAMA What time you be home from school today?
BENEATHA Kind of late. (With enthusiasm) Madeline is
going to start my guitar lessons today.
(MAMA and RUTH look up with the same expres-
sion)
MAMA Your what kind of lessons?
BENEATHA Guitar.
RUTH Oh, Father!
MAMA How come you done taken it in your mind to
learn to play the guitar?
BENEATHA I just want to 9 that's all.
MAMA (Smiling) Lord, child, don't you know what to
get tired of this now like you got tired of that little
do with yourself? How long it going to be before you
play-acting group you joined last year? (Looking at
RUTH) And what was it the year before that?
RUTH The horseback-riding club for which she bought
that fifty-five-dollar riding habit that's been hanging in
the closet ever since!
MAMA (To BENEATHA) Why you got to flit so from one
thing to another, baby?
BENEATHA (Sharply) I just want to learn to play the
guitar. Is there anything wrong with that?
MAMA Ain't nobody trying to stop you. I just wonders
sometimes why you has to flit so from one thing to an-
other all the time. You ain't never done nothing with all
that camera equipment you brought home
BENEATHA I don't flit! I I experiment with different
forms of expression
RUTH Like riding a horse?
BENEATHA People have to express themselves one way
or another.
MAMA What is it you want to express?
BENEATHA (Angrily) Me! (MAMA and RUTH look at each
other and burst into raucous laughter) Don't worry
I don't expect you to understand.
MAMA (To change the subject) Who you going out with
tomorrow night?
BENEATHA (With displeasure) George Murchison again.
MAMA (Pleased) Oh you getting a little sweet on him?
RUTH You ask me, this child ain't sweet on nobody but
herself (Vnderbreath) Express herself !
(They laugh)
BENEATHA Oh I like George all right, Mama. I mean
I like him enough to go out with him and stuff, but
RUTH (For devilment) What does and stuff mean?
BENEATHA Mind your own business.
MAMA Stop picking at her now, Ruth. (She chuckles
then a suspicious sudden look at her daughter as she
turns in her chair for emphasis) What DOES it mean?
BENEATHA (Wearily) Oh, I just mean I couldn't ever
really be serious about George. He's he's so shallow.
RUTH Shallow what do you mean he's shallow? He's
Rich!
MAMA Hush, Ruth.
BENEATHA I know he's rich. He knows he's rich, too.
RUTH Well what other qualities a man got to have to
satisfy you, little girl?
BENEATHA You wouldn't even begin to understand. Any-
body who married Walter could not possibly under-
stand.
MAMA (Outraged) What kind of way is that to talk about
your brother?
BENEATHA Brother is a flip let's face it.
MAMA (To RUTH, helplessly) What's a flip?
RUTH (Glad to add kindling) She's saying he's crazy.
BENEATHA Not crazy. Brother isn't really crazy yet
he he's an elaborate neurotic.
MAMA Hush your mouth!
BENEATHA As for George. Well. George looks good
he's got a beautiful car and he takes me to nice places
and, as my sister-in-law says, he is probably the rich-
est boy I will ever get to know and I even like him
sometimes but if the Youngers are sitting around
waiting to see if their little Bennie is going to tie up
the family with the Murchisons, they are wasting their
time.
RUTH You mean you wouldn't marry George Murchison
if he asked you someday? That pretty, rich thing?
Honey, I knew you was odd
BENEATHA No I would not marry him if all I felt for him
was what I feel now. Besides, George's family wouldn't
really like it
MAMA Why not?
BENEATHA Oh, Mama The Murchisons are honest-to-
God-real-Kve-rich colored people, and the only people
in the world who are more snobbish than rich white
people are rich colored people. I thought everybody
knew that. I've met Mrs. Murchison. She's a scene!
MAMA You must not dislike people 'cause they well off,
honey.
BENEATHA Why not? It makes just as much sense as
disliking people 'cause they are poor, and lots of people
do that.
RUTH (A wisdom-of-the-ages manner. To MAMA) Well,
she'll get over some of this
BENEATHA Get over it? What are you talking about,
Ruth? Listen, I'm going to be a doctor. I'm not wor-
ried about who I'm going to marry yet if I ever get
married.
MAMA and RUTH If!
MAMA Now, Bennie
BENEATHA Oh, I probably will ... but first I'm going to
be a doctor, and George, for one, still thinks that's
pretty funny. I couldn't be bothered with that. I am
going to be a doctor and everybody around here better
understand that!
MAMA (Kindly) 'Course you going to be a doctor,
honey, God willing.
BENEATHA (Drily) God hasn't got a thing to do with it.
MAMA Beneatha that just wasn't necessary.
BENEATHA Well neither is God. I get sick of hearing
about God.
MAMA Beneatha!
BENEATHA I mean it! I'm just tired of hearing about God
all the time. What has He-got to do with anything? Does
he pay tuition?
MAMA You 'bout to get your fresh little jaw slapped!
RUTH That's just what she needs, all right!
BENEATHA Why? Why can't I say what I want to around
here, like everybody else?
MAMA It don't sound nice for a young girl to say things
like that you wasn't brought up that way. Me and
your father went to trouble to get you and Brother to
church every Sunday.
BENEATHA Mama, you don't understand. It's all a matter
of ideas, and God is just one idea I don't accept. It's
not important. I am not going out and be immoral or
commit crimes because I don't believe in God. I don't
even think about it. It's just that I get tired of Him get-
ting credit for all the things the human race achieves
through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no
blasted God there is only man and it is he who makes
miracles!
(MAMA absorbs this speech, studies her daughter
and rises slowly and crosses to BENEATHA and slaps
her powerfully across the face. After, there is only
silence and the daughter drops her eyes from her
mother's face, and MAMA is very tall before her)
MAMA Now you say after me, in my mother's house
there is still God. (There is a long pause and BENEATHA
stares at the floor wordlessly. MAMA repeats the phrase
with precision and cool emotion) In my mother's house
there is still God.
BENEATHA In my mother's house there is still God.
(A long pause)
MAMA (Walking away from BENEATHA, too disturbed for
triumphant posture. Stopping and turning back to her
daughter) There are some ideas we ain't going to have
in this house. Not long as I am at the head of this
family.
BENEATHA Yes, ma'am.
(MAMA walks out of the room)
RUTH (Almost gently, with profound understanding)
You think you a woman, Bennie but you still a little
girl. What you did was childish so you got treated
like a child.
BENEATHA I see. (Quietly) I also see that everybody
thinks it's all right for Mama to be a tyrant. But all the
tyranny in the world will never put a God in the
heavens!
(She picks up her books and goes out. Pause)
RUTH (Goes to MAMA'S door) She said she was sorry.
MAMA (Coming out, going to her plant) They frightens
me, Ruth. My children.
RUTH You got good children, Lena. They just a little off
sometimes but they're good.
MAMA No there's something come down between me
and them that don't let us understand each other and
I don't know what it is. One done almost lost his mind
thinking 'bout money all the time and the other done
commence to talk about things I can't seem to under-
stand in no form or fashion. What is it that's changing,
Ruth.
RUTH (Soothingly, older than her years) Now . . . you
taking it all too seriously. You just got strong-willed
children and it takes a strong woman like you to keep
'em in hand.
MAMA (Looking at her plant and sprinkling a little water
on it) They spirited all right, my children. Got to ad-
mit they got spirit Bennie and Walter. Like this little
old plant that ain't never had enough sunshine or noth-
ing and look at it ...
{She has her back to RUTH, who has had to stop
ironing and lean against something and put the
back of her hand to her forehead)
RUTH (Trying to keep MAMA from noticing) You . . .
sure . . . loves that little old thing, don't you? . . .
MAMA Well, I always wanted me a garden like I used
to see sometimes at the back of the houses down home.
This plant is close as I ever got to having one. {She
looks out of the window as she replaces the plant)
Lord, ain't nothing as dreary as the view from this win-
dow on a dreary day, is there? Why ain't you singing
this morning, Ruth? Sing that "No Ways Tired." That
song always lifts me up so (She turns at last to see
that RUTH has slipped quietly to the floor, in a state of
semiconsciousness) Ruth! Ruth honey what's the mat-
ter with you . . . Ruth!
Curtain
The YOUNGER living room would be a comfortable and
well-ordered room if it were not for a number of inde-
structible contradictions to this state of being. Its furnish-
ings are typical and undistinguished and their primary
feature now is that they have clearly had to accommodate
the living of too many people for too many years and
they are tired. Still, we can see that at some time, a time
probably no longer remembered by the family {except
perhaps for MAMA), the furnishings of this room were
actually selected with care and love and even hope and
brought to this apartment and arranged with taste and
pride.
That was a long time ago. Now the once loved pattern
of the couch upholstery has to fight to show itself from
under acres of crocheted doilies and couch covers which
have themselves finally come to be more important than
the upholstery. And here a table or a chair has been
moved to disguise the worn places in the carpet; but the
carpet has fought back by showing its weariness, with
depressing uniformity, elsewhere on its surface.
Weariness has, in fact, won in this room. Everything
has been polished, washed, sat on, used, scrubbed too
often. All pretenses but living itself have long since van-
ished from the very atmosphere of this room.
Moreover, a section of this room, for it is not really a
room unto itself, though the landlord's lease would make
it seem so, slopes backward to provide a small kitchen
area, where the family prepares the meals that are eaten
in the living room proper, which must also serve as dining
room. The single window that has been provided for these
"two" rooms is located in this kitchen area. The sole
natural light the family may enjoy in the course of a day is
only that which fights its way through this little window.
At left, a door leads to a bedroom which is shared by
MAMA and her daughter, BENEATHA. At right, opposite, is
a second room (which in the beginning of the life of this
apartment was probably a breakfast room) which serves
as a bedroom for WALTER and his wife, RUTH.
Time: Sometime between World War II and the present.
Place: Chicago's Southside.
At Rise: It is morning dark in the living room. TRAVIS
is asleep on the make-down bed at center. An alarm clock
sounds from within the bedroom at right, and presently
RUTH enters from that room and closes the door behind
her. She crosses sleepily toward the window. As she passes
her sleeping son she reaches down and shakes him a little.
At the window she raises the shade and a dusky Southside
morning light comes in feebly. She fills a pot with water
and puts it on to boil. She calls to the boy, between yawns,
in a slightly muffled voice.
RUTH is about thirty. We can see that she was a pretty
girl, even exceptionally so, but now it is apparent that
life has been little that she expected, and disappointment
has already begun to hang in her face. In a few years, be-
fore thirty-five even, she will be known among her people
as a "settled woman"
She crosses to her son and gives him a good, final,
rousing shake.
RUTH Come on now, boy, it's seven thirty! (Her son sits
up at last, in a stupor of sleepiness) I say hurry up,
Travis! You ain't the only person in the world got to
use a bathroom! (The child, a sturdy, handsome little
boy of ten or eleven, drags himself out of the bed and
almost blindly takes his towels and "today's clothes"
from drawers and a closet and goes out to the bath-
room, which is in an outside hall and which is shared
by another family or families on the same floor. RUTH
crosses to the bedroom door at right and opens it and
calls in to her husband) Walter Lee! . . . It's after seven
thirty! Lemme see you do some waking up in there
now! (She waits) You better get up from there, man!
It's after seven thirty I tell you. (She waits again) All
right, you just go ahead and lay there and next thing
you know Travis be finished and Mr. Johnson'll be in
there and yo.u'll be fussing and cussing round here like
a madman! And be late too! (She waits, at the end of
patience) Walter Lee it's time for you to GET UP!
(She waits another second and then starts to go
into the bedroom, but is apparently satisfied that
her husband has begun to get up. She stops, pulls
the door to, and returns to the kitchen area. She
wipes her face with a moist cloth and runs her
fingers through her sleep-disheveled hair in a vain
effort and ties an apron around her housecoat. The
bedroom door at right opens and her husband
stands in the doorway in his pajamas, which are
rumpled and mismated. He is a lean, intense young
man in his middle thirties, inclined to quick nervous
movements and erratic speech habits and always
in his voice there is a quality of indictment)
WALTER Is he out yet?
RUTH What you mean out? He ain't hardly got in there
good yet.
WALTER (Wandering in, still more oriented to sleep than
to a new day) Well, what was you doing all that
yelling for if I can't even get in there yet? (Stopping and
thinking) Check coming today?
RUTH They said Saturday and this is just Friday and I
hopes to God you ain't going to get up here first thing
this morning and start talking to me 'bout no money
'cause I 'bout don't want to hear it.
WALTER Something the matter with you this morning?
RUTH No I'm just sleepy as the devil. What kind of
eggs you want?
WALTER Not scrambled. (RUTH starts to scramble eggs)
Paper come? (RUTH points impatiently to the rolled up
Tribune on the table, and he gets it and spreads it out
and vaguely reads the front page) Set off another bomb
yesterday.
RUTH (Maximum indifference) Did they?
WALTER (Looking up) What's the matter with you?
RUTH Ain't nothing the matter with me. And don't keep
asking me that this morning.
WALTER Ain't nobody bothering you. (Reading the news
of the day absently again) Say Colonel McCormick
is sick.
RUTH (Affecting tea-party interest) Is he now? Poor
thing.
WALTER (Sighing and looking at his watch) Oh, me.
(He waits) Now what is that boy doing in that bathroom
all this time? He just going to have to start getting up
earlier. I can't be being late to work on account of
him fooling around in there.
RUTH (Turning on him) Oh, no he ain't going to be get-
ting up no earlier no such thing! It ain't his fault that
he can't get to bed no earlier nights 'cause he got a
bunch of crazy good-for-nothing clowns sitting up run-
ning their mouths in what is supposed to be his bed-
room after ten o'clock at night . . .
WALTER That's what you mad about, ain't it? The things
I want to talk about .with my friends just couldn't be
important in your mind, could they?
(He rises and finds a cigarette in her handbag on
the table and crosses to the little window and looks
out, smoking and deeply enjoying this first one)
RUTH (Almost matter of factly, a complaint too automatic
to deserve emphasis) Why you always got to smoke
before you eat in the morning?
WALTER (At the window) Just look at 'em down there
. . . Running and racing to work . . . (He turns and
faces his wife and watches her a moment at the stove,
and then, suddenly) You look young this morning, baby.
RUTH (Indifferently) Yeah?
WALTER Just for a second stirring them eggs. Just for
a second it was you looked real young again. (He
reaches for her; she crosses away. Then, drily) It's gone
now you look like yourself again!
RUTH Man, if you don't shut up and leave me alone.
WALTER (Looking out to the street again) First thing
a man ought to learn in life is not to make love to no
colored woman first thing in the morning. You all some
eeeevil people at eight o'clock in the morning.
(TRAVIS appears in the hall doorway, almost fully
dressed and quite wide awake now, his towels and
pajamas across his shoulders. He opens the door
and signals for his father to make the bathroom
in a hurry)
TRAVIS (Watching the bathroom) Daddy, come on!
(WALTER gets his bathroom utensils and flies out
to the bathroom)
RUTH Sit down and have your breakfast, Travis.
TRAVIS Mama, this is Friday. (Gleefully) Check coming
tomorrow, huh?
RUTH You get your mind off money and eat your
breakfast.
TRAVIS (Eating) This is the morning we supposed to
bring the fifty cents to school.
RUTH Well, I ain't got no fifty cents this morning.
TRAVIS Teacher say we have to.
RUTH I don't care what teacher say. I ain't got it. Eat
your breakfast, Travis.
TRAVIS I am eating.
RUTH Hush up now and just eat!
(The boy gives her an exasperated look for her
lack of understanding, and eats grudgingly)
TRAVIS You think Grandmama would have it?
RUTH No! And I want you to stop asking your grand-
mother for money, you hear me?
TRAVIS (Outraged) Gaaaleee! I don't ask her, she just
gimme it sometimes!
RUTH Travis Willard Younger I got too much on me
this morning to be
TRAVIS Maybe Daddy
RUTH Travis!
(The boy hushes abruptly. They are both quiet and
tense for several seconds)
TRAVIS (Presently) Could I maybe go carry some gro-
ceries in front of the supermarket for a little while
after school then?
RUTH Just hush, I said. (Travis jabs his spoon into his
cereal bowl viciously, and rests his head in anger upon
his fists) If you through eating, you can get over there
and make up your bed.
(The boy obeys stiffly and crosses the room, al-
most mechanically, to the bed and more or less
folds the bedding into a heap, then angrily gets his
books and cap)
TRAVIS (Sulking and standing apart from her unnaturally)
I'm gone.
RUTH (Looking up from the stove to inspect him auto-
matically) Come here. (He crosses to her and she
studies his head) If you don't take this comb and fix
this here head, you better! (TRAVIS puts down his books
with a great sigh of oppression, and crosses to the
mirror. His mother mutters under her breath about his
"slubbornness") 'Bout to march out of here with that
head looking just like chickens slept in it! I just don't
know where you get your slubborn ways . . , And get
your jacket, too. Looks chilly out this morning.
TRAVIS (With conspicuously brushed hair and jacket) Tm
gone.
RUTH Get carfare and milk money (Waving one finger)
and not a single penny for no caps, you hear me?
TRAVIS (With sullen politeness) Yes'm.
(He turns in outrage to leave. His mother -watches
after him as in his frustration he approaches the
door almost comically. When she speaks to him,
her voice has become a very gentle tease)
RUTH (Mocking; as she thinks he would say it) Oh,
Mama makes me so mad sometimes, I don't know
what to do! (She waits and continues to his back as he
stands stock-still in front of the door) I wouldn't kiss
that woman good-bye for nothing in this world this
morning! (The boy finally turns around and rolls his
eyes at her, knowing the mood has changed and he is
vindicated; he does not, however, move toward her yet)
Not for nothing in this world! (She finally laughs aloud
at him and holds out her arms to him and we see that
it is a way between them, very old and practiced. He
crosses to her and allows her to embrace him warmly
but keeps his face fixed with masculine rigidity. She
holds him back from her presently and looks at him
and runs her fingers over the features of his face. With
utter gentleness ) Now whose little old angry man
are you?
TRAVIS (The masculinity and gruff ness start to jade at
last) Aw gaalee Mama ...
RUTH (Mimicking) Aw gaaaaalleeeee, Mama! (She
pushes him, with rough playfulness and finality, toward
the door) Get on out of here or you going to be late.
TRAVIS (In the face of love, new aggressiveness) Mama,
could I please go carry groceries?
RUTH Honey, it's starting to get so cold evenings.
WALTER (Coming in from the bathroom and drawing a
make-believe gun from a make-believe holster and
shooting at his son) What is it he wants to do?
RUTH Go carry groceries after school at the supermarket.
WALTER Well, let him go ...
TRAVIS (Quickly, to the ally) I have to she won't gimme
the fifty cents . . .
WALTER (To his wife only) Why not?
RUTH (Simply, and with flavor) 'Cause we don't have it.
WALTER (To RUTH only) What you tell the boy things
like that for? (Reaching down into his pants with a
rather important gesture) Here, son
(He hands the boy the coin, but his eyes are di-
rected to his wife's. TRAVIS takes the money hap-
pily)
TRAVIS Thanks, Daddy.
(He starts out. RUTH watches both of them with
murder in her eyes. WALTER stands and stares
back at her with defiance, and suddenly reaches
into his pocket again on an afterthought)
WALTER (Without even looking at his son, still staring
hard at his wife) In fact, here's another fifty cents . . .
Buy yourself some fruit today or take a taxicab to
school or something!
TRAVIS Whoopee
(He leaps up and clasps his father around the
middle with his legs, and they face each other in
mutual appreciation; slowly WALTER LEE peeks
around the boy to catch the violent rays from his
wife's eyes and draws his head back as if shot)
WALTER You better get down now and get to school,
man.
TRAVIS (At the door) O.K. Good-bye.
(He exits)
WALTER (After him, pointing with pride) That's my boy.
(She looks at him in disgust and turns back to her
work) You know what I was thinking 'bout in the bath-
room this morning?
RUTH No.
WALTER How come you always try to be so pleasant!
RUTH What is there to be pleasant 'bout!
WALTER You want to know what I was thinking 'bout
in the bathroom or not!
RUTH I know what you thinking 'bout.
WALTER (Ignoring her) 'Bout what me and Willy Harris
was talking about last night.
RUTH (Immediately a refrain) Willy Harris is a good-
for-nothing loudmouth.
WALTER Anybody who talks to me has got to be a
good-for-nothing loudmouth, ain't he? And what you
know about who is just a good-for-nothing loudmouth?
Charlie Atkins was just a "good-for-nothing loud-
mouth" too, wasn't he! When he wanted me to go in
the dry-cleaning business with him. And now he's
grossing a hundred thousand a year. A hundred thou-
sand dollars a year! You still call him a loudmouth!
RUTH (Bitterly) Oh, Walter Lee . . .
(She folds her head on her arms over the table)
WALTER (Rising and coming to her and standing over her)
You tired, ain't you? Tired of everything. Me, the boy,
the way we live this beat-up hole everything. Ain't
you? (She doesn't look up, doesn't answer) So tired
moaning and groaning all the time, but you wouldn't do
nothing to help, would you? You couldn't be on my side
that long for nothing, could you?
RUTH Walter, please leave me alone.
WALTER A man needs for a woman to back him up , . .
RUTH Walter
WALTER Mama would listen to you. You know she listen
to you more than she do me and Bennie. She think
more of you. All you have to do is just sit down with
her when you drinking your coffee one morning and
talking 'bout things like you do and (He sits down be-
side her and demonstrates graphically what he thinks her
methods and tone should be) you just sip your coffee,
see, and say easy like that you been thinking 'bout that
deal Walter Lee is so interested in, 'bout the store and
all, and sip some more coffee, like what you saying ain't
really that important to you And the next thing you
know, she be listening good and asking you questions
and when I come home I can tell her the details. This
ain't no fly-by-night proposition, baby. I mean we
figured it out, me and Willy and Bobo.
RUTH ( With a frown ) Bobo?
WALTER Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in
mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the
initial investment on the place be 'bout thirty thousand,
see. That be ten thousand each. Course, there's a couple
of hundred you got to pay so's you don't spend your
life just waiting for them clowns to let your license get
approved
RUTH You mean graft?
WALTER (Frowning impatiently) Don't call it that. See
there, that just goes to show you what women under-
stand about the world. Baby, don't nothing happen
for you in this world 'less you pay somebody off!
RUTH Walter, leave me alone! (She raises her head and
stares at him vigorously then says, more quietly) Eat
your eggs, they gonna be cold.
WALTER (Straightening up from her and looking off)
That's it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got
me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. (Sadly,
but gaining in power) Man say: I got to take hold of
this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your
eggs and go to work. (Passionately now) Man say: I
got to change my life, I'm choking to death, baby! And
his woman say (In utter anguish as he brings his fists
down on his thighs) Your eggs is getting cold!
RUTH (Softly) Walter, that ain't none of our money.
WALTER (Not listening at all or even looking at her) This
morning, I was lookin' in the mirror and thinking about
it ... I'm thirty-five years old; I been married eleven
years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room
(Very, very quietly) and all I got to give him is stories
about how rich white people live . . .
RUTH Eat your eggs, Walter.
WALTER (Slams the table and jumps up) DAMN MY
EGGS DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS!
RUTH Then go to work.
WALTER (Looking up at her) See I'm trying to talk to
you 'bout myself (Shaking his head with the repetition)
and all you can say is eat them eggs and go to work.
RUTH (Wearily) Honey, you never say nothing new. I
listen to you every day, every night and every morning,
and you never say nothing new. (Shrugging) So you
would rather be Mr. Arnold than be his chauffeur. So
I would rather be living in Buckingham Palace.
WALTER That is just what is wrong with the colored
woman in this world . . . Don't understand about build-
ing their men up and making 'em feel like they some-
body. Like they can do something.
RUTH (Drily, but to hurt) There are colored men who do
things.
WALTER No thanks to the colored woman.
RUTH Well, being a colored woman, I guess I can't help
myself none.
(She rises and gets the ironing board and sets it
up and attacks a huge pile of rough-dried clothes,
sprinkling them in preparation for the ironing and
then rolling them into tight fat balls)
WALTER (Mumbling) We one group of men tied to a race
of women with small minds!
(His sister BENEATHA enters. She is about twenty,
as slim and intense as her brother. She is not as
pretty as her sister-in-law, but her lean, almost
intellectual face has a handsomeness of its own.
She wears a bright-red flannel nightie, and her
thick hair stands wildly about her head. Her speech
is a mixture of many things; it is different from the
rest of the family's insofar as education has per-
meated her sense of English and perhaps the
Midwest rather than the South has finally at last
won out in her inflection; but not altogether, be-
cause over all of it is a soft slurring and trans-
formed use of vowels which is the decided influ-
ence of the Southside. She passes through the
room without looking at either RUTH or WALTER
and goes to the outside door and looks, a little
blindly, out to the bathroom. She sees that it has
been lost to the Johnsons. She closes the door with
a sleepy vengeance and crosses to the table and sits
down a little defeated)
BENEATHA I am going to start timing those people.
WALTER You should get up earlier.
BENEATHA (Her face in her hands. She is still fighting the
urge to go back to bed) Really would you suggest
dawn? Where's the paper?
WALTER (Pushing the paper across the table to her as he
studies her almost clinically, as though he has never
seen her before) You a horrible-looking chick at this
hour.
BENEATHA (Drily) Good morning, everybody.
WALTER (Senselessly) How is school coming?
BENEATHA (In the same spirit) Lovely. Lovely. And
you know, biology is the greatest. (Looking up at him)
I dissected something that looked just like you yes-
terday.
WALTER I just wondered if you've made up your mind
and everything.
BENEATHA (Gaining in sharpness and impatience) And
what did I answer yesterday morning and the day
before that?
RUTH (From the ironing board, like someone disinterested
and old) Don't be so nasty, Bennie.
BENEATHA (Still to her brother) And the day before that
and the day before that!
WALTER (Defensively) I'm interested in you. Something
wrong with that? Ain't many girls who decide
WALTER and BENEATHA (In unison) "to be a doctor."
(Silence)
WALTER Have we figured out yet just exactly how much
medical school is going to cost?
RUTH Walter Lee, why don't you leave that girl alone
and get out of here to work?
BENEATHA (Exits to the bathroom and bangs on the door)
Come on out of there, please!
(She comes back into the room)
WALTER (Looking at his sister intently) You know the
check is coming tomorrow.
BENEATHA (Turning on him with a sharpness all her own)
That money belongs to Mama, Walter, and it's for her
to decide how she wants to use it. I don't care if she
wants to buy a house or a rocket ship or just nail it up
somewhere and look at it. It's hers. Not ours hers.
WALTER (Bitterly) Now ain't that fine! You just got your
mother's interest at heart, ain't you, girl? You such a
nice girl but if Mama got that money she can always
take a few thousand and help you through school too
can't she?
BENEATHA I have never asked anyone around here to do
anything for me!
WALTER No! And the line between asking and just ac-
cepting when the time comes is big and wide ain't it!
BENEATHA (With jury) What do you want from me,
Brother that I quit school or just drop dead, which!
WALTER I don't want nothing but for you to stop acting
holy 'round here. Me and Ruth done made some sacri-
fices for you why can't you do something for the
family?
RUTH Walter, don't be dragging me in it.
WALTER You are in it Don't you get up and go work
in somebody's kitchen for the last three years to help
put clothes on her back?
RUTH Oh, Walter that's not fair . . .
WALTER It ain't that nobody expects you to get on your
knees and say thank you, Brother; thank you, Ruth;
thank you, Mama and thank you, Travis, for wearing
the same pair of shoes for two semesters
BENEATHA (Dropping to her knees) Well I do all
right? thank everybody! And forgive me for ever
wanting to be anything at all! (Pursuing him on her
knees across the floor) FORGIVE ME, FORGIVE
ME, FORGIVE ME!
RUTH Please stop it! Your mama'll hear you.
WALTER Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor?
If you so crazy 'bout messing 'round with sick people
then go be a nurse like other women or just get
married and be quiet . . .
BENEATHA Well you finally got it said ... It took you
three years but you finally got it said. Walter, give up;
leave me alone it's Mama's money.
WALTER He was my father, too!
BENEATHA So what? He was mine, too and Travis'
grandfather but the insurance money belongs to
Mama. Picking on me is not going to make her give it
to you to invest in any liquor stores (Underbreath,
dropping into a chair) and I for one say, God bless
Mama for that!
WALTER (To RUTH) See did you hear? Did you hear!
RUTH Honey, please go to work.
WALTER Nobody in this house is ever going to under-
stand me.
BENEATHA Because you're a nut.
WALTER Who's a nut?
BENEATHA You you are a nut. Thee is mad, boy.
WALTER (Looking at his wife and his sister from the door,
very sadly) The world's most backward race of peo-
ple, and that's a fact.
BENEATHA (Turning slowly in her chair) And then there
are all those prophets who would lead us out of the
wilderness (WALTER slams out of the house) into
the swamps!
RUTH Bennie, why you always gotta be pickin' on your
brother? Can't you be a little sweeter sometimes? (Door
opens. WALTER walks in. He fumbles with his cap, starts
to speak, clears throat, looks everywhere but at RUTH.
Finally:)
WALTER (To RUTH) I need some money for carfare.
RUTH (Looks at him, then warms; teasing, but tenderly)
Fifty cents? (She goes to her bag and gets money)
Here take a taxi!
(WALTER exits. MAMA enters. She is a woman in
her early sixties, full-bodied and strong. She is
one of those women of a certain grace and beauty
who wear it so unobtrusively that it takes a while
to notice. Her dark-brown face is surrounded by
the total whiteness of her hair, and, being a woman
who has adjusted to many things in life and over-
come many more, her face is full of strength. She
has, we can see, wit and faith of a kind that keep
her eyes lit and full of interest and expectancy.
She is, in a word, a beautiful woman. Her bearing
is perhaps most like the noble bearing of the
women of the Hereros of Southwest Africa
rather as if she imagines that as she walks she still
bears a basket or a vessel upon her head. Her
speech, on the other hand, is as careless as her car-
riage is precise she is inclined to slur everything
but her voice is perhaps not so much quiet as
simply soft)
MAMA Who that 'round here slamming doors at this
hour?
(See crosses through the room, goes to the win-
dow, opens it, and brings in a feeble little plant
growing doggedly in a small pot on the window
sill. She feels the dirt and puts it back out)
RUTH That was Walter Lee. He and Bennie was at it
again.
MAMA My children and they tempers. Lord, if this little
old plant don't get more sun than it's been getting it
ain't never going to see spring again. (She turns from
the window) What's the matter with you this morning,
Ruth? You looks right peaked. You aiming to iron all
them things? Leave some for me. I'll get to 'em this
afternoon. Bennie honey, it's too drafty for you to be
sitting 'round half dressed. Where's your robe?
BENEATHA In the cleaners.
MAMA Well, go get mine and put it on.
BENEATHA I'm not cold, Mama, honest.
MAMA I know but you so thin . . .
BENEATHA (Irritably) Mama, I'm not cold.
MAMA (Seeing the make-down bed as TRAVIS has left it)
Lord have mercy, look at that poor bed. Bless his
heart he tries, don't he?
(She moves to the bed TRAVIS has sloppily made
up)
RUTH No he don't half try at all 'cause he knows you
going to come along behind him and fix everything.
That's just how come he don't know how to do nothing
right now you done spoiled that boy so.
MAMA (Folding bedding) Well he's a little boy* Ain't
supposed to know 'bout housekeeping. My baby, that's
what he is. What you fix for his breakfast this morning?
RUTH (Angrily) I feed my son, Lena!
MAMA I ain't meddling (Underbreath; busy-bodyish)
I just noticed all last week he had cold cereal, and
when it starts getting this chilly in the fall a child ought
to have some hot grits or something when he goes out
in the cold
RUTH (Furious) I gave him hot oats is that all right!
MAMA I ain't meddling. (Pause) Put a lot of nice butter
on it? (RUTH shoots her an angry look and does not
reply) He likes lots of butter.
RUTH (Exasperated) Lena
MAMA (To BENEATHA. MAMA is inclined to wander con-
versationally sometimes) What was you and your
brother fussing 'bout this morning?
BENEATHA It* s not important, Mama.
(She gets up and goes to look out at the bath-
room, which is apparently free, and she picks up
her towels and rushes out)
MAMA What was they fighting about?
RUTH Now you know as well as I do.
MAMA (Shaking her head) Brother still worrying his-
self sick about that money?
RUTH You know he is.
MAMA You had breakfast?
RUTH Some coffee.
MAMA Girl, you better start eating and looking after
yourself better. You almost thin as Travis.
RUTH Lena
MAMA Un-hunh?
RUTH What are you going to do with it?
MAMA Now don't you start, child. It's too early in the
morning to be talking about money. It ain't Christian.
RUTH It's just that he got his heart set on that store
MAMA You mean that liquor store that Willy Harris
want him to invest in?
RUTH Yes
MAMA We ain't no business people, Ruth. We just plain
working folks.
RUTH Ain't nobody business people till they go into
business. Walter Lee say colored people ain't never
going to start getting ahead till they start gambling on
some different kinds of things in the world investments
and things.
MAMA What done got into you, girl? Walter Lee done
finally sold you on investing.
RUTH No. Mama, something is happening between
Walter and me. I don't know what it is but he needs
something something I can't give him any more. He
needs this chance, Lena.
MAMA (Frowning deeply) But liquor, honey
RUTH Well like Walter say I spec people going to al-
ways be drinking themselves some liquor.
MAMA Well whether they drinks it or not ain't none of
my business. But whether I go into business selling it
to 'em is, and I don't want that on my ledger this late
in life. (Stopping suddenly and studying her daughter-
in-law} Ruth Younger, what's the matter with you to-
day? You look like you could fall over right there.
RUTH I'm tired.
MAMA Then you better stay home from work today,
RUTH I can't stay home. She'd be calling up the agency
and screaming at them, "My girl didn't come in today
send me somebody! My girl didn't come in!" Oh, she
just have a fit ...
MAMA Well, let her have it. I'll just call her up and say
you got the flu
RUTH (Laughing) Why the flu?
MAMA 'Cause it sounds respectable to 'em. Something
white people get, too. They know 'bout the flu. Other-
wise they think you been cut up or something when you
tell 'em you sick.
RUTH I got to go in. We need the money.
MAMA Somebody would of thought my children done all
but starved to death the way they talk about money
here late. Child, we got a great big old check coming
tomorrow.
RUTH (Sincerely, but also self-righteously) Now that's
your money. It ain't got nothing to do with me. We all
feel like that Walter and Bennie and me even Travis.
MAMA (Thoughtfully, and suddenly very far away) Ten
thousand dollars
RUTH Sure is wonderful.
MAMA Ten thousand dollars.
RUTH You know what you should do, Miss Lena? You
should take yourself a trip somewhere. To Europe or
South America or someplace
MAMA (Throwing up her hands at the thought) Oh,
child!
RUTH I'm serious. Just pack up and leave! Go on away
and enjoy yourself some. Forget about the family and
have yourself a ball for once in your life
MAMA (Drily) You sound like I'm just about ready to
die. Who'd go with me? What I look like wandering
'round Europe by myself?
RUTH Shoot these here rich white women do it all the
time. They don't think nothing of packing up they suit-
cases and piling on one of them big steamships and
swoosh! they gone, child.
MAMA Something always told me I wasn't no rich white
woman.
RUTH Well what are you going to do with it then?
MAMA I ain't rightly decided. (Thinking. She speaks now
with emphasis) Some of it got to be put away for
Beneatha and her schoolin' and ain't nothing going to
touch that part of it. Nothing. (She waits several sec-
onds, trying to make up her mind about something,
and looks at RUTH a little tentatively before going on)
Been thinking that we maybe could meet the notes on a
little old two-story somewhere, with a yard where Travis
could play in the summertime, if we use part of the
insurance for a down payment and everybody kind of
pitch in. I could maybe take on a little day work again,
few days a week
RUTH (Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concen-
trating on her ironing, anxious to encourage without
seeming to) Well, Lord knows, we've put enough
rent into this here rat trap to pay for four houses by
now
MAMA (Looking up at the words t( rat trap" and then
looking around and leaning back and sighing in a
suddenly reflective mood ) "Rat trap" yes, that's
all it is. (Smiling) I remember just as well the day me
and Big Walter moved in here. Hadn't been married
but two weeks and wasn't planning on living here no
more than a year. (She shakes her head at the dissolved
dream) We was going to set away, little by little, don't
you know, and buy a little place out in Morgan Park.
We had even picked out the house. (Chuckling a little)
Looks right dumpy today. But Lord, child, you should
know all the dreams I had 'bout buying that house and
fixing it up and making me a little garden in the back
(She waits and stops smiling) And didn't none of it
happen.
(Dropping her hands in a futile gesture)
RUTH (Keeps her head down, ironing) Yes, life can be
a barrel of disappointments, sometimes.
MAMA Honey, Big Walter would come in here some
nights back then and slump down on that couch there
and just look at the rug, and look at me and look at
the rug and then back at me and I'd know he was
down then . . . really down. (After a second very long
and thoughtful pause; she is seeing back to times that
only she can see) And then, Lord, when I lost that
baby little Claude I almost thought I was going to
lose Big Walter too. Oh, that man grieved hisself ! He
was one man to love his children.
RUTH Ain't nothin' can tear at you like losin' your baby.
MAMA I guess that's how come that man finally worked
hisself to death like he done. Like he was fighting
his own war with this here world that took his baby
from him.
RUTH He sure was a fine man, all right. I always liked
Mr. Younger.
MAMA Crazy 'bout his children! God knows there was
plenty wrong with Walter Younger hard-headed,
mean, kind of wild with women plenty wrong with
him. But he sure loved his children. Always wanted
them to have something be something. That's where
Brother gets all these notions, I reckon. Big Walter
used to say, he'd get right wet in the eyes sometimes,
lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes
and say, "Seem like God didn't see fit to give the
black man nothing but dreams but He did give us
children to make them dreams seem worth while."
(She smiles) He could talk like that, don't you know.
RUTH Yes, he sure could. He was a good man, Mr.
Younger.
MAMA Yes, a fine man just couldn't never catch up
with his dreams, that's all.
(BENEATHA comes in, brushing her hair and look-
ing up to the ceiling, where the sound of a vacuum
cleaner has started up)
BENEATHA What could be so dirty on that woman's rugs
that she has to vacuum them every single day?
RUTH I wish certain young women 'round here who I
could name would take inspiration about certain rugs
in a certain apartment I could also mention.
BENEATHA (Shrugging) How much cleaning can a house
need, for Christ's sakes.
MAMA (Not liking the Lord's name used thus) Bennie!
RUTH Just listen to her just listen!
BENEATHA Oh, God!
MAMA If you use the Lord's name just one more time
BENEATHA (A bit of a whine) Oh, Mama
RUTH Fresh just fresh as salt, this girl!
BENEATHA (Drily) Well if the salt loses its savor
MAMA Now that will do. I just ain't going to have you
'round here reciting the scriptures in vain you hear
me?
BENEATHA How did I manage to get on everybody's
wrong side by just walking into a room?
RUTH If you weren't so fresh
BENEATHA Ruth, I'm twenty years old.
MAMA What time you be home from school today?
BENEATHA Kind of late. (With enthusiasm) Madeline is
going to start my guitar lessons today.
(MAMA and RUTH look up with the same expres-
sion)
MAMA Your what kind of lessons?
BENEATHA Guitar.
RUTH Oh, Father!
MAMA How come you done taken it in your mind to
learn to play the guitar?
BENEATHA I just want to 9 that's all.
MAMA (Smiling) Lord, child, don't you know what to
get tired of this now like you got tired of that little
do with yourself? How long it going to be before you
play-acting group you joined last year? (Looking at
RUTH) And what was it the year before that?
RUTH The horseback-riding club for which she bought
that fifty-five-dollar riding habit that's been hanging in
the closet ever since!
MAMA (To BENEATHA) Why you got to flit so from one
thing to another, baby?
BENEATHA (Sharply) I just want to learn to play the
guitar. Is there anything wrong with that?
MAMA Ain't nobody trying to stop you. I just wonders
sometimes why you has to flit so from one thing to an-
other all the time. You ain't never done nothing with all
that camera equipment you brought home
BENEATHA I don't flit! I I experiment with different
forms of expression
RUTH Like riding a horse?
BENEATHA People have to express themselves one way
or another.
MAMA What is it you want to express?
BENEATHA (Angrily) Me! (MAMA and RUTH look at each
other and burst into raucous laughter) Don't worry
I don't expect you to understand.
MAMA (To change the subject) Who you going out with
tomorrow night?
BENEATHA (With displeasure) George Murchison again.
MAMA (Pleased) Oh you getting a little sweet on him?
RUTH You ask me, this child ain't sweet on nobody but
herself (Vnderbreath) Express herself !
(They laugh)
BENEATHA Oh I like George all right, Mama. I mean
I like him enough to go out with him and stuff, but
RUTH (For devilment) What does and stuff mean?
BENEATHA Mind your own business.
MAMA Stop picking at her now, Ruth. (She chuckles
then a suspicious sudden look at her daughter as she
turns in her chair for emphasis) What DOES it mean?
BENEATHA (Wearily) Oh, I just mean I couldn't ever
really be serious about George. He's he's so shallow.
RUTH Shallow what do you mean he's shallow? He's
Rich!
MAMA Hush, Ruth.
BENEATHA I know he's rich. He knows he's rich, too.
RUTH Well what other qualities a man got to have to
satisfy you, little girl?
BENEATHA You wouldn't even begin to understand. Any-
body who married Walter could not possibly under-
stand.
MAMA (Outraged) What kind of way is that to talk about
your brother?
BENEATHA Brother is a flip let's face it.
MAMA (To RUTH, helplessly) What's a flip?
RUTH (Glad to add kindling) She's saying he's crazy.
BENEATHA Not crazy. Brother isn't really crazy yet
he he's an elaborate neurotic.
MAMA Hush your mouth!
BENEATHA As for George. Well. George looks good
he's got a beautiful car and he takes me to nice places
and, as my sister-in-law says, he is probably the rich-
est boy I will ever get to know and I even like him
sometimes but if the Youngers are sitting around
waiting to see if their little Bennie is going to tie up
the family with the Murchisons, they are wasting their
time.
RUTH You mean you wouldn't marry George Murchison
if he asked you someday? That pretty, rich thing?
Honey, I knew you was odd
BENEATHA No I would not marry him if all I felt for him
was what I feel now. Besides, George's family wouldn't
really like it
MAMA Why not?
BENEATHA Oh, Mama The Murchisons are honest-to-
God-real-Kve-rich colored people, and the only people
in the world who are more snobbish than rich white
people are rich colored people. I thought everybody
knew that. I've met Mrs. Murchison. She's a scene!
MAMA You must not dislike people 'cause they well off,
honey.
BENEATHA Why not? It makes just as much sense as
disliking people 'cause they are poor, and lots of people
do that.
RUTH (A wisdom-of-the-ages manner. To MAMA) Well,
she'll get over some of this
BENEATHA Get over it? What are you talking about,
Ruth? Listen, I'm going to be a doctor. I'm not wor-
ried about who I'm going to marry yet if I ever get
married.
MAMA and RUTH If!
MAMA Now, Bennie
BENEATHA Oh, I probably will ... but first I'm going to
be a doctor, and George, for one, still thinks that's
pretty funny. I couldn't be bothered with that. I am
going to be a doctor and everybody around here better
understand that!
MAMA (Kindly) 'Course you going to be a doctor,
honey, God willing.
BENEATHA (Drily) God hasn't got a thing to do with it.
MAMA Beneatha that just wasn't necessary.
BENEATHA Well neither is God. I get sick of hearing
about God.
MAMA Beneatha!
BENEATHA I mean it! I'm just tired of hearing about God
all the time. What has He-got to do with anything? Does
he pay tuition?
MAMA You 'bout to get your fresh little jaw slapped!
RUTH That's just what she needs, all right!
BENEATHA Why? Why can't I say what I want to around
here, like everybody else?
MAMA It don't sound nice for a young girl to say things
like that you wasn't brought up that way. Me and
your father went to trouble to get you and Brother to
church every Sunday.
BENEATHA Mama, you don't understand. It's all a matter
of ideas, and God is just one idea I don't accept. It's
not important. I am not going out and be immoral or
commit crimes because I don't believe in God. I don't
even think about it. It's just that I get tired of Him get-
ting credit for all the things the human race achieves
through its own stubborn effort. There simply is no
blasted God there is only man and it is he who makes
miracles!
(MAMA absorbs this speech, studies her daughter
and rises slowly and crosses to BENEATHA and slaps
her powerfully across the face. After, there is only
silence and the daughter drops her eyes from her
mother's face, and MAMA is very tall before her)
MAMA Now you say after me, in my mother's house
there is still God. (There is a long pause and BENEATHA
stares at the floor wordlessly. MAMA repeats the phrase
with precision and cool emotion) In my mother's house
there is still God.
BENEATHA In my mother's house there is still God.
(A long pause)
MAMA (Walking away from BENEATHA, too disturbed for
triumphant posture. Stopping and turning back to her
daughter) There are some ideas we ain't going to have
in this house. Not long as I am at the head of this
family.
BENEATHA Yes, ma'am.
(MAMA walks out of the room)
RUTH (Almost gently, with profound understanding)
You think you a woman, Bennie but you still a little
girl. What you did was childish so you got treated
like a child.
BENEATHA I see. (Quietly) I also see that everybody
thinks it's all right for Mama to be a tyrant. But all the
tyranny in the world will never put a God in the
heavens!
(She picks up her books and goes out. Pause)
RUTH (Goes to MAMA'S door) She said she was sorry.
MAMA (Coming out, going to her plant) They frightens
me, Ruth. My children.
RUTH You got good children, Lena. They just a little off
sometimes but they're good.
MAMA No there's something come down between me
and them that don't let us understand each other and
I don't know what it is. One done almost lost his mind
thinking 'bout money all the time and the other done
commence to talk about things I can't seem to under-
stand in no form or fashion. What is it that's changing,
Ruth.
RUTH (Soothingly, older than her years) Now . . . you
taking it all too seriously. You just got strong-willed
children and it takes a strong woman like you to keep
'em in hand.
MAMA (Looking at her plant and sprinkling a little water
on it) They spirited all right, my children. Got to ad-
mit they got spirit Bennie and Walter. Like this little
old plant that ain't never had enough sunshine or noth-
ing and look at it ...
{She has her back to RUTH, who has had to stop
ironing and lean against something and put the
back of her hand to her forehead)
RUTH (Trying to keep MAMA from noticing) You . . .
sure . . . loves that little old thing, don't you? . . .
MAMA Well, I always wanted me a garden like I used
to see sometimes at the back of the houses down home.
This plant is close as I ever got to having one. {She
looks out of the window as she replaces the plant)
Lord, ain't nothing as dreary as the view from this win-
dow on a dreary day, is there? Why ain't you singing
this morning, Ruth? Sing that "No Ways Tired." That
song always lifts me up so (She turns at last to see
that RUTH has slipped quietly to the floor, in a state of
semiconsciousness) Ruth! Ruth honey what's the mat-
ter with you . . . Ruth!
Curtain