30 pages ⢠1 hour read â˘
Elmer RiceA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
âThereâs no five-thirty for me. I donât wait for no whistle. I donât get no vacations neither. And whatâs more I donât get no pay envelope every Saturday night neither.â
In this first scene, Mrs. Zero delivers a monologue to her husband as she prepares herself for bed. Much of the speech is comprised of complaints she holds against him, and comparisons she makes between the two of them on a personal level, in terms of societyâs traditional expectations of them as housewife and breadwinner.
âI was a fool for marryinâ you. If Iâd âaâ had any sense, Iâd âaâ known from the start. I wish I had it to do over again, I hope to tell you.â
This passage is from later in the same scene, after Mrs. Zero has worked herself up quite a bit and has delivered the majority of her speech. Mrs. Zero places a lot of importance and worth on her husbandâs job, in terms of its reflection on their position in society and amongst their friends. At this point, she has convinced herself of her husbandâs complacency and lack of ambition, two traits she finds embarrassing and that she feels reflect poorly on her.
âAw, donât be givinâ me so many orders [âŚ] I donât have to take it from you and whatâs more I wonât.â
From the beginning of Scene 2, Zero and Daisy are at one anotherâs throats. They trade quips about making each other sick, and Daisy implores Zero to âquit beinâ so bossy,â but he doesnât. In fact, his next demand is that she âtend to her work.â This is included to show that not only do some women find their space in the âmodernâ workplace of 1923, but that no women seem to take Zero seriously as a threatening presenceââneither in the workplace or the home.