The Skin of Our Teeth

The third act takes place in the Antrobus’s living room, but the walls are now leaning haphazardly, and some of the flats are missing. A bugle sounds, and offstage, “some red Roman fire is burning” (91). Sabina enters, dirty and dressed like one of the women that famously followed the Napoleonic armies at wartime. She calls for Maggie and Gladys, announcing that the war has ended. When she receives no response, she wonders if they’re alive, noting that she saw George, and he will be returning this afternoon. He told her, “Now that the war’s over, we’ll all have to settle down and be perfect” (92). Mr. Fitzpatrick, trailed by the rest of the company, steps onstage and tells Sabina/Miss Somerset that he needs to interrupt her momentarily. The actor who plays George enters, and at Mr. Fitzpatrick’s request, explains that seven cast members have become very sick and been sent to the hospital. Although there aren’t enough understudies to cover that many sick actors, some of the crew members have agreed to step in, introducing Mr. Tremayne (his dresser and a former actor), Hester (the wardrobe mistress), Ivy (Miss Somerset’s maid), and Fred Bailey (the usher captain). However, they need to rehearse briefly before resuming the performance, and George invites the audience to extend their intermission if they wish.

Mr. Fitzpatrick explains that in the third act, after the war, the playwright is representing the night hours as different philosophers that pass overhead with the planets, although he isn’t quite sure what it means or if it means anything. Sabina interjects that it means that people have the most profound thoughts at night, while they’re asleep. Ivy offers that her father, a Baptist pastor, had attended rehearsal once and said that it means that the great philosophers and their ideas are all around and affecting humanity all the time, even without their knowledge. Mr. Fitzpatrick thanks her and casts Ivy as 11 o’clock, or Aristotle; Mr. Tremayne as 12 o’clock, the Bible; Hester as Plato, who is 10 o’clock; and Fred as Spinoza, or nine o’clock. They agree, and Mr. Fitzpatrick remembers suddenly that they don’t have the planets, who usually sing, so unfortunately the audience will miss out on the effect. In order, each of the replacement actors say a part of their monologues, except Mr. Tremayne, who Mr. Fitzpatrick notes has done it before. Then, Mr. Fitzpatrick announces the start of the third act, adding that the volunteers should keep their street clothes on.

Sabina recaps what she said the first time, calls for Maggie, and exits to search for her. Carefully, Maggie raises a trapdoor on the stage, having heard a voice. Gladys emerges from below with a baby. Maggie tells her to hide while she looks around, but Gladys wants to keep the baby in the fresh air, so Maggie warns her to be careful. Maggie notes that something seems different, and people are starting to move around outside. Sabina calls from offstage, and Maggie, shocked recognizes her voice. Maggie is amazed that she has survived, but Sabina tells them not to kiss her, exclaiming, “I never want to kiss another human being as long as I live” (100). Sabina is surprised to see Gladys’s baby, wondering if he’s healthy, and Gladys assures her that he is. Sabina wonders how she ended up having a baby but decides immediately that she shouldn’t ask. After seven years around an army camp, Sabina chides herself for losing her manners. She then chastises Maggie for her dirty face, telling her to wash up and change her clothes, since George will be home soon. Pleased to learn that her husband is alive, Maggie asks about Henry. In a dry voice, Sabina confirms that he is alive too, urging them both to clean themselves up. Maggie wants to know who won the war, but Sabina insists that it isn’t as important as washing her face.

They marvel at the sound of the shoe polish factory starting back up nearby, one of the sounds of peacetime, and Sabina comments that when she saw George earlier, he was hanging a recipe on the door of Town Hall for grass soup that won’t make people sick. He sent his love to his family and told Sabina that he is ready to get to work to rebuild, but that if his books are gone, the effort won’t be worth it. A hand starts passing books through the trapdoor, and Sabina explains that George wants them all to learn history, algebra, and philosophy, adding, “To hear him talk, seems like he expects you to be a combination, Mrs. Antrobus, of a saint and a college professor, and a dancehall hostess, if you know what I mean” (102-103). Sabina notes that life will get back to normal soon, but confidentially, she likes how people become their best selves during wartime. Henry, filthy and wearing the remains of an admiral uniform, enters quietly, listening as Sabina remembers to tell them that George has declared that Henry is not allowed in the house and promised to kill him if he shows up. Speaking into the trapdoor, Sabina explains that Henry had risen to power during the war, and that “Henry is the enemy” (104), which is common knowledge. Henry surprises her by repeating his father’s death threat, but Sabina says that the war has ended, and she isn’t afraid of him. Without the war, Henry is simply unemployed. She suggests that Henry hide until George is less agitated.

Henry announces that his first step is to burn the books, as “it’s the ideas he gets out of those old books that…that makes the whole world so you can’t live in it” (104). Instead, he sits down hard on the floor, too exhausted to stand. Sabina tells him to stop, scolding him for complaining that his family doesn’t love him and telling him to be more loveable. Henry claims that he wants hate, not love, but Sabina replies that it’s obvious that he’s settling for “second best” (105) and they’re essentially the same thing anyways. Maggie and Gladys enter, and Maggie, excited to see Henry, fawns on him. She has saved two baked potatoes for her son and husband, admonishing Henry when he grabs both. Sabina takes it, commenting that he’s too tired to understand anything. Maggie tells him to rest, covering him with a coat as he protests weakly that he isn’t there to stay. Maggie becomes upset when he tells her that he doesn’t belong to anyone, but Henry has already fallen asleep in the middle of chewing the potato. Sabina smirks, “Puh! The terror of the world” (106). Maggie carefully confiscates Henry’s gun. She and Sabina grab a rope hanging from the ceiling, pulling hard until the walls stand up straight. They start resetting the furniture until the house looks like the start of the play.

Sabina complains, “That’s all we do—always beginning again!” (107). She wonders if it will be worth it, but Maggie tells her to be quiet and keep working. Sabina agrees petulantly to “go on just out of habit, but I won’t believe in it” (107). Passionately, Maggie tells Sabina that even if she must spend 70 years hiding in the cellar and living on grass and tree bark, she will never doubt “that this world has a work to do and will do it” (107). And the house they’re in—216 Cedar Street—represents “the idea of what we can do someday if we keep our wits about us” (108). Afraid, Sabina relents. Maggie goes on that the house represents the potential of humanity, and too many people have sacrificed to give up. She tells Sabina to go work on the kitchen, and Sabina complains that no matter what happens, she always ends up there. She goes, and Maggie muses that her father was a parson, and her impassioned speech sounded as if she was channeling him. Henry starts talking in his sleep as if he’s rousing troops to get revenge on those who have all the power. Maggie soothes him. Gladys announces that she is taking the baby outside for fresh air, because their fear is over. Maggie goes into the kitchen, and Henry tosses and turns. George enters, limping, dropping his belongings and immediately homing in on Henry, who continues to talk in his sleep. George pulls his revolver out and aims it. Henry wakes suddenly, and they stare at each other. The stage directions note that throughout the scene, “Henry is played, not as a misunderstood or misguided young man, but as a representation of strong unreconciled evil” (109).

Henry challenges George to shoot him, disavowing his entire family and insisting that George isn’t his father. George wishes that they were still at war because he can fight Henry at war, which is much easier than trying to live with him and build a peaceful world with him in it. Henry retorts that he’s going to go away and build his own world “that’s fit for a man to live in. Where a man can be free, and have a chance, and do what he wants to do in his own way” (110). George ponders for a moment, then he tosses the gun out the window and suggests that he and Henry start over. However, Henry doesn’t want to start over pretending to be George’s obedient son and insists that he will make his own world. George replies that if Henry persists in thinking that freedom means grabbing everything that everyone has a right to have, he’ll make it his life’s mission to kill him. George hears Maggie’s voice, but Henry claims again that he doesn’t have a mother. George points out that when the war ended, he had come to their home for a reason—because Henry knows that this is his home. He tells Henry to behave for his mother’s sake, and Henry, enraged, lunges toward George’s throat. Sabina interrupts, shouting for the two men to stop and skip the scene, because the night before, Henry had lost control and nearly strangled George. Contritely, Henry admits that he did. Although he has great respect for George, Henry was abused as a child by his father and uncle, and the scene brings out something primal in him, an emptiness that makes him feel as if he needs to kill George, or he’ll be killed. He apologizes.

Sabina pipes up that she knew his family, and none of that happened. They worked hard to provide for him. They argue. George chimes in that Henry’s loss of control is his fault as well because he feels an emptiness too, as if his life is nothing but work. Maggie praises him for saying it. Sabina concludes, “We’re all just as wicked as can be, and that’s the God’s truth” (113). Sabina offers to take Henry to calm down so Maggie can finish the play. Henry thanks George for his admission and follows her out. Maggie notices George’s limp, which he says is just an old wound from another war that started to hurt. She comments that the world outside is starting to return to normal, expressing happiness that George has returned. They had stopped expecting letters because the mail had mostly stopped arriving. George replies, “Yes, the ocean’s full of letters, along with the other things” (115). Suddenly, George exclaims that he’s lost the will to start over and rebuild, which he had felt passionately during the war. During war, people dream of a new world, but in peacetime, they only want ease and comfort. Maggie promises that he’ll get his will back, telling him to listen to the baby crying. The hope of rebuilding has kept them alive all these years, and Maggie isn’t afraid of being uncomfortable.

Sabina enters and asks if she’s needed because she wants to go to the celebratory bonfire. The movie theater has also reopened, and they’re giving out free soup dishes. George doesn’t have any money, but the theater is taking any donations of supplies. Sabina admits that she’s wrong for hoarding them, but she found a stash of beef bouillon cubes yesterday. Maggie reminds her that she needs to take them to the Center to be distributed to the needy, and Sabina protests that they deserve what they want, and George would do better if he would recognize that the world has always been ruled by every man for himself. Finally, Sabina hands over the bouillon cubes, but asks for one to take to the movies. George gives it to her. Sabina thanks him for it and tells George that he shouldn’t put too much stock in the things she says, as she’s just a regular girl, and he’s a genius. She wouldn’t want to disrupt his plans, but sometimes she needs a night at the movies. She leaves. George remembers that what inspires him to build is the combination of seeing people who need things, his wife and children, and his books, which he is pleased to discover aren’t gone. The books have always guided him, and God has always given him new chances to start over. He opens a book and promises that they will never forget the things they’ve learned along the way.

At war, without his books, he’d try to remember the words, naming the night hours after philosophers. Nine o’clock is Spinoza, and Fred Bailey comes forward with his clock numeral and quotes Spinoza, who says that the things he wants and fears only have those values because his mind assigns them, and he is searching for something that is inherently good. Hester, Plato at 10 o’clock, asks how humans should choose rulers, and if they should choose leaders who have created order in themselves, as decisions made in pride or anger will hurt everyone. At 11 o’clock, Ivy as Aristotle says that humans have moments of divine inspiration, but God is more amazing, as he has it all the time. Mr. Tremayne, midnight, recites the first lines of the Bible: the story of creation. There is a sudden blackout and everything is silent. The lights come up, and Sabina restarts the play at the beginning of Act I. She stops and explains to the audience that this is the moment that they entered, and that they “have to go on for ages and ages” because “the end of this play isn’t written yet” (121). She says that the audience can go home, promising that the Antrobuses have plenty of ideas and plans, and they asked her to wish the audience good night.