Monologue

Mrs Austin Monologue from The Second-Story Man

From The Second-Story Man by Upton Sinclair

female · anguished · 2:03 min

I understand it all... a child could understand! It is only you... the rising young lawyer... that doesn't understand! Harvey, Harvey! Do you know what you have done to this man... what you and I together have done to him? We have wrecked his life! We have driven him to hell! We have murdered his wife and his two children. We have turned him into a tramp and a criminal. We have climbed to success on top of him... we have made our fortune out of his blood! This house... this furniture... these pictures... all this beauty and comfort... all this we have coined out of his tears and agony... out of the lives of his sick wife and his two little babies! And you have done this for me... you have made me the cause of it... you have put the guilt of it upon my young life... a thing that I must carry through the world with me until I die! (AUSTIN: Helen!) No! Don't touch me! Speak to HIM! It is with him you have to do! What have you to say to him? Don't think about me! (AUSTIN: My dear, be reasonable!) What have you to say to him? That is what I want to know! Harvey! Don't you understand it is your character that is up for judgment?

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