Upton Sinclair

“ OCEANA. But Aunt Sophronia, that's my home! And it's God's own dream of beauty!
MRS. MASTERSON. Yes, my dear... I dare say...
OCEANA. Ah, you've never been there, or you wouldn't feel that way! Picture it as it is at this moment... the broad white beach... the sun setting and the clouds aflame... the great green breakers rolling in... the frigate-birds calling... the palm trees rustling in the wind! And you don't have to wrap yourself up in clothes... you don't have to shut yourself up in houses! You plunge through the surf, you dance upon the beach... naked... ”

“ Mother! Letitia! Oceana's here!
FREDDY. [Stoops to pick up the suitcases.] Why...
OCEANA. What is it?
FREDDY. [He moves them against the wall with a great effort.] You don't mean you CARRIED those!
OCEANA. Why, yes.
FREDDY. From the docks?
OCEANA. [Laughs.] Oh, dear me! I didn't mind that.
FREDDY. Well... I'll be blowed!
[He has fallen head over heels in love with her, and whenever he is in her presence he follows her about with his eyes, like one bewitched.]
OCEANA. You aren't strong as you ought to be! You stay too much in the house!
ETHEL. Here's mother! ”

“ OCEANA. I ought to have had sense enough to think of a theatrical costumer in the beginning. [Stretches her arms.] Oh, I feel so wonderful! Ha, ha, ha! I don't know whether it's the mountain air.. . or whether it's because I'm in love!
HENRY. [Seizes her hand.] Sweetheart!
OCEANA. [Stares at him.] How wonderful it is! Beyond all believing! I'm stunned by it... afraid of it. Tell me, Hal, were you ever drunk?
HENRY. [Laughs.] Once or twice.
OCEANA. [Seriously.] I never was. But I've watched my people sometimes and tried to understand it. And it's just that. Nature has made us drunk! ”

“ He brought it and laid it at my feet, and said that it was my bridal-robe, that I must wear it at my feast.
ETHEL. Oh, how lovely!
FREDDY. [Rises and turns away in despair.] Oh!
ETHEL. Tell me a little about the Sunrise Dance.
OCEANA. It represents the worship of Nature. It portrays an awakening from slumber... you know the soft part of the music at the beginning...
ETHEL. Yes.
OCEANA. Then gradually I rise to my feet and gaze towards the light. There is the sun shining upon the waves of the sea, and upon the palm branches. All life is awakening and singing for joy... ”

“ OCEANA. Not the least little bit, Freddy.
FREDDY. And if I waited ever so long?
OCEANA. I do not believe that I should ever feel it, [She puts her hand upon his arm.] My dear, dear boy! Learn to look at it as I do. Face it like a man. It is one of those things that we cannot help.. . that we do not even understand. It is the chemistry of sex; it is Nature's voice speaking to us. It means no disgrace to you that I do not love you... it means no inferiority, no defeat. It is the signal that Nature gives us, that we wait for, and dare not disregard. ”

“ I want to meet some wild animal again! Is there a wild animal in you? [They stare at each other; suddenly she springs and takes the other single-stick from FREDDY.] Here! You know this game! My father taught you! [She holds out one to him.] Come on!
HENRY. [Bewildered.] Oceana! This is not the place.
OCEANA. It's the place for me! Take it! [She forces it on him.] Now! Forget that I'm a woman! Ready!
HENRY. Oceana! No!
OCEANA. Are you afraid of your mother-in-law?
HENRY. Good heavens!
OCEANA. If you're not, you're the only man in the family that isn't. [She drops her robe.] Now! ”

“ ETHEL. And do you dance other things?
OCEANA. Oh, yes—lots of things.
ETHEL. Oh, Oceana! I'm just wild to see you!
OCEANA. And I'm wild to dance. I must have some vent pretty soon. You see, at home I was out of doors all the time. I hunted and fished, I swam and dived, I danced on the beach. And here... why, I walk down the street, and I daren't even so much as sing out loud. I have to remember that I'm a young lady, and have an ermine cloak on! Truly, I don't see how you ever stand it! ”

“ FREDDY. [Drops his eyes.] I see!
OCEANA. Don't think that I am despising you, dear boy. I know the world you have lived in.
FREDDY. But what can I do?
OCEANA. You can go away, and make a man of yourself. Go West, get out into the open. Learn to ride and hunt... harden your muscles and expand your chest. Until then you're not fit to be the father of any woman's child!
FREDDY. Drop college, you mean?
OCEANA. Be your own college! The idea of trying to build a brain in a body that's decaying! How could you stand it? Don't you ever feel that you are boiling over... ”

“ Canst thou be thine own judge, and avenger of thy law? Fearful is it to be alone with the judge and the avenger of thy law. So is a stone flung out into empty space and into the icy breath of isolation."
HENRY. That's all right... but if you expect Letitia to face this problem in any such way, you will be sadly disappointed.
OCEANA. That's none of my affair. All I have to do is to give her a chance. If she cannot face the facts, she has passed sentence upon herself.
HENRY. [Laughs.] All right, my dear. It will certainly be a scene to watch! ”

“ I, with my hunger for righteousness... I, who have disciplined myself as an anchorite, who have served as a priestess of life! And you, with your formulas and your superstitions... you pass judgment upon me! [With terrific energy.] See! This man and I, we are the gateway to the future! And you seek to bar it! By what right do you stand in the path of posterity... you tormentors of the ideal, you assassins of human hope!
MRS. MASTERSON. [Almost striking her.] Oh! Oh! And my children have to listen to this! [She whirls about.] Ethel! Freddy! Go out of the room!
ETHEL. I am going with Oceana. ”

“ Never again are you to love and to dare to create No, there are other things in life for you... bread and butter, cooks and dinner parties, billiards and bridge-whist... that is your portion! A married man!
LETITIA. [Terrified.] Henry! For God's sake!
[He no longer returns her embraces, but stares at Oceana, fascinated.]
OCEANA. Don't you see, man? It's a dream! A nightmare! Rouse yourself, lift your head... and it's gone! Life is calling! Come away!
LETITIA. [Frantically.] Mother! Mother!
MRS. MASTERSON. Quincy, if you can't stop this outrage, I will! Call the servants. ”

“ There were three on this last steamer.
FREDDY. Yes.
OCEANA. You say to marry you. But it's difficult for me to imagine myself marrying any man, no matter how much I loved him. One has to make so many promises, you know.
FREDDY. How do you mean?
OCEANA. You have to "love, honor and obey."
FREDDY. But, Oceana! That's a mere form.
OCEANA. No, no. It's written in the laws. All kinds of things... people don't realize it.
FREDDY. But surely... if you love a man... a decent man...
OCEANA. No decent man ought to ask a woman to sign away her self-respect. ”

“ They ride the rushing breakers in their frail canoes, they fish and gather fruits in the forests, they dream in the soft, warm sunshine... they are happy, they are care-free, their whole life is a song. And they are trusting, hospitable... the wonderful white strangers come, and they take them into their homes, and open their hearts to them. And the strangers go away and leave them a ghastly disease, that rages like a fire in their palm-thatched cabins, that sweeps through their villages like a tornado. ”

“ And she could take them away from you, legally... how much chance would they ever have in life, if she and her mother had the bringing up of them? Don't you see, Hal? What can we do?
LETITIA. [Clinging to Henry's bosom.] Henry, I love you!
OCEANA. I want to play the game generously, Letitia; but it is all I can do not to despise you... because he loves you, and it has meant so little to you, you have done so little in return. That is the curse of this thing you call marriage. You say to yourself that you've got him... the law and the conventions will keep him for you... ”

“ I've been thinking of it seriously... it's one way, that people might let me preach joy and health to them. If I can't do that, I'll go off and turn into a suffragette, or join the Anarchists, or something worse!
ETHEL. Freddy, what do you say?
FREDDY. I'll stand my share of the racket.
OCEANA. Oh, come on! I'm just wild for some kind of mischief! I could dance like the grandmother of all the witches! Come, let's practice some. Play for me, Ethel! Play! [Pushes her toward the piano; raises her hands in triumph; whispers.] Henry! ”

“ OCEANA. You have money of your own, Letitia.
LETITIA. Do you suppose I am thinking about money! I mean his protection.
OCEANA. A person who confesses to the need of protection has written himself down an inferior. [A pause.] You see, Letitia, times have changed; our ideas of marriage have charged. In the beginning a woman was a man's economic dependent; now that the man has become ashamed of that, he is made the woman's spiritual dependent. ”

“ FREDDY leans by the piano, watching her; she plays, more and more enthralled. The door opens softly.]
[OCEANA enters; a girl of twenty-two, superbly formed, dark-skinned, a picture of glowing health. She is clad in a short skirt and a rough sailor's reefer with cap to match; underneath this a knitted garment, tight-fitting and soft—no corsets. She carries two extremely heavy suitcases, and with no apparent effort. She sets these down and stands listening to the music, completely absorbed in it. There is the faintest suggestion of the Sunrise Dance in her attitude.] ”

“ On the other hand her enjoyment, however keen, never becomes boisterous. Her actions proceed from a continual overflow of animal health. She is like a little child, in that she cannot remain physically still for very long at a time; she moves about the room like an animal in a cage. Her speech proceeds from an overwhelming interest in the truth, regardless of all personality. She never conceals anything, and she never represses anything.]
ETHEL. [Finishes the music, then turns, and leaps up.] Oceana!
FREDDY. [Turns.] Oceana!
OCEANA. Ethel! [Embraces her.] Oh, my dear! ”

“ It is Nature's trumpet-call... it is the shout of discovery of the powers within us! For ages upon ages life has been preparing it... and now suddenly we meet... the barriers are shattered and flung down, the tides of being sweep us together! ”

“ Anna Talbot! I must beg you to have a little discretion!
LETITIA. Why should we hear about these things, Oceana?
OCEANA. My dear, it comes from America. The ships came from here! There was one of them I saw... "The Mary Jane, of Boston, Mass."
MRS. MASTERSON. No doubt, among such low men... men of vile life. .. sailors...
OCEANA. No, Aunt Sophronia... you're mistaken! It's everywhere. Isn't it, Uncle Quincy? You're a doctor... YOU must know!
DR. MASTERSON. Why, to tell the truth...
OCEANA. TELL the truth! Am I not right?
FREDDY. Of course you're right!
MRS. MASTERSON. Freddy! ”

“ ETHEL. You know, perfectly well, mother; that it's impossible for anybody to preserve any individuality in contact with you... that as a matter of fact, neither father nor Letitia nor Freddy nor myself have preserved a shred of it. Grandfather said that to you himself, the last time you ever saw him... ”

“ MRS. MASTERSON. Really, my dear, we shall have to leave the room. We'll all catch our death of cold.
OCEANA. My dear Aunt Sophronia, nobody ever caught a cold from winter air. Colds come from over-eating and bad ventilation. [She closes the window.] However, there you are! [Eagerly.] Now, let's have something beautiful—so that I can forget my blunders. Let's have some music. Will you play for me, Cousin Letitia?
LETITIA. I don't play, my dear. ”

“ DR. MASTERSON. You might as well tell the child, Sophronia. It's perfectly certain, Ethel, that your grandfather was not of sound mind when he made the will.
ETHEL. It's perfectly certain that he hated you and mother and Aunt Letitia and me and Freddy... every one of us; and that he had hated us for years and years; and that he left his money to Oceana to spite us all.
MRS. MASTERSON. That's precisely it, Ethel...
ETHEL. And I, for one, knowing that he hated me, don't want his money. And what is more, I refuse to touch his money.
DR. MASTERSON. Not being of age, my dear, you can't... ”

“ LETITIA. Every cook is worse.
MRS. MASTERSON. What he needs is some liver-pills. Quincy, you should attend to it! [Rises.] Well, I'm going upstairs. You'll stay to dinner, Letitia?
LETITIA. Yes, I want to lie down for a while.
DR. MASTERSON. And I'll beat myself a game of billiards.
[Exit With LETITIA and MRS. MASTERSON.]
ETHEL. [Drops her book to floor, springs up and paces the room.] Oh! If only I might change places with Oceana! If I could get away to some South Sea island, and be my own mistress and live my own life. [Takes photograph.] Oceana! I'm wild to see you! ”

“ I will do what I can to atone for your wantonness.
OCEANA. One moment, Aunt Sophronia.
MRS. MASTERSON. Well?
OCEANA. Ethel tells me that you had something to say to me about grandfather's will.
MRS. MASTERSON. Oh! Ethel told you, did she?
OCEANA. Yes... she wished you to know that she had told me. Of course, feeling towards me as you do, you would hardly expect me to give up any rights that I may have.
MRS. MASTERSON. We will be content with what rights the law allows us.
OCEANA. What I wished to say was that I would be willing to give Ethel part of my inheritance. ”