You Never Can Tell

G.B Shaw
You Never Can Tell By George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) You Never Can Tell is an 1897 four-act play by
George Bernard Shaw that debuted at the Royalty Theatre. It was published as part of a volume of Shaw’s
plays entitled Plays Pleasant.
Setting
Time: One Day in August 1896
Place: An English seaside resort, Marine Hotel.
Themes 1. Love and Marriage 2. Feminism 3. Socialism 4. Misunderstanding
Characters
1. Mr. (or Dr.) ValentineHe is thirty years old and professionally a dentist.
2. Gloria Clandon, the eldest daughter of Mrs. Clandon and 20 years old.
3. Dolly Clandon is 18 years old and the twin sister of Philip.
4. Philip Clandon, twin to Dolly – Mr. Roland Bottomley
5. Mrs. Lanfrey Clandon is a feminist. She is very modern and because of ideological differences, she left
her husband, Mr. Crampton, 18 years ago.
6. Mr. Fergus Crampton is a man of about sixty, tall, hard, and stringy, with an atrociously obstinate, ill-
tempered, grasping mouth, and a querulously dogmatic voice.
7. Mr. Finch McComas is a solicitor.
8. Walter Boon who is the waiter at the Marine Hotel.
9. Walter Bohun, who is the son of Walter Boon and QC which means Queens Counsel.
10. The Parlor-maid – Miss Mabel Hardinge
Summary

Dolly’s dental treatment to Mr. Valentine:

The drama starts in 1896 on the morning of august at a dentist’s chamber that is well-furnished and spacious
but there is a sign of Victorian poverty in the chamber. The name of the dentist is Mr. Valentine
who is thirty years old and has rented his chamber. Six weeks have passed since then he does not get any
patients. But for the first time, he has got a patient named Dolly who has come to England from Madeira, one
of the famous cities of Portugal is 18 years old and has come to the dentist to pull up her teeth. Dr. Valentine
tells his first patient that she is his first patient and she is to pay five shillings for pulling up teeth and another
five shillings if she wants to take gas. Dolly is surprised to hear that she is the first patient of the doctor. She
surprisingly tells him why he does not practice in a hospital. Valentine comically and scientifically replies that
though she is his first patient, she needs not to be worried because he is a well-trained doctor. Then he pulls
her teeth very efficiently. But she does not want the gas because she has to pay five shillings more. Then Dolly
asks Valentine why he charges five shillings for everything. Valentine comically replies that he wants that
people would call him five shillings doctor. However, in the meantime, Dolly’s voluptuous twin brother Philip
appears in the chamber. Philip is an extraordinary young man because he always observes human nature. He
observes the doctor with curiosity and decides that the doctor is not a rich man because he has been living
alone on the seashore without his parents. These three young people soon build up a friendship.
Invite Valentine to lunch:
Then, Dolly invites Valentine to join today’s lunch party with them. But Valentine politely tells her that he
could not go to lunch because he does not know them well. Then Philip and Dolly start a conversation very
irrelevantly. Being helpless, Valentine agrees to go to lunch. He goes inside to change his dress for lunch
The appearance of Mrs. Clandon and Gloria:
In the meantime, Mrs. Clandon, who is a feminist, and her elder daughter Gloria come to the Doctor’s chamber
because Dolly is late to return to the hotel named Marine Hotel. Valentine comes to his chamber from inside.
Dolly introduces Valentine to her mother and elder sister who is the perfect disciple of her mother. Here there
is a sign of love at first sight between Valentine and Gloria. The Parlor Maid of Doctor Valentine informs him
that his landlord wants to talk to him right now. Valentine tells his Maid to inform his landlord that he has four
patients in the chamber right now and within a few minutes he will meet him. Now Mrs. Clandon is astonished
because of such behavior of the doctor. She curiously asks the doctor why he is telling lie. He politely replies
that within six weeks Dolly is his only patient which is why his landlord is forcing him to leave his property
but today his lie will establish his business. Mrs. Clandon is convinced now. Valentine tells them to stay for a
while so that he can talk with his landlord at his house.
Children’s questions to the mother about the
father’s identity:
Valentine leaves and the three children of Mrs. Clandon insists on her knowledge about their father. Mrs.
Calndon says that their father is backdated person and she does not want to tell them anything
about him. Valentine returns with satisfaction. Mrs. Clandon tells him that she needs to go to a hotel because
she has an appointment to talk to one of her old friends in the hotel and also tells Valentine to bring his landlord
to the lunch party. Mr. Crampton comes to the chamber because his teeth are disturbing him very much and
he wants to get pulled up his disturbed teeth. Mr. Crampton very passionately looks at Dolly. Dolly asks Mr.
Crampton about his age and why he is looking at her in such a way. Mr. Crampton tells her that he is in his
fifty-seven and she looks like his mother. Dolly asks him if she does not resemble his daughter. Mr. Crampton
then becomes furious and Dolly is surprised feeling because the old man hates his daughter. Gloria, Dolly, and
Philip leave the chamber reminding Valentine lunchtime that is half past one. Mr. Crampton also agrees to go
to lunch.
Conversation between Valentine and Mr. Crampton
about conjugal life:
Then Valentine and Mr. Crampton talk about conjugal life. Valentine is very positive as to conjugal life, but
Mr. Crampton is very pessimistic. Then Valentine asks Mr. Crampton why he is negative about
conjugal life. Mr. Crampton replies furiously that he is not a bachelor. Valentine asks his landlord about Mrs.
Crampton. He tells him that eighteen years ago she left him, and he does not know where she is with his
threechildren.
Unveiling Mr. Crampton’s identity:
Later in the day, on the terrace of the resort hotel, Mrs. Clandon talks with Finch McComas about socialism
which is hated by Mrs. Clandon. McComas requests Mrs. Clandon to leave her ideology because the time is
changed now. Mrs. Clandon boastfully declares that her ideology will not perish because she has built up
Gloria with her strong ideology. McComas asserts that Gloria should let go of her own way. However,
McComas asks Mrs. Clandon why she has asked him to come here. Mrs. Clandon replies comically that she
has not seen him for a long time. Then McComas requests her to tell the real cause. She tells him that she has
asked him to come here to narrate about Mr. Crampton to her three children. Mrs. Clandon and her three
children are now with McComas. Mrs. Clandon tells Dolly that Mr. McComas has something more serious
than that to tell you. I have asked my old friend to answer the the question you asked this morning. He is your
father’s friend as well as mine: and he will tell you the story more fairly than I could. McComas starts but is
interrupted by Dolly’s question.
She asks him how old her father is. McComas retorts that her father is seventy-five years old and he is now
living in this town. He is a very wealthy man. Dolly then asks about her father’s name. McComas answers
Mr. Crampton. Now Dolly is delighted but Philip is furious and cannot accept Mr. Crampton as his father.
McComas tells Philip that he has no right to choose his father from his own perspective. The whole
environment is shut down because this morning they met Mr. Crampton and invited him for lunch. Mrs.
Clandon and Gloria go inside the hotel. Philip tells the waiter named William Boon to play a trick with Mr.
Crampton. The waiter agrees. Mr. Crampton arrives at the hotel with Valentine. The waiter respectfully
informs Mr. Crampton that he is going to have lunch with his children which means with his family. Mr.
Crampton is now astonished and warns the waiter not to have fun with him in such a way. The waiter politely
retorts that he is not funning because a solicitor named McComas has told the whole story to the children.
Now Mr. Crampton is more furious and threatens Valentine for this. Valentine convinces Mr. Crampton not to
get excited and the waiter with his diplomatic capacity soothes everyone’s hot feelings. At the lunch, Mr.
Crampton heads the table, but he is insulted heavily by all of his three children. He is attacked with the fury
of his children. But the most pathetic matter to Mr. Crampton is that his children are not well-mannered
because they have all the habits. Through the lunch, the playwright satirized the so-called Victorian
modernism.

The love between Gloria and Valentine:

Now the scene turns to Gloria and Valentine. Valentine praises a lot the beauty of Gloria. But on the other
hand, Gloria adheres blindly to her feminist thinking. She mentions that she has no tendency
for marriage and adds that a woman who has self-prestige cannot marry. Dolly and Philip inform Mrs. Clandon
that Gloria has fallen in love with Valentine. Mrs. Clandon talks to Gloria about the matter. She persuades
Gloria not to accept Valentine’s love.
Mrs. Clandon’s ideology about family:
Mrs. Clandon explains to Gloria about the type of family. According to Mrs. Clandon, family is two types – a
mutual understanding based and male-dominated. She boastfully announces that she has a family based on
mutual understanding so why Gloria needs to marry?
A scientific explanation of love:
Now scene turns to Gloria’s fury. When Gloria learns that Valentine has already proposed to several women,
she asks him directly and Valentine without any hesitation confesses that he has already proposed to several
women. But it is the natural instinct of a man to propose to women for the purpose of finding out true partner.
Now, he has got his perfect match which is why he does not anymore for propose anyone. But Gloria is not
convinced. But Valentine explains when he saw Gloria, he felt that oxygen was running in his blood. Gloria
also admits that she also felt so. Valentine also illustrates that their relationship is like a chemical reaction. In
a chemical reaction, a new is always produced by mixing at least two elements. Likewise, the relationship
between man and woman is prolific because a new human comes to this world through such a relationship.
Now Gloria is convinced and kisses Valentine. But Valentine is not satisfied since he has known from disguised
waiter Bohun, who is the counsel of Queen Victoria, that Gloria also engaged herself in several love affairs
before engaging with Valentine. The young counsel settles the matter and Mr. Crampton is accepted by his
children and his wife Mrs. Clandon too. But Valentine is unhappy. But waiter Boon convinces and suggests to
Valentine “You Never Can Tell’’.
 Desire Under the Elms
Eugene O’ Neill
The play opens on the Cabot family’s New England farm in 1850. The farmland is incredibly rocky, and oppressive Elm
trees tower over the farmhouse, leaving it in constant shadow. Ephraim Cabot (who goes by just “Cabot”) owns the
farm, and his three adult sons—Simeon, Peter, and Eben—all despise him. Simeon and Peter, who are Cabot’s sons
from his first marriage, hate their father for subjecting them to hard lives of physical labor on the farm, and they dream
of running away to California to strike it rich in the Gold Rush. But Eben, Cabot’s son from his second marriage to Maw,
hates Cabot for subjecting Maw to such hard farm labor and literally working her to death. Maw died when Eben was a
teenager, and ever since then he’s been consumed with the desire to avenge her death and claim back the farm, which
he believes rightfully belongs to Maw, not Cabot.
On a visit to town, Eben learns that Cabot, who’s been out of town for a few months, has just remarried. Cabot’s sons
are furious, as this threatens their right to inherit the farm. The next day, Eben hastily decides to buy Simeon’s and
Peter’s shares of the farm—since Eben’s the youngest of the brothers, having Simeon and Peter out of the way will help
him more easily claim the farm back from Cabot. Simeon and Peter carefully weigh their options and decide to accept,
planning to use the money to fund their trip to California. When the ageing Cabot returns to the farm with his young
wife Abbie Putnam, Simeon and Peter promptly leave to seek their fortunes, cursing Cabot as they go. Meanwhile, an
excited Abbie explores her new home and meets Eben. Though the two are attracted to one another, Eben’s angry that
she thinks the farm is hers.

Two months later, Abbie is sitting on the porch. She flirts with Eben (much to his frustration), who is on the way to see
his sweetheart, Minnie. Feeling jealous, Abbie vengefully tells Cabot that Eben tried to seduce her, but when Cabot
vows to kill Eben for this, Abbie regrets saying anything and tries to pass her comment off as a joke. Relieved, Cabot
leans in to kiss Abbie, but she pulls away in disgust. Abbie convinces Cabot to leave the farm to her if she has a baby,
and he agrees.
That night, Cabot and Abbie are in bed. Her eyes are locked on the wall to the adjoining bedroom, where Eben sits in
his bed, similarly fixated on the wall that divides him from Abbie. Oblivious to this, Cabot rambles on to his wife about
how he’s worked hard for years, relentlessly digging stones out of the farm’s rocky, unforgiving land, and how he
believes God doesn’t like easy success. He’s also been lonely for years: his first wife and second wife (Maw) both died,
and when Maw’s parents tried to steal the farm from him, this caused him even more trouble. Realizing that Abbie isn’t
listening and feeling unsettled by her, Cabot leaves in a huff to sleep in the barn.
With Cabot out of the house, Abbie then goes into Eben’s room and attempts to seduce him. Though the desire between
them is palpable, Eben forces himself to resist. But when Abbie leaves Even’s room for Maw’s parlor (which has
remained empty since Maw’s death), Eben follows her in a confused daze, calling out for Maw. The parlor feels creepy
at first to both Eben and Abbie, but the room’s energy soon warms. Abbie suggests that this is a sign that Maw wants
them to be together, and Eben runs into Abbie’s arms, half out of grief for Maw, half out of desire for Abbie. Abbie says
that she’ll love him just like Maw did—that Eben will be like a son to her—and they kiss passionately and make love.
The next morning, Eben is overjoyed that Maw can finally rest in her grave.
One year later, there’s a party at the farmhouse. Upstairs is a conflicted-looking Eben and a baby in a cradle. Downstairs,
Cabot is partying drunkenly, while Abbie, who looks pale and weak, keeps asking where Eben is. The crowd gleefully
mocks Cabot behind his back, clearly sensing that Eben, not Cabot, is the father of Abbie’s baby, though Cabot doesn’t
know this. After Cabot heads to the barn to sleep off his drunkenness, Abbie joins Eben upstairs, and they look lovingly
at the baby. Down below, the crowd celebrates the miserly Cabot being fooled.
Later that night, Eben runs into Cabot outside. Cabot mocks his son, saying that Eben will never have the farm with
Abbie around—she even plotted to have a child just so that she could claim it for herself. Shocked and enraged, Eben
springs up to confront Abbie, but Cabot pins Eben to the wall by his neck, mocking him further. A terrified Abbie rushes
to Eben’s aid as Cabot releases him and walks away. Eben curses Abbie for manipulating him, and he blurts out that he
wishes the baby were dead. Abbie is desperate to prove to Eben that her loyalties lie with him and not the baby or the
farm, but Eben doesn’t believe her. He vows to leave for California in the morning.
Just before dawn, Abbie is standing over the baby’s cradle, when she suddenly lets out a cry and shrinks away in horror.
She runs downstairs, flings her arms around Eben, and says that she’s killed “him” to prove her love to Eben. Eben
assumes that Abbie killed Cabot, and he's thrilled. Laughing shrilly, Abbie admits that would have been smarter. She
explains that she killed their baby to prove to Eben that she doesn’t want to steal the farm. Eben is horrified, and he
immediately leaves to tell the Sheriff, leaving Abbie in tears, helplessly begging Eben to love her again.
Cabot wakes up to find Abbie looking pale and sick, and she admits that she killed the baby. Shocked and engaged,
Cabot grabs Abbie, but she pushes him away furiously and spits that the baby is Eben’s. Cabot is shocked. Eben suddenly
rushes back in, crying that he told the Sheriff about the murder but was instantly overcome with regret, because he really
does love Abbie. They run into each other’s arms. Disgusted, Cabot says that both Abbie and Eben should be hanged.
Cabot quickly decides to abandon the farm and leave for California, but when he opens a floorboard to dig out his life
savings, he’s shocked to find that his money is gone. Eben admits that he used it to pay Simeon and Peter in exchange
for their portions of the farm. Suddenly realizing he’s going to be lonely again, Cabot murmurs that he would never
have turned Abbie in like Eben did. He commits himself to continuing to slave away on the farm and dying alone,
thinking it’s God’s will.
The Sheriff arrives to arrest Abbie for the murder, and Eben turns himself in as well, although Abbie begs him not to.
As the Sheriff leads the pair away, they affirm their love for each other. The Sheriff looks around the farm, noting that
it’s very pretty and that he wishes he owned it.

Death of a Salesman Summary

Arthur Miller

Willy Loman, a traveling salesman, returns home to Brooklyn early from a sales trip. At the age of 63, he has
lost his salary and is working only on commission, and on this trip has failed to sell anything. His son Biff,
who has been laboring on farms and ranches throughout the West for more than a decade, has recently arrived
home to figure out a new direction for his life. Willy thinks Biff has not lived up to his potential. But as Biff
reveals to his younger brother Happy—an assistant to the assistant buyer at a department store—he feels more
fulfilled by outdoor work than by his earlier attempts to work in an office.
Alone in his kitchen, Willy remembers an earlier return from a business trip, when Biff and Happy were young
boys and looked up to him as a hero. He contrasts himself and his sons with his next door neighbor Charley,
a successful businessman, and Charley's son Bernard, a serious student. Charley and Bernard, in his view, lack
the natural charisma that the Loman men possess, which Willy believes is the real determinant of success. But
under the questioning of his wife Linda, Willy admits that his commission from the trip was so small that they
will hardly be able to pay all their bills, and that he is full of self-doubt. Even as Linda reassures him, he hears
the laughter of The Woman, his mistress in Boston.
Charley comes over to see if Willy is okay. While they are playing cards, Willy begins talking with the recently
deceased figure of his brother Ben, who left home at the age of seventeen and made a diamond fortune in
Africa and Alaska. Charley offers Willy a job but Willy refuses out of pride, even though he has been
borrowing money from Charley every week to cover household expenses. Full of regrets, Willy compares
himself to Ben and their equally adventurous, mysterious father, who abandoned them when they were young.
He wanders into his back yard, trying to see the stars.
Linda discusses Willy's deteriorating mental state with the boys. She reveals that he has tried to commit
suicide, both in a car crash and by inhaling gas through a rubber hose on the heater. Biff, chagrined, agrees to
stay home and try to borrow money from his previous employer, Bill Oliver, in order to start a sporting goods
business with Happy, which will please their father. Willy is thrilled about this idea, and gives Biff some
conflicting, incoherent advice about how to ask for the loan.
The next morning, at Linda's urging, Willy goes to his boss Howard Wagner and asks for a job in the New
York office, close to home. Though Willy has been with the company longer than Howard has been alive,
Howard refuses Willy's request. Willy continues to beg Howard, with increasing urgency, until Howard
suspends Willy from work. Willy, humiliated, goes to borrow money from Charley at his office. There he
encounters Bernard, who is now a successful lawyer, while the greatest thing Willy's son Biff ever achieved
was playing high school football.
Biff and Happy have made arrangements to meet Willy for dinner at Frank's Chop House. Before Willy arrives,
Biff confesses to Happy that Oliver gave him the cold shoulder when he tried to ask for the loan, and he
responded by stealing Oliver's pen. Happy advises him to lie to Willy in order to keep his hope alive. Willy
sits down at the table and immediately confesses that he has been fired, so Biff had better give him some good
news to bring home to Linda. Biff and Willy argue, as distressing memories from the past overwhelm Willy.
Willy staggers to the washroom and recalls the end of Biff's high school career, when Biff failed a math course
and went to Boston in order to tell his father. He found Willy in a hotel room with The Woman, and became
so disillusioned about his former hero that he abandoned his dreams for college and following in Willy's
footsteps. As Willy is lost in this reverie, Biff and Happy leave the restaurant with two call girls.
When Biff and Happy return home, Linda is furious at them for abandoning their father. Biff, ashamed of his
behavior, finds Willy in the back yard. He is trying to plant seeds in the middle of the night, and conversing
with the ghost of his brother Ben about a plan to leave his family with $20,000 in life insurance money. Biff
announces that he is finally going to be true to himself, that neither he nor Willy will ever be great men, and
that Willy should accept this and give up his distorted version of the American Dream. Biff is moved to tears
at the end of this argument, which deepens Willy's resolve to kill himself out of love for his son and family.
He drives away to his death.
Only his family, Charley, and Bernard attend Willy's funeral. Biff is adamant that Willy died for nothing, while
Charley elegizes Willy as a salesman who, by necessity, had nothing to trade on but his dreams. Linda says
goodbye to Willy, telling him that the house has been paid off—that they are finally free of their obligations—
but now there will be nobody to live in it.

The Glass Menagerie Summary

Tennessee William

The Glass Menagerie is a memory play, and all the events are drawn from the memories of the play’s
narrator, Tom Wingfield, who is also a character in the play. The curtain rises to reveal the dimly lit Wingfield
apartment, located in a lower-class tenement building in St. Louis. The apartment is entered by a fire escape.
Tom stands on the fire escape and addresses the audience to set the scene. The play takes place in St. Louis in
the nineteen-thirties. Tom works in a warehouse to support his mother, Amanda, and his sister, Laura. A
gentleman caller, Tom says, will appear in the final scenes of the play. Tom and Laura’s father abandoned the
family many years ago, and except for a single postcard reading “Hello––Goodbye!” has not been heard from
since.
Tom enters the apartment, and the action of the play begins. Throughout the play, thematic music underscores
many of the key moments. The Wingfields are seated at dinner. Amanda nags Tom about his table manners
and his smoking. She regales Tom and Laura with memories of her youth as a Southern belle in Blue Mountain,
courted by scores of gentleman callers. The stories are threadbare from constant repetition, but Tom and Laura
let Amanda tell them again, Tom asking her questions as though reading from a script. Amanda is disappointed
when Laura, for what appears to be the umpteenth time, says that she will never receive any gentleman callers.
Amanda has enrolled Laura in business college, but weeks later, Amanda discovers that Laura dropped out
after the first few classes because of her debilitating social anxiety. Laura spends her days wandering alone
around the park and the zoo. Laura also spends much of her time caring for her glass menagerie, a collection
of glass figurines. Amanda is frustrated but quickly changes course, deciding that Laura’s best hope is to find
a suitable man to marry. Laura tells Amanda about Jim, a boy that she had a crush on in high school. Amanda
begins to raise extra money for the family by selling subscriptions for a women’s glamour magazine.
Tom, who feels stifled in both his job and his family life, writes poetry while at the warehouse. He escapes the
apartment night after night through movies, drinking, and literature. Tom and Amanda argue bitterly, he
claiming that she does not respect his privacy, she claiming that he must sacrifice for the good of the family.
During one particularly heated argument, precipitated by Tom’s manuscripts pouring out of the typewriter,
Tom accidentally shatters some of Laura’s precious glass animals.
Tom stumbles back early one morning and tells Laura about a magic trick involving a man who escapes from
a nailed-up coffin. Tom sees the trick as symbolic of his life. Due to Laura’s pleading and gentle influence,
Tom and Amanda eventually reconcile. They unite in their concern for Laura. Amanda implores Tom not to
abandon the family as her husband did. She asks him to find a potential suitor for Laura at the warehouse.
After a few months, Tom brings home his colleague Jim O’Connor, whom he knew in high school and who
calls Tom “Shakespeare.” Amanda is overjoyed and throws herself into a whirlwind of preparation, fixing up
the lighting in the apartment and making a new dress for Laura. When Laura first sees Jim and realizes that
he is her high-school love, she is terrified; she answers the door but quickly dashes away. Amanda emerges in
a gaudy, frilly, girlish dress from her youth and affects a thick Southern accent, as though she is the one
receiving the gentleman caller. Laura is so overcome by the whole scene that she refuses to join the table,
instead lying on the sofa in the living room.
After dinner, the lights in the apartment go out because Tom has not paid the electricity bill––instead, as Tom
and Jim know but Laura and Amanda don’t, Tom has paid his dues to join the merchant marines. Amanda
lights candles, and Jim joins Laura by candlelight in the living room. Laura slowly warms up and relaxes in
Jim’s gently encouraging company. Laura reminds Jim that they knew each other in high school and that he
had nicknamed her “Blue Roses,” a mispronunciation of her childhood attack of pleurosis. Jim tells Laura that
she must overcome her inferiority complex through confidence. Laura shows Jim her glass collection and lets
him hold the glass unicorn, her favorite. They begin to dance to the strains of a waltz coming from across the
street. As they dance, however, Jim knocks over the unicorn, breaking off its horn.
Jim kisses Laura but immediately draws back, apologizing and explaining that he has a fiancée. Laura is
devastated but tries not to show it. She gives him the broken glass unicorn as a souvenir. Amanda re-enters
the living room and learns about Jim’s fiancée. After he leaves, she accuses Tom of playing a trick on them.
Tom storms out of the house to the movies, and Amanda tells him to go to the moon. Tom explains that he got
fired from his job not long after Jim’s visit and that he left his mother and sister. However, no matter how far
he goes, he cannot leave his emotional ties behind. The play is his final act of catharsis to purge himself of the
memories of his family.