“He’s marooned his wife up there!”
This metaphorical description of one character’s treatment of his wife by another is essentially the plot in a nutshell. The entire narrative revolves around the suspicions of neighbors. These suspicions become wild accusations like this example as well as more literal interpretations truths unknown. Curiosity proves no to kill nearly so many cats as it does secrets that are really nobody else’s business.
Accusations
The plot moves into the arena where paranoia leads to casually throwing around accusations unfounded in fact. At the extreme end of paranoia almost always likes one destination: assaults upon the very sanity of others:
“You become an illusion, my friend, an illusion!—Well, do you see these madmen? Without noticing the illusion they carry along with them, within themselves, in their wild curiosity they chase after other people’s illusions! And they think it’s something totally different.”
Dehumanization
After exhausting accusations bringing into question the ability to logical reason, where else is there to go? Downward, of course, evolutionarily speaking. Inevitably, paranoid suspicions will eventually—if allowed to remain unchecked—descent to the point of metaphorical dehumanization:
“Those are the eyes of a wild animal, not a man.”
Madness Squared
The plot is complicated by conflicting suspicions and warring paranoias. Two different characters are assumed to potentially be mad, but logic dictates that this suspicion can only possibly prove true relative to one. So, who is mad and who is not and why is the one who is not mad acting like someone who may be insane?
“It’s like arriving at a railroad station—bam! bam!—and being endlessly switched from one track to another! We’re dizzy!”
Final Line
The line which draws the curtain down on the play is a metaphor wrapped in irony overlaid with a philosophical threat directed toward the audience. The mysteries of the characters which have aroused suspicions, created paranoia and engendered accusations are finally revealed and answered. Or are they?
LAUDISI: And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the voice of truth! (He looks all around with an expression of challenging mockery.) Satisfied? (He bursts out laughing:) Ha! ha! ha! ha!
