Summary
The Hubbards insist to Horace that his $75,000 will turn to millions, and he believes them, but wants to know more about the deal. Ben tells him that they plan to pay their workers poorly, and Horace laughs to himself, saying that he thinks the Hubbards will grow very rich indeed. When Regina questions what he means, Horace tells her he has no intention to enter into the deal with her brothers. "We've got enough money, Regina," Horace says, walking towards the staircase. As he passes Leo, he asks him about all his girlfriends in Mobile, and hints to Regina that he will never let Leo marry Alexandra.
Regina is frustrated with Horace and asks for his answer immediately, even though Ben and Oscar say it can wait until the next day. Regina insists on following Horace upstairs, even though he says he feels ill, and they go. Left behind, Leo tells Oscar and Ben that there are 27 cases of yellow fever in New Orleans as a result of flooding there. Suddenly, they can hear Regina and Horace arguing and listen in.
Regina asks Horace why he is refusing to go along with the plan at this juncture, and he insists that he doesn't know why, but he doesn't want it. Hearing this, Ben and Oscar worry that he may not come around and they might have to find an outside investor, who would want more for their investment. "I won't let you pass up this one just because you've gone crazy!" Regina yells.
Growing more nervous about the fact that Horace will not go along with the deal, Oscar alludes to the fact that Leo has access to a safety deposit box that has $88,000 in bonds in it, hinting that it's Horace's, but not telling Ben outright. Ben says, "We'll take the loan from Leo's friend—I think he will make a safer partner than our sister." Leo suggests that he would like to be a partner, which angers Ben.
As Regina demands to know Horace's reasons for not entering the deal, Alexandra pounds on the door asking her to stop. Alexandra runs down the stairs and pleads with Ben, "How can Mama talk to him like that—please, make her stop." There is the sound of a door slamming upstairs and Regina comes downstairs.
She asks Ben if she can have more time to secure Horace's money, and Ben tells her that Oscar has already gone to Chicago. Regina is confused, asking, "Did a ghost arrive with the money?" Ben leaves.
Horace comes out onto the landing and smugly notes that Regina's brothers don't even need her. "You hate to see anybody live now, don't you? You hate to think that I'm going to be alive and have what I want?" Regina fires back, resentfully. Horace insists that his resistance to the deal stems from the fact that he does not trust Regina's brothers. "There must be better ways of getting rich than cheating niggers on a pound of bacon...You wreck the town, you and your brothers, you wreck the town and live on it. Not me," he says.
"I hope you die soon," Regina says, as Alexandra begs her father not to listen and collapses into Addie's arms.
Act 3. Two weeks later, Horace sits in a wheelchair near the window next to his medicine and safety deposit box. Alexandra and Birdie play the piano, as Birdie recalls that Horace used to play the fiddle years ago.
When Addie asks Alexandra where Regina is, she tells her that Regina has gone to try on dresses at a dress shop, and Horace asks after Cal to run an errand for him. Birdie talks about how she and Horace used to play music together, and says that he has stood up for her many times when Oscar has been abusive. Cal comes in and Horace asks him to go to the bank and thank Mr. Mander for bringing the safety deposit box to Horace. He also instructs Cal to ask Mr. Mander to come over after supper with his attorney, Mr. Sol Fowler. Cal agrees and goes off to the bank.
Birdie recalls a time she got the hiccups during her first big party at her family's plantation, remembering it as the first time she met Oscar, a man of whom Birdie's mother did not approve. Of her mother's assessment of the Hubbards, Birdie says, "She said she was old-fashioned enough not to like people who killed animals they couldn't use, and who made their money charging awful interest to poor, ignorant niggers and cheating them on what they bought."
Birdie is getting drunker and drunker, reminiscing about the plantation and saying that she doesn't even like her own son, Leo. When Alexandra asks Birdie why she married Oscar, Birdie says, "I thought I liked him. He was so kind to me and I thought it was because he liked me, too. But that wasn't the reason," before suggesting that he married her for her money.
Growing more emotional, Birdie alludes to the fact that she knows she's an alcoholic, and tells Horace and Alexandra that she hasn't had a happy day in 22 years. Alexandra takes Birdie's hand and walks her home.
Analysis
The play is as much about economics and ethics as it is about interpersonal family issues and greed as it affects the individual. When the Hubbards tell Horace about their money-making scheme, they reveal to him that they plan to pay their workers small wages in order to make more money. Horace notes, "You can save a little money that way, Ben. And make them hate each other just a little more than they do now." As he sees it the plan is unfair not only because it is dividing the family itself, but because it promises to divide the workers as well, and spread divisiveness. Horace sees the bigger picture and the effects of the Hubbards' greed on society at large, and decides to resist. His argument is not only a personal one, but a political and ethical one as well.
Tensions rise even higher when Horace refuses, and Ben, Oscar, and Leo plot behind Regina and Horace's back to steal his bonds as an investment. Regina is just as conniving and selfish as her brothers, but even she gets duped by them when they plan to steal directly from her husband's account. No one is safe in the Hubbard family, as they are all excessively concerned with profit and manipulating their way to wealth. In a family so devoid of morality, no one is treated with any semblance of decency; rather, everyone becomes a potential dupe.
Regina's ethical position is a complicated one in that she is a greedy and ruthless woman, thinking only of her own selfish desires, but also a victim of the restraints placed on women of her time. She desperately wants her husband to go into business with her brothers, and is heartless in her pursuit of this end, but her financial desires are also rooted in her complete lack of financial autonomy. Thus, Regina is at once a feminist figure, desperate for fiscal control of her own destiny in a man's world, but also a villainous and diabolical character.
Ultimately, Horace is the moral voice of reason in the play. He points out that his desire not to enter into business with the Hubbard brothers has nothing to do with his not wanting to take care of Regina, but rather to do with his disapproval of Ben and Oscar's shady business dealings. He alludes to the fact that they are duping the black people in the community in order to make more money, and suggests that the Hubbard brothers are always acting purely in their own self-interest rather than thinking ethically, or about the community in which they live.
In this section we learn more about Birdie's tragic backstory. The daughter of wealthy Southern aristocrats, she married Oscar for what she thought was love, but turned out to be yet another manipulative business move on his part. He married her for her family's plantation and has made her life miserable ever since, which is why Birdie drinks to excess and longs for a past that is long gone. Birdie is an innocent, someone with a "tender heart" like Alexandra, and as a result she has fallen prey to the ruthless egotism of the Hubbards.
