LUCIFER: Every time I come up here they’ve got more junk. What a race—a little prosperity and they don’t even need the Devil.
EVE, awakening: What spirit art thou?
LUCIFER: It’s me, honey.
EVE: Why don’t you just go to hell and stay there?
LUCIFER: Darling, I’m terribly worried about your soul! A beautiful, intelligent woman like you can’t waste her life just cooking and doing the house. You simply have no idea what you’re missing!
EVE: I have absolutely everything I ever dreamed of, Angel. . . .
LUCIFER: But don’t you want to broaden your horizons?
EVE: No! She lies back down.
LUCIFER: Whatever you say, darling. Sweet dreams, pretty girl. Comes away with her. For all the bad I’ve done I might as well have stayed in Heaven. Only bad trouble will make them call to me for help. I’ll break them apart!—or they’ll turn the whole earth into this smug suburb of Heaven! Now let’s see—Cain is jealous of his brother; suppose we start from there. . . . He leaps to Cain when the light of dawn glows and Azrael appears behind the screen. Lucifer hides to observe him. Sotto: Azrael? What’s this about? Azrael raises his caped arms menacingly. My God, is somebody going to die? Azrael blows three loud, short breaths. The people instantly groan. Azrael vanishes. Lucifer comes down to the people. Groaning! Did he blow dreams of death into them?
ADAM—sits up: What a dream! Eve turns to him expectantly. I think I saw . . . something die.
EVE, against her fear: Maybe a sheep.
ADAM: No. It had a face.
LUCIFER: But none of them is old or sick—how do they die?
EVE: A person’s face?
ADAM: Yes. And there was blood.
EVE: Blood!
LUCIFER: Blood?—Is he setting them up for a murder?—Of course! What better way to make them guilty and put the fear of God back into them! What a mistake I nearly made—I’ve got to keep them out of trouble, not get them into it.
CAIN, sitting up: What a dream!
ADAM AND EVE: What!
CAIN: I think I saw something die.
LUCIFER: And here’s my opening at last! I’ll stop this killing and they’ll love me for it, and hate the Lord who has to have a death and their remorse! Oh, this is beautiful! But which one kills, and who’s supposed to die? He continuously moves around the periphery and sometimes in among them, searchingly, awaiting his opening.
ABEL, sitting up: What a dream!
ADAM: That’s enough. Eve, make breakfast.
ABEL: I was flying across the sky. . . .
EVE: But that’s a wonderful dream!
ABEL: And then I fell. . . . Mystified: And an angel kissed me.
CAIN, instantly—an exhale of recognition, his finger raised: Ohhhhh! All turn to him as he points to Abel. I remember now. He died. Eve gasps.
EVE: Don’t say that! She gets up and goes to Abel and, holding his head in her arms, kisses him. Adam moves her aside, and he kisses him.
LUCIFER: It’s Abel who dies? But who kills him?
CAIN, kisses Abel: I saw thee on the ground, thy face crushed, and a blood-covered flail . . . rolling away.
ADAM: All right, now wait a minute.
CAIN, turning to Adam: How is it that he dies in my sleep? Turning to Abel: You haven’t done anything, have you?
ABEL, to Eve: The minute anything happens he always blames me!
EVE: You two stop fighting.
ADAM: Now pay attention. Nobody ever dreamed of death before, so I don’t want to hear any arguments of any kind whatsoever today.
LUCIFER: Good man! To Eve: Brighten it up.
EVE: I’ll make a nice breakfast!
CAIN: Father. Adam turns to him, sensing his strange intensity. When you decided to leave Paradise, did God . . . ?
EVE: What’s Paradise got to do with this?
CAIN: I wish we could talk about it, Mother! Didn’t God give you any instructions when you left? I mean, how do we know we’re saying the right prayers. Or maybe we don’t pray enough.
ADAM: Oh, no I’m sure He’d let us know if we were doing something wrong.
CAIN: But maybe that’s what the dream was for.
ADAM, struck by this: Say!
CAIN: Because lately when I’m out in the fields chopping weeds—it suddenly seems so strange . . .
EVE, impatiently: What, dear?
CAIN: Did God order you to make me the farmer and Abel to tend the sheep?
ADAM: You can’t expect Him to go into those kind of details, Cain. He just felt it was time we went out in the world and multiplied, that’s all.
CAIN: Father, I’ve never understood why you couldn’t have stayed in the Garden and multiplied.
EVE: In the Garden!
ADAM: Oh, no, boy—
EVE: That’s not something you do in the Garden, darling.
CAIN: Well, what did He say, exactly, when you left?
ADAM: He said to get out—
EVE: Not “Get out!”
ADAM, quickly: No, no, not “Get out!”
EVE: I think he’s overtired.
CAIN: I am not overtired! Why do you always make everything ridiculous? I’m not talking about sheep or farming; I’m talking about what God wants us to do!
ABEL: If you think He wants me to farm, I’ll be glad to switch.
CAIN, to Adam with a laugh: He’s going to farm!
ADAM, laughing: God help us!
ABEL, protesting: Why!
CAIN: With your sense of responsibility, we’d be eating thistle soup!
EVE, touching Abel: He’s just more imaginative.
LUCIFER: Will you just shut up?
CAIN: Imaginative!
ABEL: Have I ever lost a sheep?
CAIN: How could you lose them? They always end up in my corn.
ABEL: Cain, that only happened once!
CAIN, with raw indignation: Go out there and sweat the way I do and tell me it only happened once!
EVE: He’s just younger!
CAIN: And I’m older, and I’ll be damned if I plant another crop until he fences those sheep!
LUCIFER: Stop this!
EVE, to Adam: Stop this!
CAIN: Why must you always take his side?
EVE: But how can he build a fence?
CAIN: The same way I plant a crop, Mother! By bending his back! Abel, I’m warning you, if you ever again—
ADAM: Boys, boys!
ABEL, turning away: If he wants a fence, I think he should build it.
CAIN: I should build it! Are the corn eating the sheep or the sheep eating the corn?
ABEL: It’s not natural for me to build a fence.
CAIN: Not natural! You’ve been talking to God lately?
ABEL: I don’t know anything about God. But it’s the nature of sheep to move around, and it’s the nature of corn to stay in one place. So the fence should fence the thing that stays in one place and not the thing that moves around.
ADAM: That’s logical, Cain.
CAIN: In other words, the work belongs to me and the whole wide world belongs to him!
ADAM, at a loss: No, that’s not fair either.
ABEL, angering, to Adam: Well, I can’t fence the mountains, can I? I can’t fence the rivers where they go to drink. To Cain: I know you work harder, Cain, but I didn’t decide that. I’ve even thought sometimes that it is unfair, and maybe we should change places for a while—
CAIN: You wouldn’t last a week.
ABEL, crying out: Then what am I supposed to do? Cain is close, staring into his face, a tortured expression in his eyes which puzzles Abel. Why is he looking like that? Suddenly Cain embraces Abel, hugging him close.
ADAM: Attaboy!
EVE, puzzled and alarmed: Cain?
CAIN—he lets Abel go and moves a few steps, staring: I don’t know what’s happening to me.
ADAM: Abel, shake his hand. Go on, make up. You’re both sorry.
ABEL, holding out his hand: Cain?
LUCIFER, victoriously to Heaven: Why don’t you give up!
Cain has just raised his hand to approach Abel when a large snake is dropped in their midst from Heaven. Eve screams. Lucifer rushes and flings it out of sight.
Lucifer: Scat! Get out of here!
EVE: It flew in and flew out!
ADAM: A flying snake?
Instantly the high howling of several coyotes is heard, and the family turns in all directions, as though toward an invading force.
Lucifer: off to one side, looking up to Heaven: Father, this is low!
ADAM, looking about at the air: Something is happening. To Eve, who is staring about: I think . . . I’d better tell them. She covers her eyes in trepidation. Eve? Maybe we’re supposed to, now.
EVE, lowering her hands: All right. Then maybe everything will be as it was again.
ADAM: Boys? Maybe you’d better sit down, boys.
ABEL: Tell what, Pa?
They all sit except Eve, who remains standing, staring about apprehensively.
ADAM: About the question of leaving Paradise—I don’t want you to think that we tried to mislead you or anything like that.
EVE, pleadingly to Cain: It’s just everything was going so good, you see?
ADAM, with a glance around at the air: But it looks like something is happening, so maybe we better get this settled.
ABEL: What, Pa?
ADAM: We . . . didn’t exactly decide to go, y’see. We were ah—he blinks away a tear—told to leave.
CAIN: Told?
ABEL: Why, Pa?
ADAM, fumbling: Why? Well . . . He turns helplessly to Eve. Why?
EVE: We just didn’t fit in, you see. I mean if a person doesn’t fit in—
ADAM: If we’re going to tell it, we better tell it.
EVE: But the way you’re telling it, it sounds like it was all my fault!
ADAM: I didn’t say anything yet!
EVE: Well, when are you going to say it?
ADAM, setting himself: Well—as we told you before, I was alone with God for a long time, and then—
ABEL: He made Mama.
ADAM: Right.
ABEL, with a big smile: And you liked her right away, heh?
CAIN: Of course he did.
ADAM: She was gorgeous. Of course, there wasn’t much choice. He laughs.
EVE: Ha. Ha. Ha.
ADAM: Well, anyway, I believe I mentioned there was this tree—with an apple—
ABEL: Of good and evil.
ADAM: Right.
CAIN: Which you’re never allowed to eat under any circumstances.
ADAM: Right. Well, the thing is, you see—we ate it.
ABEL—thrilled and scared, he laughs: You ate it!
CAIN: I thought you said you—
ADAM: No, we ate it.
ABEL, more scared now: Not Mama, though.
ADAM: Mama too.
Cain goes to a lyre and, turning his back on them, he plays. They watch him for a moment, aware of his intense feeling.
ABEL, avidly: And then what happened?
Cain strums as loud as he can, then stops.
ADAM, with a worried glance at Cain: Well, the next thing—I looked at her, y’see. And there was something funny. I didn’t know what it was. And then I realized. She was naked.
Cain now turns to them.
CAIN AND ABEL: Mama?
EVE: Well, he was too.
CAIN—shocked, he drops the lyre: Mama!
LUCIFER, holding his head: Ohhh!
EVE: We didn’t know it, darling!
CAIN: How could you not know you were naked?
EVE: Well, we were like children; like you, like Abel. You remember, when Abel was a baby and ran around—
CAIN, outraged, accusing: But you weren’t a baby!
EVE, to Adam, at a loss: Aren’t you going to say anything?
ABEL, explaining for Adam: Well, they were like animals.
CAIN, pained, horrified: Don’t you say a thing like that!
ADAM, to Cain: Well, I told you—I could smell water?
ABEL: Sure! And they could hear the trout talking.
CAIN: But you never said you were actually . . . animals.
ADAM: Now just a minute, Cain. That was the way God wanted it—
CAIN: I can’t believe that! God could never have wanted my mother going around without any clothes on!
ADAM, angrily, standing: You mean I wouldn’t let her put her clothes on?
EVE, going to him: Darling, we were innocent!
CAIN, furiously: You were naked and innocent? Don’t you understand that that’s why He threw you out?
EVE: He loved us most when we were naked. He only got mad when we knew we were. Slight pause.
CAIN, swept by this truth: No wonder we dreamed of death!
EVE: Why?
CAIN: We’ve been saying all the wrong prayers. We shouldn’t be thanking God—we should be begging His forgiveness. We’ve been living as though we were innocent. We’ve been living as though we were blessed!
EVE: But we are, darling.
CAIN: We are cursed, Mother!
EVE, furiously to Adam: You should never have told him!
CAIN: Why did you lie to us?
ADAM: Now just a minute . . .
CAIN, accusingly: I always knew there was something you weren’t saying!
ADAM: Just a minute! Slight pause. We didn’t want to frighten you, that’s all. But maybe now you’re old enough to understand.—He did curse us when He threw us out. And part of the curse is that we will have to die.
CAIN: We’re going to die?
ABEL: Like the sheep, you mean?
ADAM: Sheep, birds, everything.
CAIN: You and Mama, too? You mean we wouldn’t see you any more?
EVE: Don’t worry about it, darling. I’m sure we have a long, long time yet.
CAIN: You mean before He got angry you would never die?
ADAM: Far as I know—yes.
CAIN: Oh, my God—then He must have been absolutely furious with you.
EVE: I’m sure He’s forgiven us, dear, or we wouldn’t have you and everything so wonderful—
CAIN, sinking to his knees: Listen to me! I tell you we have been warned. Now we must do what has never been done.
EVE: Do what?
CAIN: We must give this day—not to the animals or the crops; this day we must give to God. I tell you—he looks upward tenderly—if we will open up our sins to Him and cleanse ourselves, He might show His face and tell us how we are supposed to live. Father, Mother, Abel—come and pray with me.
ADAM, to Eve: Well—a prayer wouldn’t hurt.
EVE, recalling: Maybe he’s right. Maybe it’ll all be sweet again. Going to her knees: What should we pray, darling?
Cain faces Heaven. Adam goes to his knees. And finally Abel.
CAIN: Almighty God, seeing that our parents were thrown out of Paradise for their transgressions against Thee, we, Cain and Abel, beseech Thy forgiveness. Let this family live, let us be innocent again! Now each one, give up the sin.
Adam and Eve shut their eyes and concentrate. Abel watches them, then leans over to Eve.
ABEL, with a glance at the praying Cain: Does this mean I’m building a fence?
CAIN, eyes shut: It seems to me that when a person dies in his brother’s dream he ought to pray!
ADAM: I saw it too, Abel—you were dead. I think you’d better pray.
Pause. All heads are lowered. Lucifer stands up. He co
mes down to them and sits next to Abel.
ABEL, softly: Mother!
EVE: Sssh!
ABEL: Someone has come.
ADAM: I don’t see anybody.
A slight pause. They contemplate, but Abel is glancing apprehensively toward Lucifer.
ABEL: Who art thou?
The family turns quickly to him, astonished, Lucifer being invisible to all but Abel.
LUCIFER: I am what you fear in your heart is true—your brother is dangerous. Tell him you’ll build the fence. Abel reacts in refusal. This man is inconsolable!
ABEL: Why?
LUCIFER: She loves you best, Abel.
ABEL: But Cain is loved!
EVE: How sweet! To Adam: Did you hear?
LUCIFER: Cain has her respect but her love has gone to you. Tell him you’ll build it if you care to live! Now Abel turns with new eyes to Cain.
ABEL: About the fence—
CAIN: Yes?
ABEL: You’re right. It’s not the corn that eat the sheep but the sheep that eat the corn—
LUCIFER: Attaboy!
EVE, to Adam, happily: Listen!
ABEL: So I will build the fence around the sheep.
EVE, to Adam: Do you hear!
ADAM: Marvelous.
CAIN: Where would you build it?
ABEL: Well—anywhere out of the way. In the valley?
CAIN: I need the valley.
ABEL: Oh . . . On the hillside?
CAIN: I’ll need the hillside. I’m planning to set out quite a large vineyard this spring.
ABEL: Where would you suggest, then?
CAIN: There is very rich pasture across the mountain.
ABEL: That’s . . . pretty far away, though, isn’t it?
CAIN: I don’t think it’s all that far.
LUCIFER: Agree! Agree!
ABEL, swallowing his resentment: All right, Cain.
LUCIFER: I know how you feel, son, but lying is better than dying.
EVE, affected by Abel’s anguish: Cain, dear, I want to tell him you didn’t mean that before—
The Penguin Arthur Miller Page 85