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DEFEAT
A monologue from the play by John Galsworthy
download the complete text of Defeat
| NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Strife and Other Plays. John Galsworthy. Arlington: Black Box Press, 2008. |
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- GIRL: I don't hate even the English--I despise them.
I despise my people too; even more, because they began this war.
Oh! I know that. I despise all the peoples. Why haf they made
the world so miserable--why haf they killed all our lives--hundreds
and thousands and millions of lives--all for noting? They haf
made a bad world--everybody hating, and looking for the worst
everywhere. They haf made me bad, I know. I believe no more in
anything. What is there to believe in? Is there a God? No! Once
I was teaching little English children their prayers--isn't that
funny? I was reading to them about Christ and love. I believed
all those things. Now I believe noting at all--no one who is
not a fool or a liar can believe. I would like to work in a 'ospital;
I would like to go and 'elp poor boys like you. Because I am
a German they would throw me out a 'undred times, even if I was
good. It is the same in Germany, in France, in Russia, everywhere.
But do you think I will believe in Love and Christ and God and
all that--not I! I think we are animals--that's all! Oh, yes!
You fancy it is because my life has spoiled me. It is not that
at all--that is not the worst thing in life. The men I take are
not nice, like you, but it's their nature; and--they help me
to live, which is something for me, anyway. No, it is the men
who think themselves great and good and make war with their talk
and their hate, killing us all--killing all the boys like you,
and keeping poor people in prison, and telling us to go on hating;
and all these dreadful cold-blooded creatures who write in the
papers--the same in my country--just the same; it is because
of all of them that I think we are only animals.
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MONOLOGUES BY JOHN GALSWORTHY |
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