Inge, William. Come Back, Little Sheba.

Summary & Analysis

Act One, Scene One

The stage is empty. The downstairs of an old house in a semi-respectable neighbourhood in a Midwestern city. A kitchen and a living room. All littered and dirty. Morning in late spring. No action for several seconds.

Doc, a neat man in his forties, comes downstairs to the kitchen. He says his prayer and starts fixing a breakfast. Marie Buckholder, a young girl of eighteen or nineteen who lodges in the house, comes from her bedroom. She studies to become a painter but this morning she is going to the library to get some biology books. Doc used to study too, he was to become a regular doctor and not a chiropractor only, but he had to give up his studies in his third year. He avoids Marie's questions on the subject.

Doc's wife, Mrs Lola Delaney, comes downstairs. Her appearance is disordered and clumsy, she looks disillusioned and tired with life. She contrasts both to Doc's cleanliness and neatness and Marie's freshness and youthful cheerfulness. Doc fixes breakfast for both Marie and Lola as a matter of course. Lola dreamt of Little Sheba again, her cute white fluffy puppy who got lost. She goes out to the porch everyday and calls Little Sheba to come back, professedly just in case the dog should happen to be nearby. She relates her dream to Doc in a self-pitying tone. She wonders whether Mrs Coffman from the next door did not poison the dog, but Doc thinks this is an absurd idea.

Doc is a member of the Alcoholics Anonymous and in the evening he plans to go out helping other people who have problems with drinking. He has been sober now for nearly a year. After the breakfast Doc starts washing the dishes. He offers Marie to walk with her a part of the way but Marie waits for her boyfriend Turk to pick her up. Doc is a little disappointed but he is not going to compete with an athlete. Marie met Turk when he posed as a model in her drawing class, which is what sports students often do to earn some little money. Because of his trainings, Turk has little time for his theory studies and Marie is going to help him with biology.

Marie expects a telegram by Bruce, her rich and respectable Cincinnati boyfriend. Marie's boyfriends are one of Lola's liveliest interests. Marie seems to prefer the vital Turk to the more serious Bruce but she thinks she may marry the latter after all when she finishes her studies. Doc used to be wealthy too, when Lola married him, but he was ruined by drinking. Like Marie, Lola wished to have many children, but her baby daughter died and she could have no more children. Lola wanted to get a job then because she did not want what to do with herself, but Doc would not hear of it.

Doc gave up his pre-med course and went to chiropractor school instead so as to be able to support the family. He married Lola when she was eighteen because she got pregnant. Lola was happy to escape from the influence of her strict father who guarded her from boys until then. Lola never went home to Green Valley after her marriage, only her mother occasionally comes to see her now.

Turk, a vigorous husky boy of nineteen or twenty, arrives to call for Marie. Lola unconsciously admires is stature and physique. Turk mentions that he is now training for javelin throwing and Lola shows her simple-mindedness because she does not know what a javelin is. Marie asks Lola whether she can bring Turk in the evening because she needs to finish the picture for which Turk posed as a model. Lola readily consents and offers Marie to use the living room, as Doc will be out in the evening. The couple leaves and Lola is alone.

She goes out and calls Little Sheba to come back but nothing happens. She feels lonely, depressed, and bored to death. A postman goes by but he does not bring her anything. She lures him into the house and offers him some water for refreshment. She does not want him to leave and embarrasses him with a long desperate monologue about her husband's habits, patients, and cured alcoholism. Finally she gives him a toy she got in a box of breakfast food to give to his grandchildren, as she has no children herself. The postman promises to see that she gets a letter even if he should write it himself.

Lola spies her neighbour, Mrs Coffman, who is busy with hanging baby clothes on lines outside of the house. She has seven children to take care for. Lola tries to lure her for a visit so that she would have some company but Mrs Coffman is too busy to accept. Lola is annoyed by her refusal.

A milkman arrives. He reminds Lola that she can only tick items on the order card and they will be delivered to her. Lola apparently prefers to talk to the milkman and she takes her time with her order. She selects several extra items and repeats the monologue she held previously for the postman. She admires his physique and the milkman tells her that he started working out on the bar-bell and that he does forty push-ups every morning. Lola again wonders about the bar-bell and about the push-ups, so the milkman demonstrates a push-up or two and lets Lola feel his muscles. He sent his photo to the Strength and Health magazine and promises Lola a copy if they print the picture.

Lola listens to a radio show called Taboo, which for a short time enables her to leave behind her routine. A telegram for Marie arrives and Lola cannot resist reading it. She learns that Bruce is coming the next afternoon. Marie and Turk return and Turk poses for Marie's picture in his track suit. Lola surveys the picture and the model with preying eyes. Doc arrives and is uneasy about the situation. He holds Marie for an innocent pure creature and fears that Turk might ruin her. Turk makes advances to Marie when she finishes the picture and kisses her passionately, confirming Doc's fears.

Act One, Scene Two

The same evening. The house has undergone a miraculous transformation and is now spotlessly clean. Lola has been working hard to prepare the house for Bruce's coming. Doc arrives from work. He tunes Schubert's Ave Maria on the radio and listens entranced. The music expresses for him some ideal of beauty that he never fully realized. Lola returns from Mrs Coffman with some silver polish for the plates. She is going to use the silver set they got from Doc's mother as a wedding present for the dinner she prepares for Bruce and Marie. She changes the radio station to a sentimental ballad. Doc wonders where Marie is and expresses his disapproval of Turk.

Doc takes a packet of cards and starts shuffling them in a graceful manner. Lola watches him with pleasure and makes him show her some card tricks. She has seen all of the tricks for a thousand times but she still takes a childish delight in them. Lola starts inquiring whether Doc does not regret having married her, considering that she was once a Beauty Queen but now grew old and fat. Doc dismisses her doubts but he does not sound very convincing. He only wonders whether he was really Lola's first and only boy, as she claims. He however refuses to talk about the past which cannot be changed, he is for going on and living for the present.

Lola dances an awkward Charleston to the radio, trying to recapture the feeling of youth. She is embarrassed when Marie arrives and sees her. She runs to the kitchen crying over Marie's innocent remark on her dance. Lola gives Marie her telegram, claiming it arrived an hour ago. This is inconsistent with the fact of her having been cleaning for the whole day, so Doc easily discovers that Lola read the telegram. He is upset with Lola's behaviour but Lola does not realize that she has done anything wrong. Doc leaves for his errand and Lola accompanies him for a part of the way.

Meanwhile Marie and Turk sit outside on the porch and Turk teases her amorously. Lola soon returns, enters the house very quietly, and goes to the window to watch Marie and Turk unobserved. Lola loves to spy on other people, but not out of mischief, it apparently brings her pleasure to watch young lovers and recall her own youth. Marie tries to converse with Turk instead of what they do otherwise when they are together, but the conversation is not very successful, so Marie takes Turk secretly to her room. Lola goes out to the porch and calls Little Sheba in a plaintive voice, as if she were calling her lost youth.

Act Two, Scene One

The next morning. Doc is apprehensive about Marie and Turk, whereas Lola does not see anything bad in their relationship. Doc's worst fears are confirmed when he accidentally stumbles at Turk who is just stealing out of Marie's room. Doc's spiritual ideal of Ave Maria is shattered. After this Doc succumbs to the temptation represented by a bottle of whiskey which has been lying on a shelf for some time without attracting him. He hides the bottle under his raincoat and leaves for work.

Act Two, Scene Two

Afternoon the same day. Lola has been in much pains to prepare the best possible dinner for Bruce. Mrs Coffman let Lola have some of her lilacs, which now decorate the dining table. Lola thinks the flowers beautiful but Marie reminds her that they do not last long. The spring flowers in this way represent what happens to all beautiful young things and what happened to Lola herself.

Bruce arrives and hesitates to stay for dinner, but Marie makes him do so out of respect for her hostess's efforts. Lola discovers that the whiskey bottle is missing. Doc does not come home for dinner. Lola planned that all the four of them would eat together but now she has only Marie and Bruce eating. Lola realizes Doc's danger and calls Ed Anderson, Doc's friend from the Alcoholics Anonymous, to inquire after her husband.

Act Two, Scene Three

Morning the next day. There are dirty plates on the table and the lilacs have wilted. Doc comes home drunk. He is aggressive and runs after Lola with a hatchet. He gives way to his despair and disappointment in his useless wife who destroyed his career. He blames her for encouraging Marie's love affairs, in rage he pulls the table cloth and sends the silver breaking on the floor. He tends to see all young girls as little innocent angels and believes that Lola contributed to Marie's corruption. Lola manages to phone for help.

Ed Anderson and another Alcoholic Anonymous, Almo Huston, arrive just in time to save Lola from harm. Despite Doc's protests, they escort him to a hospital to get sober. After their departure, Marie arrives in a hilarious mood and announces that she is engaged to Bruce. She is quitting school and leaving with Bruce to Cincinnati. Lola is happy but she seems to be on her way to a similar disappointment which met Lola and Doc. After their departure, Lola calls her mother. She is very unhappy and asks whether her father would allow her to come home for some time until she makes her mind. The answer seems to negative.

Act Two, Scene Four

Morning a week later. The house is in the same order as it was for Bruce's visit. Lola is doing housework. The postman leaves a letter for Lola but she does not even notice he was there. The milkman arrives and notices that Lola has ticked the items on the order list. He brings her the magazine with his photo which was eventually printed.

Doc arrives, returning from the hospital, and frightens Lola. Doc comforts her and apologizes for what he did and said, though he does not remember much of it. Lola starts fixing a breakfast for her husband. Doc wants to find himself a hobby on the recommendation of his doctor. He considers going hunting and getting himself a big dog to the purpose. Lola had another dream last night. It was about Little Sheba, but Lola does not think that Little Sheba will come back any more. She is not going to call her again, she realizes that what was once lost cannot be restored. She leaves behind the past and accepts the present. She continues fixing the breakfast. The curtain comes slowly down.