Quote 13
Mother: The night he gets into you bed, his heart will dry up. Because he knows and you know. To his dying day he'll wait for his brother! (3.91)
Kate would prefer that the memory of the past live on, even if it destroys every potentiality in the future. She can't understand her life without the hope that Larry is out there somewhere.
Quote 14
Mother: Your brother's alive, darling, because if he's dead, your father killed him. Do you understand me now? (2.519)
We're really interested in Kate's own complicity with Joe's decision to let those cracked cylinders ship. He seems to rely on her guidance quite a bit. Do you think she knew about it at the time? Gave him advice?
Quote 15
Mother: All right, Joe. Just…be smart. [Keller, in hopeless fury, looks at her, turns around, goes up to porch and into house, slamming screen door violently behind him. Mother sits in chair downstage, stiffly, staring, seeing.] (1.623)
In this last line of Act 1, the stage directions give us an idea of how the Kellers handle extreme challenges. Joe throws a tantrum and goes in the house; Kate sits outside processing and preparing. She's the more intelligent and stronger of the two, as we come to see. Does that make her more or less guilty than Joe?