How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue. We used Donald M. Allen's translation.
Quote #4
Old Woman: "He showed us his little fists...'you're lying, you've betrayed me! The streets are full of dead birds, of dying baby birds.'" (264)
Here the Old Woman recounts how her son blamed her for the death of lots of baby birds. The image of the streets filled with "dying baby birds" strikes us as particularly horrifying. If this event really happened, it must have been a terrible way for the child to discover the harsh realities of death. It's interesting that the birds are specifically babies. You could interpret this as suggesting that from the moment we are born we are all destined to die. Perhaps the dying chicks horrified the son so much because, like him, they were still so young.
Quote #5
Old Man: "... nothing remains for us but to withdraw...immediately, in order to make the supreme sacrifice which no one demands of us but which we will carry out even so..." (523)
The elderly couple's double suicide sort of comes out of nowhere. They say it's because they've completed their mission in life: now that the Orator has arrived to deliver the message, there's nothing left for them to do. We wonder why they didn't hang out just a little bit longer to make sure he did it right. Of course, in the absurd world of The Chairs, such questions may just be a waste of time.
Quote #6
Old Woman: "Yes, yes, let's die in full glory...let's die in order to become a legend..." (524)
You see this kind of attitude toward death a lot in literature: the noble hero dies valiantly and is forever honored for his courageous sacrifice. (Think Braveheart.) It seems to us that the play is satirizing this romantic notion. The old couple dies without their mission being fulfilled. On top of that, there's a good chance that they were the last people on earth anyway. It's quite possible that there's no one left to remember them and that their death was all for nothing.