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 #7
Old Woman: "Tell me the story, you know the story: 'Then at last we arrived...'" (35)
Notice how the Old Woman's favorite story is both a beginning and an end. She wants her husband to recall a time when they first got somewhere (presumably Paris), showing that it was a beginning of sorts. However, the quote indicates that they arrived there at the end of a long journey. Here again we see a cyclical idea of time. The play never lets us forget that beginnings are always ends and ends are always beginnings.
Quote #8
Old Man: "We were soaked through, frozen to the bone, for hours, for days, for nights, for weeks..."
Old Woman: "For months..." (43-44)
The Old Man and Woman seem not to really know how long they were hanging out in the rain. The past seems like one big blur to them.
Quote #9
Old Woman: "All that's gone down the drain, alas...down the old black drain..." (56)
The image of dirty water going down a drain could be another hint that time is cyclical in the world of the play. There are several clues in the play that water represents time. Here it seems to represent the span of the Old Man's wasted life. When the water swirls around the drain before it disappears, it reminds us that events often occur in repetitive patterns.