Clive Timeline and Summary

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• Clive starts out the play as a total patriarch. As far as he's concerned, he's the father of both his family and of all the African people living in the villages near his house. He really doesn't question his right to have power over these people. He just takes it for granted.
• Clive gets excited that his best buddy Harry Bagley is coming to visit.
• After his adopted black son Joshua sasses his wife, Clive scolds Joshua in front of Betty but then winks at him as he walks away. In other words, Clive is sending mixed messages.
• When he's alone with Mrs. Saunders, Clive reveals that he and Mrs. Saunders have had sex and that he plans on doing it again. So he does.
• Throughout Act 1, Clive acts casually about the fact that his son Edward likes to play with dolls. But he also makes it very clear that this would never be allowed. He seems to just be in denial about his son's feminine side.
• When he finds out that Betty and Harry have shared a kiss, Clive flips out and says that there'll be no more of that. He tells Betty that he and she must stay together, even though he'll never feel the same way about her again.
• Clive confronts Harry about the kiss with Betty. Harry apologizes. But once Clive starts making a speech about how the bonds between men are stronger than those between men and women, Harry grabs Clive and tries to kiss him.
• Clive is totally grossed out and tells Harry that being gay is not okay. He says the only thing to do is for Harry to get married immediately.
• After Act 1, we don't see Clive again until the end of the play, although we know that Betty has decided to leave him.
• In the play's final scene, Clive comes onstage and scolds Betty for trying to be an independent modern woman. But Betty just sort of ignores him and he goes away. His views haven't changed at all, but the world has.
• Take that, Clive.