Edward Timeline and Summary

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• In the play's opening song, Edward tells us that he wishes he could be the strong, tough young man that his father wants him to be.
• As things play out, we realize that Edward likes to play with dolls, which is a surefire cue that he's going to run into some tension with his strict, traditional father.
• Before we can even start to wonder what'll happen to Edward, we find out that he has had a sexual encounter with his father's best friend, Harry Bagley. Harry is also supposed to be a big tough manly man, so this revelation pretty much trashes any ideas we might have had about how gender is going to work in this play.
• Throughout Act 1, Edward makes some attempts to act like a manly man. For starters, he defends his mother from the servant Joshua's insults and sternly orders Joshua to do as he's told.
• But these little outbursts of masculinity are always temporary, since Edward just can't pry himself away from his sister's doll. He also demonstrates his sensitivity when he runs inside the house to avoid watching some black stable workers be whipped. We would have done the same thing, Ed.
• By the end of Act 1, things have escalated to the point that Betty and Clive are hitting Edward for being so girly. It's clear that the poor kid can't help it and that he's just being himself; but his parents seem convinced that they can beat the femininity out of him.
• In Act 2, we see Edward all grown up and realize that he has accepted himself as a gay man. That said, he's not going to tell his boss about it for fear of being fired.
• Edward sits down on a park bench and starts having a convo with a guy named Gerry, who it turns out is Edward's live-in lover.
• Gerry, though, isn't as committed to the relationship as Edward is. He accuses Edward of acting like a nagging wife.
• Eventually, Edward decides that he's going to try some new things. So he has a freaky orgy with his sister and his sister's lover, Lin. The three of them decide that they're going to start living together and that Edward will take care of the children while Lin and Victoria work.
• By the end of the play, Gerry comes back and asks Edward out to dinner. Edward agrees, but we get the feeling that from now on, Edward will do more to stand up for himself.