Eddie and May bring new meaning to the whole concept of "keeping it in the family," since they are both lovers and half siblings. Family is a very big topic in Fool for Love, obviously—and Shepard gives us a little wink in that direction from the get-go by naming one of his characters simply "the Old Man."
Sure, as we already noted in "Men and Masculinity," that name draws attention to that character's sex (and age), but it is also a little nod the very important fact that he is "the old man" to both Eddie and May. Pretty clever, huh? It definitely signals that everything in Fool for Love comes back to the family relationships.
Questions About Family
- What kind of relationship do May and the Old Man appear to have? How does that relationship compare to the Old Man's relationship with Eddie?
- How would the play have been different if the voices/ghosts of Eddie and May's mothers had been featured? Why do you think Shepard didn't include them in the cast of imaginary characters?
- Is there any kind of brotherly/sisterly element to Eddie and May's relationship, or is it all toxic "romance"?
Chew on This
Because the play is pretty focused on masculinity, Shepard focuses more on the father-son relationship than the father-daughter one—the failures of the father are at the heart of everything.
When Eddie and May debate telling Martin they're siblings, they initially do it in a way that makes us feel like they think it's just another lie they could tell about their relationship (i.e., basically equal to saying they're cousins), rather than, well, the truth. That suggests that they are both in a certain amount of denial about their relationship.