There's not a whole lot of actual physical violence on stage in Fool for Love, but there are threats of galore—May's threats of violence against the Countess, Eddie's threats against Martin, and so on. As a result, you kind of get the sense that violence is just one ill-advised comment away from breaking out and causing a bloodbath, which is almost more unsettling than if the characters were outright beating each other up.
But there is some outright violence in the play—for example, when Eddie gets physical with May to keep her from leaving the motel room, or when the Countess decides to shoot up Eddie's car.
Questions About Violence
- For all the threats of violence, there is remarkably little violence on stage. Why do you think Shepard made that choice?
- Eddie and May both threaten each other (and their other partners) with violence at various points. Is one party more or less violent than the other, or are they both equally to blame in this regard?
- Do you get the sense that the Old Man has a violent streak?
Chew on This
Violence is a huge theme in this play because love is pretty much violent and awful overall. Shepard keeps actual violence largely offstage because he wants to keep the focus more on the psychological violence that love causes.
You could argue that the Old Man is violent in a way, since Eddie implies that his dear dad's actions contributed to the death of his mother.