Barefoot In The Park

Act Three opens with Corie cleaning up melted snow in the living room. Paul returns from work with a cold. He and Corie move around each other without speaking. Harry arrives to fix the telephone and compliments Corie on the apartment. She asks him if he knows anyone who would want to rent it. Corie then fetches a pot of goulash from the kitchen and fills a plate for Paul, who rejects it, saying that he has his “own dinner” (73)—grapes from his briefcase. Harry senses the tension as Paul and Corie avoid speaking to each other and instead address their comments to Harry. He finishes quickly and leaves.

Corie asks Paul if he is “going to stay here again tonight” (76). She wants him to leave as soon as possible. The phone rings, and Corie gives the impression she is setting up a date. Paul grabs the phone, realizes it is a sales call, and calls Corie a “crazy lady” (77). Corie reasserts her desire for Paul to move out immediately. The phone rings. Corie’s Aunt Harriet reports that Ethel did not return home last night. Paul responds to Corie’s panic with “let’s not crack up,” and Corie tells him, “Get out of my life and go away!” (79). She says that she is going upstairs to Victor’s and does not want Paul in the apartment when she returns. Paul packs a suitcase, muttering self-pitying remarks and drinking. He grabs the scotch bottle and says goodbye to everything he dislikes about the apartment. Opening the door to leave, Paul sees Corie standing with her apron over her mouth, and she then rushes to the bedroom and collapses on the bed. Ethel comes rushing in dressed in Victor’s bathrobe, entreating: “It’s not the way it looks at all!” (80). Corie slams the bedroom door, and Ethel appeals to Paul. He asks Corie if she is satisfied and then tells Ethel that he understands. She insists that he does not understand at all, but he shakes his head and leaves.

Corie comes out asking for Paul. Ethel tries to explain that she drank and ate too much and felt dizzy. She fainted in the slush, and Victor carried her inside, but he fell on the stairs, breaking his foot. Two men from the downstairs apartment carried them up to Victor’s, where Ethel fell asleep. Corie blames herself while Victor pounds on the door. Ethel runs to hide in the bedroom as Corie lets him in. Victor has a cane, and his foot is bandaged. He asks if Corie has aspirin and then notices Ethel. He tells her that his big toe is broken. Corie exits to fetch aspirin. Victor tells Ethel that the hospital gave him a complete examination and told him he cannot “eat rich foods any more” (84). He will also have to take the same pink pills as Ethel does. He compliments her for being a “good sport” (85) and not complaining through everything he and Corie put her through. Victor and Ethel laugh together over the night’s events. He asks her out to dinner, she accepts, and he leaves to get ready.

Corie tells Ethel that Paul has left and that they are getting divorced. Corie blames herself for her mother’s bad night and Paul leaving, as she demanded he do so. Ethel agrees with Corie but adds that she loves Corie anyway, and so does Paul. Corie asks her mother what to do. Ethel notes this is the first time since childhood that Corie has asked for her mother’s advice. Ethel tells Corie that she must “give up a little [bit] of [herself],” make Paul feel “important,” and not turn “everything into a game” (88). Ethel tells Corie to go after him because she has a date, and then Ethel leaves.

Corie grabs her coat and rushes for the door. She opens it to Paul, who is standing in the doorway drunk, coatless, and disheveled. He sneezes and then tells Corie that he thought about it and that he refuses to leave. He wants her to leave. Corie asks him where his coat is and why he is so cold. He responds, “What do you think I’ve been doing? [...] I’ve been walking barefoot in the goddam park” (90). She is incredulous and notices he has a fever. He suggests that they prank their neighbors, and he chases her around the apartment. Corie admonishes him to get into bed, but he ignores her. His behavior scares her, and she barricades herself in the bedroom, saying that she wants her “old” and“dependable” (91) Paul back. He responds that he wants “to be a nut like everyone else in this building” (92) and climbs out the window. Corie comes out of the bedroom and sees him on the ledge. She tells him that she “do[esn’t] want [him] to be a nut” (92). He agrees to come off the ledge if she tells him she loves him. He says he loves her too but that he cannot come off the ledge because he is going to be sick. Corie instructs him not to move, assuring him that she will come out to rescue him. Paul replies that he is panicking, and Corie soothes him: “You’ll be all right, darling. Just hold on tight. And try to be calm” (93). He asks her what he should do while he waits for her, and she tells him to sing. He begins to sing the song Corie sang with Victor the night before: “Shamashama[…]” (93).