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Harry Young
Eddie Warren is a neurotic and fashionable writer whom Bertha Young has invited to her dinner party. Eddie Warren comes across as imaginative and easily alarmed, as exemplified in his interaction with a taxi driver whom he imagines has been transformed by the moonlight into a sinister, supernatural being. Eddie does not seem comfortable interacting socially and maintains both an expression of “anguish” and a nervous manner throughout the party. A playwright, his neuroses are comically exaggerated by Mansfield to suggest his artistic and highly-strung character. Although Eddie is famous within artistic circles, his artistic talent and depth of perception are called into question at the end of the story when he tells Bertha that he thinks the most profound sentence ever written is: “Why must it always be tomato soup?” Although Eddie feels that there is something “eternal” about this sentence, it is clear to the reader that it is a banal and meaningless phrase. This causes the reader to suspect that the attention given to Eddie Warren by the fashionable, London public has given the illusion that he is a brilliant playwright, when in fact he is quite an ordinary one, just as the taxi driver he is so afraid of is just an ordinary taxi driver who looks strange in the light from the moon.
Eddie Warren Quotes in Bliss
The Bliss quotes below are all either spoken by Eddie Warren or refer to Eddie Warren. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Bliss
Quotes
While he looked it up she turned her head towards the hall. And she saw . . . Harry with Miss Fulton's coat in his arms and Miss Fulton with her back turned to him and her head bent. He tossed the coat away, put his hands on her shoulders and turned her violently to him. His lips said: “I adore you,” and Miss Fulton laid her moonbeam fingers on his cheeks and smiled her sleepy smile. Harry's nostrils quivered; his lips curled back in a hideous grin while he whispered: “To-morrow,” and with her eyelids Miss Fulton said: “Yes.”
“Here it is,” said Eddie. “‘Why Must it Always be Tomato Soup?’ So deeply true, don't you feel? Tomato soup is so dreadfully eternal.”
“If you prefer,” said Harry's voice, very loud, from the hall, “I can phone you a cab to come to the door.”
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Miss Fulton held her hand a moment longer. “Your lovely pear tree!” she murmured. And then she was gone, with Eddie following, like the black cat following the grey cat.
“I'll shut up shop,” said Harry, extravagantly cool and collected.
“Your lovely pear tree—pear tree—pear tree!” Bertha simply ran over to the long windows.
“Oh, what is going to happen now?” she cried.
But the pear tree was as lovely as ever and as full of flower and as still.
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Eddie Warren Quotes in Bliss
The Bliss quotes below are all either spoken by Eddie Warren or refer to Eddie Warren. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Bliss
Quotes
While he looked it up she turned her head towards the hall. And she saw . . . Harry with Miss Fulton's coat in his arms and Miss Fulton with her back turned to him and her head bent. He tossed the coat away, put his hands on her shoulders and turned her violently to him. His lips said: “I adore you,” and Miss Fulton laid her moonbeam fingers on his cheeks and smiled her sleepy smile. Harry's nostrils quivered; his lips curled back in a hideous grin while he whispered: “To-morrow,” and with her eyelids Miss Fulton said: “Yes.”
“Here it is,” said Eddie. “‘Why Must it Always be Tomato Soup?’ So deeply true, don't you feel? Tomato soup is so dreadfully eternal.”
“If you prefer,” said Harry's voice, very loud, from the hall, “I can phone you a cab to come to the door.”
Related Characters:
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Miss Fulton held her hand a moment longer. “Your lovely pear tree!” she murmured. And then she was gone, with Eddie following, like the black cat following the grey cat.
“I'll shut up shop,” said Harry, extravagantly cool and collected.
“Your lovely pear tree—pear tree—pear tree!” Bertha simply ran over to the long windows.
“Oh, what is going to happen now?” she cried.
But the pear tree was as lovely as ever and as full of flower and as still.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
