imminent, the cave becomes a bomb-proof shelter. The action takes up where it left off: Harry has just killed an informer, and he struggles to cope with what he has done. Mary now appears to prefer Miles, offering whatever he wants if he will help her hide the body. He asks her to marry him. When their mother enters, they quickly blindfold her, as though for a game, and hide the body. But Harry feels obliged to confess and reveals the corpse in the cocktail cabinet. This breaks down the family ties, and he ends by shooting them all, and himself. Then from the pile of dead bodies Mary rises to pronounce the final words: “O world of strange beliefs innumerable, I cannot die … I cannot die. Death will not have me.” Cast of characters Father/Charles The father is a figure of authority in the first two acts. His position in act three and with the presence of Tom Carter is more questionable. He is scared of Mary and is immune to her effects until, perhaps, the very end of act three. First Son/Harry Harry is the artist son. He is inspired by and falls in love with Mary. He is her main supporter in the cave. He goes on a long journey of self-discovery in the play as Mary expands his mind and understanding. Second Son/Miles Miles seeks to discover things, inventing tools and weapons for the benefit of mankind, believing them to be cleaner than the creations of art because they are devoid of emotion. But he fails to see how they can be misused. Mother In Act I, she leads the spiritual life of her family; by Act III she is mourning the loss of her younger self and of all faith. “After all we are not in the Stone Age, are we? There are no wolves at the door. But [cavemen] had something to worship. What have I – to take the place of the spirit?” she asks. Girl/Mary Mary embodies the power of the imagination that fires the artist and enables him to create things that have no other use but to move us – but it also leads him to break with social conventions. She is eternal. Tom Carter Tom is a witch-hunter in Act II and an informer in Act III. He represents the perverse pleasure of repressive authority, resisting change and