For her part, Charlotte breezily admits to multiple affairs during their marriage, and tells him that his affair with Annie only caused trouble because he treated it romantically instead of as a source of fun. Henry returns home in a frenzy of jealousy and ransacks his and Annie's apartment searching for evidence of infidelity. His confrontation with Annie echoes the scene from the play he wrote that was performed in the first act of The Real Thing, but Annie has more to say than his imaginary wife did. She admits that she is having an emotional affair with her young co-star Billy, though she claims it is not a physical one; but she refuses to either give Billy up or leave Henry: both romances have a moral claim on her, and Henry must accept this. With pain, he does. Her relationship with Billy seems to come to an end, but there remains a notable distance between her and Henry. Adding strain to the already difficult relationship between Henry and Annie, Brodie is released from prison and visits them. He turns out to be a prize oaf, with all of Henry's arrogance and elitism, but none of the playwright's eloquence. He is highly critical of Henry's ghost work on his television play, and makes several crass comments about Annie. It is revealed that Annie's crusade to free Brodie had not been based on a belief in the righteousness of his cause but rather on a sense of guilt over Brodie's intention in committing his crime, which was to impress her. In the end, Annie throws Brodie out of the house, and peace between her and Henry is restored. The play ends with a phone call from Max, who tells Henry that he is newly engaged. Autobiographical elements There are a number of parallels between Stoppard and his main character: both are middle-aged playwrights known for their exact use of language; both express doubts about Marxism and the politics of the left and both undertake work outside the theatre to keep up their comfortable lifestyles and pay alimony to their ex-wives. With these similarities established, it is only a small step to compare Henry's fictional situation with that of his creator: both men take up with another man's wife and find happiness, while retaining a strong relationship with their children. In Stoppard's case this is reinforced by his relationship with Felicity Kendal,