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| Character | Adah???? | |
|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | |
| Age Range(s) | Young Adult (20-35) | |
| Type of monologue / Character is | In love, Scolding, Persuasive, Descriptive, Lamenting, Afraid, Praising | |
| Type | Dramatic | |
| Year | 1821 | |
| Period | 19th Century | |
| Genre | Drama | |
| Description | Adah praises her son and scolds Cain for thinking about death | |
| Location | ACT III, Scene 1 | |
Summary
This play is a dramatization of the story of Cain and Abel. Cain, regarding his own mortality as an unfair punishment for Adam and Eve's transgression in the Garden of Eden, refuses to worship God. As he refuses to participate in a family's prayer to God, he argues that he has nothing to thank God for as he is fated to die. Anxious to learn about death, Cain follows Lucifer into the Hades. Lucifer shows Cain a vision of the Earth's and human history and teaches him to accept his mortal nature and the "gift of reason" that God gave him which will bring him "nearer his spiritual nature".
When Cain returns to earth though, he has not lost his negativity. In the first scene of act III, Cain is with his wife and sister, Adah, and their infant son Enoch who is sleeping. When Cain mentions that he even wished his child wasn't born so that he didn't have to endure all the pain and eventually death, Adah gets scared and, thinking that Cain might want to murder his own child, praises Enoch and scolds him for thinking negatively.
When Cain returns to earth though, he has not lost his negativity. In the first scene of act III, Cain is with his wife and sister, Adah, and their infant son Enoch who is sleeping. When Cain mentions that he even wished his child wasn't born so that he didn't have to endure all the pain and eventually death, Adah gets scared and, thinking that Cain might want to murder his own child, praises Enoch and scolds him for thinking negatively.
Written by Administrator
| Excerpt |
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| ADAH: Oh, my God! Touch not the child—my child! thy child! Oh, Cain! [CAIN: Fear not! for all the stars, and all the power Which sways them, I would not accost yon infant With ruder greeting than a father's kiss.] ADAH: Then, why so awful in thy speech? [CAIN: I said, 'Twere better that he ceased to live, than give Life to so much of sorrow as he must Endure, and, harder still, bequeath; but since That saying jars you, let us only say— 'Twere better that he never had been born.] ADAH: Oh, do not say so! Where were then the joys, The mother's joys of watching, nourishing, And loving him? Soft! he awakes. Sweet Enoch! [She goes to the child.] Oh, Cain! look on him; see how full of life, Of strength, of bloom, of beauty, and of joy— How like to me—how like to thee, when gentle— For then we are all alike; is't not so, Cain? Mother, and sire, and son, our features are Reflected in each other; as they are In the clear waters, when they are gentle, and When thou art gentle. Love us, then, my Cain! And love thyself for our sakes, for we love thee. Look! how he laughs and stretches out his arms, And opens wide his blue eyes upon thine, To hail his father; while his little form Flutters as winged with joy. Talk not of pain! The childless cherubs well might envy thee The pleasures of a parent! Bless him, Cain! As yet he hath no words to thank thee, but His heart will, and thine own too. |
