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Section C

Answer one question in this section.

ARTHUR MILLER: Playing for Time

Either (a) Discuss the dramatic effects of sound and silence in the play.

Or (b) Write a critical commentary on the following passage, relating it to the portrayal of
futility, here and elsewhere in the play.

ELZVIETA: So it’s going to end after all.

[FANIA gives her an uncomprehending glance, closes the book, and
puts it in her pocket.]
ELZVIETA: Everyone tries to tell you their troubles, don’t they?
FANIA: I don’t know why. I can’t help anyone. 5
ELZVIETA: You are someone to trust, Fania … maybe it’s that you have no
ideology. You’re satisfied just to be a person. One senses so much
feeling in you.
FANIA: I was that way, yes … but the truth is, Elzvieta, I could drive a nail
through my hand, it would hardly matter. I am dying by inches. I know 10
it very well. I’ve seen too much [She tiredly wipes her eyes.] Too
much and too much and too much … I’m finding it harder to eat
anything.
ELZVIETA: I’m one of the most successful actresses in Poland.
[FANIA looks at her, waiting for the question. ELZVIETA, in contrast 15
to FANIA, has long beautiful hair.]
ELZVIETA: My father was a count. I was brought up in a castle. I have a husband,
Marok, and my son, who is nine years old. [A slight pause.] I don’t
know what will happen to us, Fania … you and I … before the end …
FANIA [with a touch of irony]: Are you saying goodbye to me? 20
ELZVIETA [with difficulty]: I only want one Jewish woman to understand … I lie
here wondering if it will be worse to survive than not to. For me, I
mean. When I first came here, I was sure that the Pope, the Christian
leaders, did not know; but when they found out, they would send
planes to bomb out the fires here, the rail tracks that bring them every 25
day. But the trains keep coming, and fires continues burning. Do you
understand it?
FANIA: Maybe other things are more important to bomb. What are we
anyway but a lot of women who can’t even menstruate anymore …
and some scarecrow men? 30
ELZVIETA: Oh, Fania … try to forgive me!
FANIA: You! Why? What did you ever do to me? You were in the Resistance,
you tried to fight against this. Why should you feel such guilt? It’s the
other ones who are destroying us … and they only feel innocent! It’s
all a joke, don’t you see? It’s all meaningless, and I’m afraid you’ll 35
never change that, Elzvieta!
[ELZVIETA gets up, rejected, full of tears.]
FANIA: I almost pity a person like you more than us. You will survive, and
everyone around you will be innocent, from one end of Europe to the
other. Who will you ever be able to talk to? 40
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7


[There are the sounds of a train halting, shouts, and debarkation

noises. ELZVIETA turns her eyes toward the ‘window’. Riven by the
sound, she sinks to her knees at a chair and, crossing herself, prays
against her despair. FANIA studies her for a moment, then goes back
to work on her orchestration, forcing herself to refuse this 45
consolation, this false hope and sentiment. She inscribes notes.
Something fails in her and she puts down the pencil.]

(Act 2)