Part 1: Act 2, Scene 2 Summary

Harper is at home in the dark when Joe returns. She has heard the man with the knife in their bedroom. She tells him she wants to go traveling.

Joe wants to save the marriage. He says he prays to God to destroy him and start again. He talks about the Biblical story of Jacob wrestling the angel, which seems to represent his inner-struggle to suppress his identity.

Harper says she cannot change the love she has for him. Joe asks if she is pregnant, and she answers inconclusively. She tells him to go to Washington without her.

Part 1: Act 2, Scene 2 Analysis

Joe is still clinging to his heterosexual image. The continued denial seems to be connected to Harper's worsening mental state. She is taking more pills, has had more hallucinations and may be inventing the pregnancy. Her hallucination...