The Iceman Cometh

The Iceman Cometh Summary | Act 1, Part 1 Summary

The drunken and happily deluded peace of a group of regulars at a low-end bar is interrupted by the irregular behavior of a regular visitor, who pushes them to change the way they look at themselves and the world. The story of their painful, aborted attempts to change themselves makes thematic points about the nature of dreams, the power of false illusions, and the difficulties of life without them.

As the play begins, it's another routine night for the regulars at Harry Hope's saloon and bar. Larry, Hugo, Wetjoen, Jimmy, Lewis, Joe, McGloin, Mosher, Willie, and Harry Hope have all had too much to drink and are close to passing out. Rocky comes in, and an extended conversation with Larry reveals that almost all the regulars are running tabs, always promising to pay tomorrow. Larry cynically comments on how they all have a touching faith in tomorrow, even though the truth of what they're facing and what tomorrow will probably be is nothing like what they believe it will be. "As the history of the world proves," he says, "the truth has no bearing on anything." Rocky jokingly comments that Larry doesn't have "pipe dreams" in the way the others do. Larry says all his dreams are dead and buried. Rocky suggests he's just hanging around waiting to die, and Larry jokingly comments that it'll take a while, since even Harry's bad booze can't make a dent in his "iron constitution."

Conversation also reveals that Larry was once an active member of the Anarchist Movement, but became disillusioned and left. He teasingly rouses Hugo from his drunken stupor, Hugo wakes up enough to spout a few leftover slogans from his own days as a leader of the Anarchist Movement and make a joke about Rocky's "slave girls," and then passes out again. Rocky says he's fed up with such comments and says he's not a pimp, adding that all he does is handle the money for a couple of tarts. He and Larry discuss how the regulars are all waiting for Hickey to show up. They reminisce about a routine he does about getting sentimental over his wife and then suddenly revealing his anger at discovering her in bed with the iceman.

Willie cries out in his sleep, and conversation reveals he's a down on his luck law student. As he cries out again, Rocky shouts for him to keep quiet. Harry wakes up, tells him to keep the noise down, protests that no one is ever going to take advantage of him again and passes out. Willie wakes up enough to beg for another drink, Rocky gives it to him, and he too passes out. Joe wakes up, having dreamed about Hickey and wondering whom he can get to buy him a drink. This leads him to remember the young man who arrived the night before, Parritt, and who Larry says rented a room upstairs and is still up there sleeping. He also refers to how he and Parritt's mother were both active in the Movement on the West Coast several years ago, and how Parritt's mother has just been arrested for being involved in a bombing that killed several people. Rocky wonders why Parritt isn't still on the coast supporting her, and Larry says he doesn't know. Joe speaks at length about how useless anarchists and their Movement are.

Parritt comes in, looking for Larry and eager for a drink, but worried, because he has no money and no job. He buys Joe a drink, refuses one for himself, and pays for it out of his roll of one-dollar bills. Rocky goes into the back room, sits and naps. Joe tells Larry to wake him up when Hickey comes and goes to sleep.