Single Text


Leaving Certificate Ordinary Level – Excellence in English Language and Literature


Carthage enters, furious about the burning of the calves and the house. He shakes Hester violently, but she pushes him away, saying he drove her to it.


Carthage says he is taking Josie from Hester and that he doesn’t care if the truth about her brother comes out. Hester dares him to do so, and says Xavier is a pervert who groped her with his gun and should not be allowed near Josie.


Xavier and Carthage argue about Hester. Xavier says a man who can’t control a ‘mere woman’ can’t control anything, and that he has doubts about signing over his farm to Carthage now. Carthage tells him to keep his farm, as he has land of his own. He sends Xavier back to the wedding, saying they can work out their diff erences later. Xavier leaves.


Alone with Carthage, Hester tries to persuade him to let her and Josie stay in the caravan. She says she only lived in the house to please Carthage, who wanted her to see ‘how normal people lived’.


Carthage still wants Hester to go, and she accuses him of being ashamed of his part in Joseph’s death. Carthage denies this, saying he only watched her kill the boy. Hester reminds him he helped her tie a stone around Joseph’s waist. She says Joseph was still alive when they threw him overboard. Carthage believes she is only saying that to torture him.


Carthage asks why Hester killed her brother and she explains it was because of jealousy. Carthage is surprised because he assumed she killed him for money.


Hester tells Carthage that she met Joseph’s ghost the previous night, but Carthage doesn’t want to hear about it. Hester tells him that getting rid of her will not get rid of his guilty memories.


Carthage comments on Hester’s drinking and night-time wanderings, but she claims she would not have needed to do any of that if she had had a partner to lean on; someone who would share a piece of her guilt and not judge her. Hester says she judged herself more harshly than Carthage ever could.


Carthage says he is taking Josie but will allow Hester to see her from time to time. Hester says bitterly that Carthage has taken everything else so she should have known he would take Josie.


Caroline enters with a bottle of wine for Hester. Carthage tells her Hester has burned the house, the sheds and the livestock. He tells Caroline to come away with him, but the young woman stops to fi rst promise Hester that she will take good care of Josie.


Hester asks Caroline if she enjoyed her ‘big weddin’ day’, but Caroline says she did not. None of it was as elegant or glamorous as the day her mother had described for her. Hester says life is like that; she has always dreamed of her mother coming back to fi nd her living a good life with Carthage and Josie.


Hester confi des in Caroline, telling her that Carthage plans to take Josie from her. Caroline promises to stand up for Hester in this fi ght, but Hester says she is too weak to succeed.


Caroline wonders if there is something wrong with her, but Hester gently tells her to go on back to her wedding celebrations.


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