Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)

STUDIES - Mária Kurdi: "You just have to love this world." Arthur Miller's The Last Yankee.

the intense love of life characteristically appears in The Ride Down Mount Morgan

, where Emerson is quoted as well. Immediately following the highly gratifying progress of the Hamiltons in the renewal of their understanding and support for each other, the last section of Scene Two and the play itself begins, offering further progress and then a mixed ending. The whole quartet is on stage. The older people seem to be having a smooth time, Frick even displays signs of unselfish caring, since he has remembered to bring Karen's tap-dancing outfit to the hospital at her request, despite his convicton that "it's kinda silly at her age," (33) and all his businessmanlike stiffness. The ageing and timid Karen's pathetic tap-dancing is a climactic point of the whole work in that it involves a test for all the four characters. The Hamiltons turn out to have gone as far as being strong enough to offer emotional support for Karen: PATRICIA. Isn't she wonderful? LEROY. Hey, she is great. KAREN dances a bit more boldly now

... (36) Her unrestrainedly continuing performance, however, proves to be too much for the convention-bound Frick whose outburst, in the form of an astonishingly furious shout, brings back a look of fear to Karen's face and brings the dance to an abrupt end. The shout proves revealing as well, since it shows how impatient, incomprehending and selfish he is under the facade of the role of the caring husband, which he tries to play as expected. On the other hand, the secret of their marital failure behind Karen's psychic failure, that is the lack of real human equality and consideration for the other, lays itself bare quite poignantly: KAREN (apologetically to PATRICIA). He was looking at me ... (To Frick.) She didn't mean you weren't looking, she meant

... FRICK (rigidly repressing his anger and embarrassment). I've got to run along now. KAREN. I'm sorry, John, but she ... 72