Fool for Love Study Guide

Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love is arguably the playwright’s best known play. Focusing, as many of Shepard’s plays do, on the dark side of life in the West, Fool for Love was first produced at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco in February, 1983, before moving to Off-Broadway at the Circle Repertory Theatre in May of that year. Shepard himself directed these original productions, winning Obie Awards for his writing and directing as well as the award for best new American play.

Critics gave Fool for Love mixed reviews. The play is primarily a struggle, mostly of words, between two on-again/off-again lovers, Eddie and May. By the end of the play, it is revealed that this is an incestuous relationship between half-siblings. Some of the dissenting critics found the dialogue between them, especially at the beginning of the play, to be cliched. Others believed that Shepard was covering territory and themes that he had dealt with to better effect in plays such as Buried Child and True West, adding nothing new and going nowhere fast. Critics who praised the play found the character of May to be one of the first strong, autonomous women created by Shepard. Some critics also found the device of the Old Man, a ghostlike presence on stage, to be very effective.

Most critics agreed that with this new play, Shepard continued his exploration of the mythic American West—particularly as it was portrayed in the pulp entertainment of the 1950s and 1960s—and its extrapolation to contemporary environments and relationships. As Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times, ‘‘Fool for Love is a western for our time. We watch a pair of figurative gunslingers fight to the finish—not with bullets, but with piercing words that give ballast to the weight of a nation’s buried dreams.’’

Fool for Love Summary

Fool for Love opens in a cheap, sparsely furnished motel room on the edge of the Mojave desert. May, a woman in her early thirties, sits on the edge of the bed, staring at the floor. Eddie, a man in his late thirties, is dressed in cowboy gear and sits in a chair at the table. Eddie assures May that he is not leaving her. May accuses him of having another woman’s smell on his fingers. May worries that he will erase her and threatens to kill the other woman. Eddie tries to calm her down, saying that he has come thousands of miles to see her. May still accuses him of being with a rich woman. Eddie admits he took someone out to dinner once, but May believes there is more to it.

Eddie tries to change the subject. He tells May that he is taking her back. He bought land in Wyoming. May does not want to move because she has a job now as a cook and does not want the kind of life Eddie is offering. Eddie promises to take care of her. He rises to get his things from his car, but May is not sure. Before he gets out the door, she kisses him, then knees him in the groin. Eddie falls to the ground. She goes into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

Eddie lies on the floor and begins to talk to the Old Man, who has been on stage since the beginning of the play. Like Eddie, the Old Man is dressed in cowboy gear. He sits in a rocking chair, drinking whiskey. It is indicated that he is not a real person but a figment of May and Eddie’s imaginations. May comes out of the bathroom and changes into a sexy red dress. She tells Eddie that she hates him and that she has someone coming to visit her. Eddie immediately becomes jealous and leaves. May pulls her suitcase out from under the bed and quickly packs it. When she hears Eddie returning, she hides it.

Eddie returns with a shotgun and some tequila. He offers May some of his alcohol, but she claims she is on the wagon. Eddie questions her about the man who will visit. Eddie tells May they will both sit and wait for him. May does not want Eddie to meet her date. May complains that Eddie has disrupted her life for far too long. Eddie reminds her that they will always be connected. May asks him to leave. Eddie calls her a traitor and leaves with his gun.

As soon as Eddie leaves, May calls out his name and sinks to the floor. The Old Man begins to... » Complete Fool for Love Summary