On Chesil Beach Draft 1.fdr

86.
EDWARD
You’re telling me I could do it with
anyone I liked but you.
FLORENCE cannot speak. Her proposal turns out to be as
unacceptable as she half suspected.
EDWARD (CONT’D)
Have you actually forgotten that we
were married today? We’re not two old
queers living in secret on Beaumont
Street. We’re man and wife!
Angrily EDWARD seizes a large smooth stone and smacks it into
his left palm and back into his right.
He is close to shouting. The hand that holds the stone is raised
as he takes a step towards her.
EDWARD (CONT’D)
With my body I thee worship! That’s
what you promised today. In front of
everybody. Are you so innocent and
stupid you don’t realise how
disgusting and ridiculous your idea
is? And what an insult it is? An
insult to me!
With a cry of frustration he turns and hurls the stone towards
the sea. We follow it. It lands just short of the water’s edge.
He wheels round to face her again. She shrinks before him.
EDWARD (CONT’D)
You tricked me. You’re a fraud. And I
know what else you are? Do you know
what you are? You’re frigid, that’s
what. Completely frigid. But you
thought you needed a husband and I was
the first bloody fool to come along.
On FLORENCE as this sinks in. She knows she never set out to
deceive him, but she believes everything else is true. Her
proposal was obscene, she broke her promise made in a church,
she is frigid. She has let everyone down. In her own eyes as
well as his, she is worthless.