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Beyond the Horizon
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Act IIIAct Summaries & Analyses
Act III Summary
The final act opens five years later, once again in the Mayo farmhouse. The home is even more dilapidated—it looks dirty and uncared for. Both Mrs. Mayo and Mary have died in the intervening years, and Ruth, who has “aged horribly” (175), is sat up late by the stove with her sleeping mother. Rob enters looking emaciated; he is clearly ill. Ruth and Rob discuss Andy’s imminent visit, and Rob is annoyed that Ruth has told his brother he is sick with “lung trouble” (177). The couple argue about Rob’s illness, and Rob experiences flashes of jealousy toward Andy, who he feels has made a comparative success of his life. Rob reflects on how hard the last few years have been for he and Ruth, especially Mary’s death, although both believe that Mary is fortunate to be dead rather than having to face their current situation.
Rob feverishly tells Ruth about his dreams of a new life for them both in the city once he’s well, and how he hopes to make a living from writing. Rob thinks Ruth’s reluctance to go with him is because she still loves Andy, and his anger brings on a coughing fit. Ruth agrees to go with Rob to soothe him, but she fears he has gone mad. Ruth’s mother wakes up, and Ruth relays Rob’s strange behavior and the fact their current farmhand has quit. Mrs. Atkins reiterates her scorn for Rob, and we learn she has secretly been giving money to Ruth to support her daughter and son-in-law.
Andy arrives with Doctor Fawcett, a specialist physician, to attend to Rob. Andy has changed. He has become businesslike and has a hardened look about him. Andy is angry that no one told him about Rob’s poor health or the state of the farm sooner, and he is terrified by how ill his brother looks. Ruth tells Andy that everything went downhill after his mother died and after Mary died, Rob didn’t care about anything apart from staying indoors and reading books.
Andy is unable to stay because he lost most of his money through speculating and he needs to return to Argentina to try and recoup his fortune. Andy continues to make optimistic plans for the future, but Doctor Fawcett emerges from examining Rob and delivers a terrible prognosis: Rob is dying and only has days or even hours to live. Rob has tuberculosis and “both of his lungs are terribly affected” (186), but the doctor has concealed the terminal diagnosis from his patient.
After Doctor Fawcett departs, Rob emerges from the bedroom to talk to Andy—Ruth “bows her head and covers her face with her hands” for the whole exchange between the brothers (187). Rob tells Andy that he heard everything the doctor said, and he knows he is dying. Rob is at peace with death, but he wants to know more about his brother’s life. Andy lies that he is still wealthy to spare Rob from further worry but admits to speculating on wheat. Rob sadly says that Andy has also failed because he ran away from himself and the farm, but he asks his Andy to promise to marry Ruth after he dies. Andy humors Rob, who returns to bed.
Ruth suspects Rob asked Andy to marry her because he knows she used to love Andy, and she recounts the argument she and Rob had about her feelings just before Andy’s last visit 5 years ago. Andy despairs over how hurt Rob must have been. Ruth doesn’t feel capable of loving anyone anymore, and Andy coldly asserts that he certainly doesn’t love her, but Ruth asks him to lie and agree to Rob’s request just to ease his mind. Andy refuses to deceive his brother and orders Ruth to tell Rob that it was “all a mistake” and that she never loved Andy at all (191). Ruth reluctantly agrees but finds Rob has disappeared, having escaped through the bedroom window. In terror, Andy and Ruth search for Rob.
The last scene of the play is set in the same place as the first scene of the play—outside on Mayo land with the hills in the distance. Rob staggers on stage and collapses into a ditch before crawling onto a bank. Ruth and Andy find Rob and try to convince him to go home, but Rob insists on seeing one more sunrise before he dies. Andy rages at the unfairness of everything, but Rob is finally happy. As he is dying, Rob says he will be free at last and points toward the horizon, explaining he is about to begin a new voyage. Telling Ruth and Andy to “remember” (193), he passes away peacefully.
At first, Andy is furious that Ruth didn’t refute her previous feelings for him to Rob before he died, even calling her a “murderess” (194). Ruth pleads with Andy to stop his accusations, and slowly his rage ebbs away and is replaced by pity and compassion. Andy asks for Ruth’s forgiveness and says he will remember Rob’s wishes, alluding to his request that Andy marries her. Acknowledging that they have both made mistakes, Andy says they must help each other and with time they will “come to know what’s right” (194). However, the play ends with Ruth staring at Andy; she is silent, exhausted, and too despondent to hope anymore.
Act III Analysis
The opening scene of Act III is one of ruin and decline that sets the stage for the tragic climax of the play—Rob Mayo’s death from tuberculosis. The atmosphere of the farmhouse setting is now one of “habitual poverty too hopelessly resigned to be any longer ashamed or even conscious of itself” (175). Ruth is on stage as the curtain rises, and the state of farmhouse reflects her own mentality, which is one of utter despondency and hopelessness. Like the farmhouse, Ruth’s appearance, with the “negligent disorder of her dress, the slovenly arrangements of her hair, now streaked with grey, her muddied shoes run down at the heel” is neglected and unloved (175).
As Rob’s death moves progressively closer, he and Ruth seem to find a sense of solace that they have not shared for many years. Rob tenderly forgives Ruth for her feelings toward Andy, even though she no longer seems capable of love, and he apologizes for any hardship he has caused her. However, in his ill and fevered state, Rob begins to dream of a new life for them both where they can “shake off the curse of this farm” and start fresh in the city (178). Rob’s ramblings disturb Ruth, who can see how despairing their situation is. The lack of hope for the couple is symbolized by the lack of light in the first scene. Rob’s thoughts of a new life take place “back there in the dark” (178), and at the end of his frenzied rant, Rob is determined to stay up to see the sunrise because it’s an “augury of goof fortune” but all he is met with is “the black rim of the damned hills outlined against a creeping greyness” (180).
Redemption through suffering is a pervasive theme through the final act. Rob’s assertion that he and Ruth are owed happiness because otherwise their “suffering would be meaningless and that’s unthinkable” creates a sense of nihilism (179), and the play draws to a close—Rob dies before he can explore any alternative future, and Ruth is left hopeless and despondent. Andy avoids physical suffering throughout the course of the play; he is in good health and initially earns a fortune. However, O’Neill infers that Andy’s self-preservation, his attempts to make an easy living, and his absence during the years in which the farm and his family suffered, have ultimately led to a shallow and unfulfilled existence. Rob says Andy’s speculation on grain will be punished, and he’ll have to “suffer to win back—” (189). Rob trails off before finishing the sentence, leaving the audience to wonder what Andy can gain through suffering. Later, when Rob asks Andy to marry Ruth, Rob reiterates to his brother that “Only through contact with suffering, Andy—will you awaken” (189). Rob believes that Andy’s gambling on wheat, a product of the land he used to love, has led to a sense of disconnect with his identity as a farmer and man of the land. Therefore, the only way that Andy will be able to find his way back to himself is through experiencing the suffering of the people and places that he left behind.
By the final scene, Rob feels a sense of catharsis at his imminent death, believing that only through dying will he be able to begin the adventure he has always longer for: “It isn’t the end. It’s a free beginning—the start of my voyage! I’ve won to my trip—the right of release—beyond the horizon!” (193). Despite Rob’s joy, there is a lingering sense of uncertainty as to whether death will bring the adventure he always dreamed of, or whether he is inventing a comforting narrative to help him cope with the prospect of dying.
Andy’s initial reaction following Rob’s death is to blame Ruth, “This is your doing, you damn woman, you coward, you murderess!” (194), but this is another example of how Andy tries to avoid taking responsibility for how his own actions and decisions also contributed to the tragic chain of events. A glimmer of hope at the end of the play is provided by Andy’s apology to Ruth and the suggestion that he intends to act on Rob’s request that he marry her. Although the pair are finally united, there is a sense of ambiguity over whether Andy can bring Ruth out of “the spent calm beyond the further troubling of any hope” (194), or whether his intervention is too little too late.
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