The Westcotts: Radio Play

Introduction to the Westcotts

• Jim and Irene Westcott appear to be a typical, successful couple, fitting the average profile described in college alumni reports.
• They have two young children, have been married for nine years, and live in an apartment near Sutton Place.
• They attend the theater about 10 times a year and aspire to live in Westchester.
• Irene is pleasant, with soft brown hair and a wide forehead, wearing fitch skins dyed to resemble mink in cold weather.
• Jim looks youthful, with graying hair, dresses like his Andover classmates, and has an earnest, intentionally naïve manner.
• The Westcotts stand out from their peers due to their shared interest in serious music, attending concerts and listening to the radio frequently, which they keep private.

The Old Radio and Its Replacement

• The Westcotts' old radio is sensitive, unpredictable, and irreparable, with neither of them understanding its mechanics or any of their other appliances.
• Jim would often strike the cabinet when it faltered, which sometimes helped.
• During a Schubert quartet on a Sunday, the music faded, leading Jim to promise Irene a new radio.
• The subsequent Monday, Jim announced he had purchased a new radio, keeping its description a surprise.
• The new radio was delivered to the kitchen and uncrated by Irene and the staff.
• Irene was immediately struck by the physical ugliness of its large gumwood cabinet.

The New Radio's Peculiar Attributes

• While listening to the new radio, Irene hears a man's voice make a suggestive comment during a musical interlude.
• She believes it's not part of a play but something else entirely.
• Jim tries other stations and they hear snippets of conversations, including a man asking about garters and complaining about apple cores in ashtrays.
• They pick up a woman with an English accent reciting poetry and realize it is the Sweeneys' nurse, who lives in 17-B.
• Irene suggests they are hearing other people's apartments through the radio.
• The radio picks up the Sweeneys' nurse reciting "Lady Jingly" and Jim tries to speak into the speaker.
• The couple switches to another station and pick up the sounds of a cocktail party in full swing, with piano music, singing, and loud chatter.
• Irene identifies the party as being in the Fullers' apartment in 11-E, which she knew was happening because she saw Mrs. Fuller buying liquor.

Disturbing Eavesdropping

• The Westcotts overhear diverse snippets like salmon fishing monologues, bridge games, home movie commentary, and family quarrels.
• They turn off the radio at midnight, overwhelmed by laughter and exhaustion.
• Irene is later awakened by her son's request for water and, after helping him, tries the radio again.
• She hears a middle-aged couple's dialogue with the woman expressing a sense of disconnect from herself.
• The following morning, the couple picks up a child screaming about school, a woman enraged, and then the "Missouri Waltz" as Irene is having breakfast with her family.
• She shifts through stations, overhearing indigestion, carnal love, vanity, faith, and despair, and realizes the insight from the radio is furtive.

Lunch and Disturbing Discoveries

• Irene has lunch with a friend and observes the other women in the elevator, wondering which one has secrets and goes home early.
• After ensuring she won't be disturbed, she listens to the radio again, overhearing a woman entertaining her aunt and a hostess instructing her maid about cocktail guests.
• As the afternoon progresses, conversations become more intense, with the radio picking up cocktail parties, children returning home etc.
• The couple overhears a woman finding a diamond and planning to sell it, the Sweeneys' nurse singing, and a woman at a party discussing love affairs.

Emotional Evening and Revelations

• The Westcotts go out to dinner and the Salvation Army moves Irene to drop money in the tambourine after an evening out with Jim.
• Irene is strangely intense in the dinner party behavior that evening.
• Irene stays up to listen to the radio and hears Mr. Osborn beating his wife.
• Jim shuts off the radio but Irene said she has been listening all day and it has been so depressing.

The Radio's Aftermath

• Jim criticizes Irene for listening to such misery from the radio.
• He regrets buying the radio, wanting it to bring her happiness.
• Irene fears that the others are listening, and that life is too sordid and awful.
• She questions if they are happy together, and if their lives are sordid and asks to be told if they are happy.
• Jim said they are happy and arranges for the radio to be fixed or removed.
• Jim asks Irene if love exists, and if they are worried about hypercritical and dishonest things.
• Jim affirms there are no money problems or they are not dishonest.
• The radio technician arrives in the morning and fixes the radio.
• Irene discovers that it is giving her commercials and classical music.

Escalating Tensions and Accusations

• Jim is upset about the radio bill and Irene's unpaid clothing bills.
• He confronts Irene about lying about the clothing bills, she said it was so that he would not worry.
• Jim expresses concerns about financial pressures and aging as he approaches thirty-seven.
• He reveals job insecurity, and expresses a sense that financial situation is not good.
• She is told to be more financially prudent and they should be prepared for less money next year.
• He criticizes her spending on fur coats, radios, and slipcovers.
• In response to the statement Irene pleads with Jim and asks that the radio can hear them, Jim gets defensive and states it cannot hear them.
• Accusations of moral failings emerge, and Irene says the radio will hear them.
• He angrily asks why she is acting so "Christly all of a sudden."
• She is attacked for her theft of her mother's jewelry, her mistreatment of her sister
• He accuses her of making Grace Howland's life miserable and says he remembers the abortion.
• The broadcast nonchalantly reports unrelated disasters, and the environment.