Throughout the play Ken is battling for his right to die seeing that he is paralyzed and will not be able to carry on with his career as an artist sculptor, in fact he will not be able to walk, engage in sexual activities or do a lot of everyday things. Ken sees himself as utterly useless and does not want to live under social care his whole life so he requests the doctors to carry out euthanasia on him. This request is rejected by the doctors. As the plot is revealed towards the end of act one when Dr Scott and Ken talk about euthanasia, it is evident that some of the more sensitive issues are involved in the play and each character’s morals and ethics are questioned. This is evident through the following conversation between Sister and Dr Scott:
Dr Scott: ‘He’s so… bright… intelligent… He says he wants to die.’
Sister: ‘Many patients do.’
Dr Scott: ‘I know that Sister, but he means it. It’s just a calm rational decision.’
These lines highlight the position of the ethics of the two characters which contribute to the main story place. Where Dr Scott is more emotional, and takes Ken’s opinion about euthanasia into consideration, Sister is less lenient and does not like to question instructions she was given as how to approach this subject.
There is also quite a bit of romanticism in the play which largely contributes to the main plot. The sexual references are evident to the audience right from the start. When the following lines are performed:
Ken: ‘Going down – Obstetrics, Gynaecology, Lingerie, Rubber Wear’
They roll Ken over and start to massage his back with spirit and talc.
Ken: ‘It’s funny you know. I used to dream of situations like this.’
They make us realise that Ken is a very kinky sort of a character who likes flirting and is very open with his thoughts and feelings.
Another clearly evident romantic subplot in the play is between John and Nurse Sadler. The Intense relationship between them is not very clear throughout the whole play but through the two pages of script, when the characters are in the room on their own, the flirting is very hard not to notice:
John: ‘Why don’t we go out tonight?’
This is a very straight on and obvious question, which puts the relationship between the Nurse and John obvious.
Dr Emerson and Dr Scott have a very professional relationship in the play, however this often gets on the way of Dr Scott’s morals and often leaves her split up between following instructions of her superiors or pursuing her ethic beliefs. This is marked through the following lines:
Dr Emerson: ‘But in spite of two qualified opinions, you accept the decision of someone completely unqualified to take it.’
This is where we are suggested by the writer that Dr Scott’s character is having trouble following orders because her moral judgements get on the way of them and we are seeing this ongoing fight between Dr Scott’s intuition and her moral grounds as part of a subplot of the play.