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Meridian Henry
Lyle Britten, husband to Jo Britten and friend to Parnell James, is a poor white store owner who derives his sense of self-worth from his whiteness. As a young man, he was “wild,” always drinking and chasing women. He became infatuated with Willa Mae, the young Black woman taking care of his ailing father, and raped her. Lyle claims that this led to a consensual affair. When Willa Mae’s much older husband confronted Lyle in an attempt to stop the affair, Lyle murdered him and claimed it was self-defense. Later, Lyle marries timid librarian Jo because, in his words, she’s the only “white virgin” left in town. They have a baby son together. When self-confident young Black man Richard Henry has a fight with Lyle at his store, Lyle feels utterly humiliated and enraged. He hunts Richard down and—with a gun—demands that he apologize and call him “sir.” When Richard refuses, Lyle murders him. Lyle pressures Jo to lie that Richard sexually assaulted her at his trial, presumably to prejudice the white jury in his favor. After his acquittal, when Parnell and Meridian Henry demand the truth from Lyle, he defiantly admits that he murdered Richard and feels no remorse.
Lyle Britten Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
The Blues for Mister Charlie quotes below are all either spoken by Lyle Britten or refer to Lyle Britten. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1
Quotes
Ken: How much does your wife charge?
Meridian: Now you got it. You really got it now. That’s them. Keep walking, Arthur. Keep walking!
Tom: You get your ass off these streets from around here, boy, or we going to do us some cutting—we’re going to cut that big, black thing off of you, you hear?
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Parnell: You may think that a colored boy who gets ruined in the North and then comes home to try to pull himself together deserves to die—I don’t.
Meridian: Of course, if you go back far enough, you get to a point before Christ, if you see what I mean, B.C.—and at that point, I’ve been thinking, black people weren’t raised to turn the other cheek, and in the hope of heaven. No, then they didn’t have to take low. Before Christ. They walked around just as good as anybody else, and when they died, they didn’t go to heaven, they went to join their ancestors.
Parnell: He’s a poor white man. The poor whites have been just as victimized in this part of the world as the blacks have ever been!
Parnell: Meridian—what you ask—I don’t know if I can do it for you.
Meridian: I don’t want you to do it for me. I want you to do it for you.
Act 2
Quotes
Ellis: Mrs. Britten, if you was to be raped by a orang-outang out of the jungle or a stallion, couldn’t do you no worse than a nigger. You wouldn’t be no more good for nobody. I’ve seen it
[…]
That’s why we men have got to be so vigilant.
Lillian: I wouldn’t filthy my hands with that Communist sheet!
Parnell: Ah? But the father of your faith, the cornerstone of that church of which you are so precious an adornment, was a communist, possibly the first.
Jo: It’s not different—how can you say that? White men ain’t got no more business fooling around with black women than—
Lyle: Girl, will you stop getting yourself into an uproar? Men is different from women—they ain’t as delicate.
Richard: Maybe your wife could run home and get some change. You got some change at home, I know. Don’t you?
Lyle: I don’t stand for nobody to talk about my wife.
Act 3
Quotes
Lorenzo: They been asking me about photographs they say he was carrying and they been asking me about a gun I never saw. No. It wasn’t like that. He was a beautiful cat, and they killed him.
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Juanita: I am not responsible for your imagination.
Meridian: I don’t think that the alleged object was my son’s type at all!
The State: And you are a minister?
Meridian: I think I may be beginning to become one.
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Lyle: You ain’t no better than me!
Parnell: I am aware of that. God knows I have been made aware of that—for the first time in my life.
Get the entire Blues for Mister Charlie LitChart as a printable PDF.
Lyle Britten Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
The Blues for Mister Charlie quotes below are all either spoken by Lyle Britten or refer to Lyle Britten. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Act 1
Quotes
Ken: How much does your wife charge?
Meridian: Now you got it. You really got it now. That’s them. Keep walking, Arthur. Keep walking!
Tom: You get your ass off these streets from around here, boy, or we going to do us some cutting—we’re going to cut that big, black thing off of you, you hear?
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Parnell: You may think that a colored boy who gets ruined in the North and then comes home to try to pull himself together deserves to die—I don’t.
Meridian: Of course, if you go back far enough, you get to a point before Christ, if you see what I mean, B.C.—and at that point, I’ve been thinking, black people weren’t raised to turn the other cheek, and in the hope of heaven. No, then they didn’t have to take low. Before Christ. They walked around just as good as anybody else, and when they died, they didn’t go to heaven, they went to join their ancestors.
Parnell: He’s a poor white man. The poor whites have been just as victimized in this part of the world as the blacks have ever been!
Parnell: Meridian—what you ask—I don’t know if I can do it for you.
Meridian: I don’t want you to do it for me. I want you to do it for you.
Act 2
Quotes
Ellis: Mrs. Britten, if you was to be raped by a orang-outang out of the jungle or a stallion, couldn’t do you no worse than a nigger. You wouldn’t be no more good for nobody. I’ve seen it
[…]
That’s why we men have got to be so vigilant.
Lillian: I wouldn’t filthy my hands with that Communist sheet!
Parnell: Ah? But the father of your faith, the cornerstone of that church of which you are so precious an adornment, was a communist, possibly the first.
Jo: It’s not different—how can you say that? White men ain’t got no more business fooling around with black women than—
Lyle: Girl, will you stop getting yourself into an uproar? Men is different from women—they ain’t as delicate.
Richard: Maybe your wife could run home and get some change. You got some change at home, I know. Don’t you?
Lyle: I don’t stand for nobody to talk about my wife.
Act 3
Quotes
Lorenzo: They been asking me about photographs they say he was carrying and they been asking me about a gun I never saw. No. It wasn’t like that. He was a beautiful cat, and they killed him.
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Juanita: I am not responsible for your imagination.
Meridian: I don’t think that the alleged object was my son’s type at all!
The State: And you are a minister?
Meridian: I think I may be beginning to become one.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Lyle: You ain’t no better than me!
Parnell: I am aware of that. God knows I have been made aware of that—for the first time in my life.
