Human Connection and Openness Theme Analysis

On the Face of It, a short play that mostly consists of a conversation between an old man, Mr. Lamb, and a fourteen-year-old boy, Derry, is largely concerned with the relationships between people and the things that divide them or bring them together. Derry has a burned face and Mr. Lamb has lost a leg, and so society treats them differently from other people. In response to this, Derry has learned to close himself off and avoid others, while Mr. Lamb maintains an attitude of openness. Ultimately, Lamb’s friendliness and non-judgmental acceptance win Derry over, and the two find a strong (though brief) connection. In Mr. Lamb’s character, playwright Susan Hill presents a worldview that embraces openness, the dignity and value of all people, and the importance of connection and kindness between them—and though Lamb’s story ends in tragedy, his positive effects on Derry are what linger beyond the play’s final scene.

Derry, whose face was badly burned by acid in a past accident, avoids others because of how they might react to his disability. In talking with Mr. Lamb, he describes several incidents of people being cruel or insensitive to him. Most notably, he describes two women at a bus stop whispering to each other that he has “a face only a mother could love.” And yet even of his mother he says that she only kisses him because she has to, and then only on the unburned side of his face. He also says several times that other people are afraid of him, even if they pretend not to be. Derry lingers on these negative experiences and brings them up to Mr. Lamb as his reason to avoid others—he doesn’t want to be pitied or feared, and so he closes himself off to human interaction altogether. Indeed, he only comes into Lamb’s garden because he assumed it was empty, and he admits that he would never have entered if he knew Lamb was there. Tellingly, he also climbs over the garden wall and doesn’t even notice that the gate is left open—Derry assumes that people should be closed off from each other.

Derry does enter the garden and encounter Mr. Lamb, however, and this leads to their transformative conversation. From the start, Lamb treats Derry like any other boy, and challenges his extreme reservations. Mr. Lamb embodies the play’s philosophy of openness, and he presents this to Derry as an alternative to his bitter isolation. Lamb lives a quiet, contemplative life and welcomes any interaction with people or nature. He leaves his gate open so that anyone might come in, and says that he has “friends everywhere.” “People come in,” he says, “everybody knows me. The gate’s always open. They come and sit here. And in front of the fire in winter. Kids come for the apples and pears.” Later there is doubt cast on whether or not all these people actually visit Mr. Lamb, but the important point is that this is what he wants to happen—he likes accepting everyone. “I’m interested in anybody,” he says.

Notably, Mr. Lamb welcomes not only positive interactions but also negative ones—he accepts whatever comes with a spirit of openness. The neighborhood children mock his disability and call him “Lamey-Lamb,” but he still lets them come into his garden to take apples, and they do so. “Doesn’t trouble me,” he tells Derry. While Derry closes himself off to avoid being hurt by other people, Lamb keeps himself open to all kinds of interaction. This is also symbolized by the state of his house—there are no curtains on the windows, and he likes to keep the windows open even in the rain and wind. He accepts the weather as it comes, just like he accepts people. “I’m not fond of curtains,” he tells Derry. “Shutting things out, shutting things in.” While this might sometimes be uncomfortable, Mr. Lamb seems to have found a great deal of peace in his lifestyle—certainly far more than Derry has.

The authenticity of the two characters’ connection is put to the test when Mr. Lamb invites Derry to pick crabapples with him later in the day. When he first sees Mr. Lamb, Derry immediately tries to make an excuse to flee, but by the end of their conversation he is determined to run the three miles home, tell his mother where he’s going, and then return to Lamb’s garden to talk more and help with the apples. This shows just how much Derry has been changed by Mr. Lamb’s worldview, and that he and the old man have found a real connection with each other. In trying to convince his mother to let him return, Derry even takes on Lamb’s attitude, telling her that “I want to be there, and sit and…listen to things. Listen and look.” He claims that Mr. Lamb says “things that matter. Things nobody else has ever said. Things I want to think about.” Derry has found joy in his connection to the old man, and this inspires him to open himself to the potential of more.

At the play’s end, Mr. Lamb falls and seems to have died, but it’s clear he has touched Derry deeply. As the boy runs to Lamb’s body, Derry starts weeping—a sure sign of a bond between the two, despite the briefness of their relationship. The play then ends, leaving it unclear whether Derry will withdraw once more in the face of this new pain, or if he will continue to follow the old man’s example by seeking out connection with others and remaining open to the entire range of human experience.