Under Milk Wood Summary & Analysis

Second Voice’s comment about Jack Black’s dreams of breaking up lovers’ rendezvous in the woods establishes the woods that surround the town as a place where the usual social norms don’t apply— where townspeople are free to act on the physical impulses that society (here, represented by the violent, order-enforcing Jack Black) might otherwise condemn.

Evans the Death’s dreams of childhood reflect his nostalgia for the past. His desire to be young again might also reflect a repressed death anxiety, which is rather ironic in light of the fact that one would expect an undertaker to have accepted (or at least grown numb to) the reality of mortality.

Waldo’s dreams of childhood reflect his nostalgic longing for simpler times. The neighbors’ gossip about Mr. Waldo’s drinking and adultery suggest that his life has only gotten more complicated and unsavory as he grows older, which explains his desire to regress to a time when he had fewer problems. It’s not clear why Waldo’s wife calls herself “Widower Waldo” in the dream, but it might suggest that Waldo, like Evans the Death, fears mortality, or feels apprehensive about the passage of time, and the death and decay that unavoidably accompany it.

That Waldo’s wife’s screeching replaces his mother’s suggests that while time might pass, the human experience remains basically the same, and history ultimately repeats itself. Here, Waldo is an unsatisfactory husband, just as his father was before him, and his wife yells at him, just as his mother did before her. Lastly, Walter’s wife’s and Walter’s mother’s anguish over their gossiping neighbors depicts the play’s setting as a gossipy small town where everyone knows everyone else’s business.

Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard’s “virtuous polar sheets” are a visual representation of her obsession with tidiness. Metaphorically, they suggest a certain moral purity, as well. That Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard dreams of her dead husbands suggests that she, like so many of the other townspeople, is preoccupied with the past. 

The animalistic traits of Gossamer’s lover, with his “bushy tail” and “rough ready” appearance illustrates the carnal, physical aspect of Gossamer’s desires. Like many other characters, she dreams specifically of physical intimacy.

Organ Morgan’s dreams of “spouses […] honking like geese” emphasizes how involved in everyone else’s business the townspeople are: the town is small, so everyone hears everything else that goes on, such as the “honking” squabbles of bickering spouses. The description of the Floyds asleep “like two old kippers in a box” is an example of the play’s abundant use of water imagery. Here, the two old cocklers are depicted as kippers, small canned fish that are similar to sardines.

Watkins’s first name (Utah) and the name of his farm, Salt Lake Farm, evoke more water imagery: Salt Lake refers to the Great Salt Lake, which is located in northern Utah, near Salt Lake City, which Dylan Thomas visited in 1952 while on one of his U.S. reading tours. That Cherry Owen’s empty mug turns into a fish comically suggests a nostalgia or longing for the drinks he’s already drunk.

Mrs. Willy Nilly’s dream might reflect her inner desires for the sexual intimacy that aren’t being fulfilled in her marriage. Sinbad Sailors’s and Lily Smalls’s dreams also reflect repressed sexual desires: Sinbad Sailors lusts after “his damp pillow” in place of Gossamer, whom he truly loves. Lily Smalls’s dreams of engaging in an illicit affair in the wash-room suggests a desire for a more titillating life, since the exciting act of being ravished by a mogul (an important and powerful person, especially within a particular industry) stands in stark contrast to the drab, mundane setting (a wash-room) in which it takes place.

Mae Rose’s dream is also richly sensual: she undresses herself completely, taking off “her pink-and-white-skin” in addition to her clothes. The removal of her skin suggests that Mae Rose desires to be seen physically and metaphorically: she wants someone to observe and desire her naked body, and she also wants to “peal[] off” the exterior layers of manner, social niceties, and artifice and let the world see her in a natural, unfiltered state.  Mae Rose’s desire for a romance like something out of “the stories” underscores the power storytelling has to shape people’s desires. Lastly, Mae Rose’s desire to be called “Dolores,” and the violent imagery of her removing her skin, might be an allusion to the Algernon Charles Swinburne poem “Dolores (Notre-Dame des Sept Douleurs),” a sensual, provocative poem that uses Christian imagery to describe the beauty, cruelty, and sensuality of a pagan mother goddess.

Bessie Bighead longs nostalgically for the deceased Gomer Owen, whom she associates with love and intimacy, even though the one kiss they shared occurred in such an undesirable place as a pigsty. Mrs. Beynon’s dream seems to reflect a broader paranoia of community gossip: she’s worried community gossip about the apparently disreputable sources of her husband’s meats will lead to his arrest.

Eisteddfod is an annual Welsh community festival that celebrates Welsh arts and culture, as well as the bardic tradition. The first recorded Eisteddfod took place 1176 and was as a competition among bards and minstrels. That the Reverend dreams of Eisteddfodau and crafts rhythms in his sleep suggests that he values storytelling, the arts, and a sense of community. It also places the play’s setting in a broader historical context, establishing that it and its people value and carry on centuries’ old Welsh traditions.

Mrs. Organ Morgan’s dreams of silence contrast sharply with her husband’s dreams of music. The asymmetrical, opposing desires displayed in their dreams is a metaphor for their failure to connect as a couple, and the complicated nature of intimacy more broadly.

Mary Ann Sailors’s dreams of the Garden of Eden suggest a longing for purity and redemption: she’s dreaming of a time before humanity’s biblical descent into sin and violence. The fact that Mary Ann’s Eden is a mundane “kitchen garden,” though, reveals her belief that retuning to this earlier state of purity that humanity had before its banishment from the Garden of Eden is an achievable task rather than a lofty, wishful goal. In short, Mary Ann’s dream suggests her faith in humanity’s resilience and innate goodness.

Dai Bread’s dreams of harems and Polly Garter’s dreams of babies are additional examples of the play’s open, honest attitude toward sexuality and physical intimacy. Nogood Boyo’s dream of nothing suggests that he’s an uncomplicated person: he wants for nothing because his mundane life in a quaint fishing village gives him all he really needs. Lord Cut-Glass’s dreams of a ticking clock suggests a heightened awareness of humanity’s inability to halt the passage of time. Perhaps Lord Cut-Glass, like Captain Cat and many of the play’s other characters, longs for the past and is apprehensive about his inability to exercise control over a world that is perpetually moving forward.  

First Voice explicitly emphasizes the steady, forward motion of time when he urges the listener to observe how “time passes” as night gives way to morning.

Though “Llareggub” looks like a Welsh term, it’s not a real word and, when spelled backward, reads “bugger all,” which is a British slang term that means “nothing.” This supports the Guide-Book’s claims about Llareggub being a rather dull, unremarkable place. Still, the Guide-Book’s observation that a “contemplative” person might see a “picturesque sense of the past” in Llareggub’s eccentric citizens recasts Llareggub’s simplicity and dullness in a positive light, suggesting that the simpler way of life Llareggub offers is actually a positive way to exist. 

The Reverend’s description of Llareggub Hill as “eternal” situates the hill—and the adjacent town of Llareggub—within the larger context of the area’s natural and cultural history, which suggests that both the hill and its neighboring town are resilient against the forces of change and deterioration that wear down so many other places. The Reverend’s use of the world “Gwalia,” which is an archaic Welsh term for Wales often used in poetic settings, expands on this point while also reinforcing the Reverend’s important relationship to poetry, the arts, and Welsh culture and history. The Reverend’s comments here build upon the Guide-Book’s earlier observation about Llareggub possessing certain charms one might associate with the past. In calling Llareggub Hill “eternal” and expressing his admiration for the town, Jenkins suggests that there is strength and worth inherent in Llareggub and its ability to maintain its traditions and identity in the face of a changing, increasingly modernized world. That Jenkins delivers his praise in such a poetic, performative fashion conveys the power of storytelling to transform an ordinary town like Llareggub into a place that is interesting and worthy of praise.

In referring to Lily as “Mrs. Beynon’s treasure,” the play reduces the young girl to an object devoid of identity and desire. Lily Smalls’s dreams of being romanced by “royalty” are the opposite of the mundane, predictable life she lives as Mrs. Beynon’s maid. Her fantastical dreams reflect an inner dissatisfaction with her boring life and serve as a coping mechanism she uses to bring more excitement to an otherwise uneventful existence: Lily tells herself stories to entertain herself and pass the long, mundane days she spends doing housework for Mrs. Beynon. That Lily’s fantasies take place in Milk Wood further establishes nature as a free, magical place that is unbeholden to the social norms that govern life in town.   

The Pughs’ disastrous and hateful marriage is intentionally exaggerated for comic effect. At the same time, however, their strained relationship expresses the ordinary struggle of married couples to connect, particularly after they’ve grown tired and impatient with each other over the years.

Mrs. Pugh observes the goings on about the town, pettily mocking Lily Smalls for accidentally tucking her skirt into her underwear for the entire town to see. Lily Smalls’s visible undergarments may also be seen as a metaphor for the way living in such a small, close-knit town inherently puts one’s secrets—one’s dirty linens, so to speak—on display for all to see. Mrs. Pugh’s scornful comment about Polly Garter needing to be arrested “for having babies” suggests that while the pay’s narrators might maintain a neutral position on their subjects, the townspeople themselves have strong opinions about their neighbors.

Having two wives might satisfy Dai Bread’s sensual desires, but he still finds petty reasons to be irritated at them. His anger is played for comic effect, since he’s a baker and presumably should be able to fix himself breakfast. Mrs. Dai Bread Two is a hyper-sexualized caricature of a sultry, exotic “gypsy” woman. The play depicts her as a “dirty,” exotic temptress who smokes and bares her knees. In short, she’s the opposite of the ordinary, homely Mrs. Dai Bread One.

Not much is known about Lord Cut-Glass at this point in the play, but his disheveled appearance and the menial labor tasks he performs suggests that he’s down on his luck. Perhaps, like many other townspeople, Lord Cut-Glass’s best days are behind him. The prim appearance Miss Myfanwy assumes in the light of day contrasts starkly with the sensual being she became in her dreams, which suggests that rigid social norms inhibit people from acting on the inner animalistic desires that surface in their dreams.

Polly imagines her baby as a stand-in for the townspeople who judge her for having children out of wedlock, and for engaging in numerous sexual affairs. When Polly imagines that her baby ultimately decides she is good enough just the way she is, it implies that Polly doesn’t take townspeople’s gossip to heart, nor does she feel that her promiscuous behavior makes her unworthy of love and compassion.

Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard is obsessed with cleanliness and physical health: she only allows herself to consume clean and comically tasteless foods, such as “starchless bread.” Whereas many townspeople seem preoccupied with the past, Mrs. Ogmore seems more anxious about the future and her longevity. The Willy Nillys’ shameless invasion of the townspeople’s’ privacy by steaming open their mail underscores the role gossip and nosiness plays in bringing together the people of Llareggub to take part in a shared experience of community life.

The Owens’ harmonious relationship is rather counterintuitive—one would expect Cherry Owen’s alcoholism would destroy the possibility of a happy marriage—and played for comedic effect. Their unlikely marital bliss shows how there is value in striving for connection, even if it’s imperfect or comes from unexpected sources. “Sago” refers to a starchy substance similar to tapioca. 

In yet another instance of odd marital dynamics, there are the Beynons, whose marriage seems to be based on a bizarre balancing act in which Mr. Beynon mercilessly teases his wife about the source of his meats, and Mrs. Beynon believes (or at least, pretends to believe) him. Their relationship is similar to the Pughs, in that it lacks intimacy and honesty and is highly, humorously contrived. 

Llareggub might be a charmingly nostalgic old town, but it’s not devoid of its fair share of troubles: the fact that its local pub, Sailors Arms, has the clientele to support its being open at nearly all hours of the day is proof of these troubles: there’s always someone in town who needs to drown their sorrows in pints of beer. Nogood Boyo’s indifference about “who’s up there” in the sky—about an afterlife or the existence of a higher being—is followed by his intentional gaze toward Llareggub Hill. It’s as though he chooses Llareggub Hill over God, which suggests a certain faith in the shared experience of life in Llareggub over faith in God. In other words, Nogood Boyo might not believe in God, but he believes in his town. Of course, the other side of the coin is that Nogood Boyo is simply a lazy, indifferent young man who can’t be bothered to muse philosophically.  

Captain Cat becomes something of a third narrator, making observations similar to First Voice’s and Second Voice’s, which allow the audience to gain more insight into daily life in Llareggub. The major presence of these three narrators—Captain Cat, First Voice, and Second Voice—reaffirms the active role that storytelling plays in bringing to life the town of Llareggub for the audience, which must rely on their voices alone to orient itself within the town, since the radio drama genre doesn’t allow for extraneous visual elements that could otherwise simply show the reader the town directly. 

It's ridiculous for the postman to tell the people on his route about the contents of their mail before they open it for themselves. Willy Nilly’s extreme nosiness is played for comedic effect and parodies the cliched idea that everyone who lives in a small town knows everyone else’s business. Adding to this comedic situation is the absurd premise that not one of the townspeople appear annoyed that their mailman is opening, reading, and sharing the contents of their mail with the entire town. In fact, Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard simply accepts it as a part of daily life, which suggests that she and the other townspeople find comfort in living this shared, non-secretive life. One final example of comedic absurdity in this scene is the idea that Mrs. Ogmore Pritchard’s obsessive commitment to neatness prevents her from allowing guests to stay in her boarding house.

Mr. Pugh’s package might imply that his dreams and daydreams of poisoning his wife are more than dreams—perhaps he has plans to go through with nefarious fantasy. That Mrs. Pugh’s postman is the person to inform her of Mr. Pugh’s nefarious scheme comically shows how mysterious the miserable husband and wife are to each other: their postman knows more about them than they do about each other. The love letter Willy Nilly delivers to Mog sheds some light on the nature of Mog and Myfanwy’s relationship, revealing that their romance isn’t just a fantasy they live out in their dreams: they’re actually engaged in a romance, though whether or not the romance extends beyond mere letter writing remains to be seen.

It was already rather clear that Mr. Waldo is Llareggub’s resident scoundrel, and Willy Nilly’s delivery of “another paternity summons” only reinforces this. Willy Nilly specifies that he has “another” summons for Waldo, which humorously implies that this isn’t the first summons he’s delivered to Waldo. Given the very public status of everyone’s mail, (courtesy of Willy Nilly) it’s guaranteed that Mr. Waldo’s adultery and resultant, illegitimate children are common knowledge across town.

The town pump is a central meeting place where the town’s women can gather to spread gossip. The subjects the women broach—from the weighty subject of domestic abuse to trivial updates about the current cost of soap—vary hyperbolically in their degree of seriousness, which implies that no topic is off-limits to this network of gossiping women.

Cat implies that Spring itself has reinvigorated Organ Morgan’s desire to make music, which illustrates how discerning and appreciative Llareggub’s citizens are of ordinary bouts of good fortune: for Organ Morgan, the warmth of the air on the first proper Spring day is enough to give him a renewed outlook on life and reinvigorate his idea to create and perform music.  Cat’s observation seems to point to the way Llareggub’s simplicity allows its citizens to feel more grateful and fulfilled in their lives.

Unlike the women, who gossip judgmentally about Polly, Captain Cat assumes a more objective opinion of the young, single mother. He also comes to Polly’s defense in this scene when he insinuates that the women are mostly gossiping about Polly not out of moral outrage, but out of spite, since it’s almost certain that one of their cheating husbands fathered her latest child-in-progress.

That Captain Cat uses the cock’s crow to tell time shows how, even though the play established a clear divide between nature and society, the natural world is still very much imbedded in the experience of daily life in Llareggub, which nostalgically harkens back to an earlier, pre-industrial era, perhaps. The women’s gossip about Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard’s new boarder shows that news of the letter Willy Nilly delivered to her earlier that day has already spread across town. The women’s gossip about the way Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard’s first husband would watch guests “undressing through the key-hole” reinforces a gendered stereotype about men’s natural state of hypersexuality. The women aren’t poking fun of Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard’s poor taste in men so much as they are bonding over their shared experiences with misbehaving husbands. It’s a way for all of them to connect and sympathize over a shared cause of emotional anguish.

Airing their grievances about the various men in their lives and the lives of other townswomen allows the women to take comfort in their shared experiences of having to deal with disappointing men, all of whom are supposedly “brutes.”

First Voice’s instruction for the audience to focus on the sea reinforces the unavoidable presence of water in Llareggub—and, by extension, the nostalgia that water symbolizes. Evans the Death’s figurative attempt to keep his heart from leaping out of his chest implies a fear of mortality: he sees life as fleeting, unpredictable, and perpetually in danger of escaping without a moment’s notice. Death anxiety is a humorous trait for an undertaker to possess, since one would expect him to be desensitized to matters of life and death.

The play has already established that Jack Black loathes the promiscuity of Llareggub’s young lovers, so one can logically speculate that his anger at the Spring day is motivated by Spring’s associations with fertility, growth, and rebirth. Jack Black’s decision to take out his anger on the shoe he’s cobbling for Mrs. Dai Bread Two—an unladylike high heel that symbolizes and contributes to her hypersexual—supports this point. Spring’s associations with renewal and rebirth have a quite different effect on Captain Cat, for whom the presence of life and newness in the air is a reminder of all those who are no longer around to enjoy the fresh air with him.  Mary Ann Sailors’s observation that Llareggub Hill is “the Chosen Land” also connects to Spring’s associations with rebirth and renewal, since the Chosen Land, or “Promised Land,” in the biblical tradition, refers to the land God promised Abraham and his descendants, and, more broadly, to the idea that God’s chosen people will be granted salvation. In describing Llareggub Hill as “the Chosen Land,” Sailors implies that Llareggub’s people are God’s chosen people and, subsequently, worthy of salvation. 

Willy Nilly and his wife bond over their snooping, which is yet another example of an imperfect (and immoral) attempt at intimacy that is nonetheless valuable in its ability to form a connection between two people. The steamy dream that Mog recounts in his letter to Myfanwy suggests that sexuality is an important part of their romance, though such a form of intimacy isn’t accepted by all the townspeople: Owen’s remark that Mog should’ve tossed Myfanwy back into the sea metaphorically implies that Owen sees this “dripping wet,” sexual version of Myfanwy as debauched by virtue of her sexuality. Interestingly, in Mog’s dream, it’s Reverend Eli Jenkins (the town’s only religious authority figure) who sees the sexualized Myfanwy as a beautiful, worthy “mermaid” and Owen (the town mischief-maker and drunk) who rejects Myfanwy’s worth. Jenkins’s acceptance reflects his broader view of the townspeople, which is that they are worthy of being judged by their goodness over their vices or mistakes. Lastly, that Mog’s love letter is punctuated by his tedious anxieties about his personal financial woes suggests a certain reluctance on Mog’s part to be fully honest and intimate with Myfanwy. The fact that he interrupts his own declarations of love to go off on tangents about fabrics and finances suggests that the ordinary stresses of life can become obstacles that stand in the way of genuine human connection.

There’s a discrepancy between what the fishermen want their lives to become—the type of living they wish to earn, and the improved life they will create with their earnings—and the reality of their poor day’s catch. That the fishermen realize this discrepancy as they look in the sea and see their unrealized dreams of wealth in the form of watery images of the goods the poor day’s catch doesn’t allow them to afford reinforces water’s function as a symbol of dreams and longing.

First Voice’s comment about Llareggub’s “music of the spheres” is a reference to the metaphysical philosophical principle of musica universalis, which holds that the balanced, proportional movement of celestial bodies (planets and stars) are a form of music. The Renaissance astronomer Johannes Kepler would later suggest that this music could be felt in the soul of all humans. First Voice’s decision to refer to the townspeople’s music as “music of the spheres,” therefore, suggests that the creative experience of music-making not only connects the townspeople with one another, but with the collective existence of humanity, as well. Mrs. Dai Bread’s vision is another instance of the play’s frank treatment of sexuality. It’s not clear whether she actually sees her husband in bed with two unknow women, or if she’s only pretending she has to antagonize Mrs. Dai Bread One.

“Tom, Dick, and Harry” is an expression that refers to ordinary people. When Polly calls her past lovers Tom, Dick, and Harry, she means that these lovers were unremarkable and meaningless in comparison to Willy Wee, whom she genuinely loved. Polly’s grief over Willy Wee—despite no shortage of lovers in the years that followed his death—shows how rare it is to form genuine intimate connections with others. This moment humanizes Polly, as well, revealing that the promiscuous behavior for which she many townspeople judge her is actually a coping mechanism she employs to work through unresolved grief. This moment is an apt example of the play’s more nuanced, sympathetic depiction of human sexuality, and women’s sexuality, in particular.

Just as the Reverend saw the beauty in the sexual Myfanwy of Mog Edwards’s dream, he sees the beauty and virtue in Polly’s music, despite the fact that she’s singing about earthly pains and pleasures, which are subjects of which one might expect a Reverend to disapprove. Jenkins doesn’t judge Polly because he sees music and creativity as evidence of humanity’s innate goodness: in his eyes, Polly’s singing is enough to redeem her. Once more, the play juxtaposes Jenkins’s nuanced, sympathetic stance on sexuality to the hypocritical and judgmental stance of a morally dubious townsperson. Here, Waldo—a well-established drunk and mischief-maker—righteously scoffs that no woman is “a lady all over,” which implies that all women are promiscuous and debased to some degree. Waldo’s view is unfairly critical of women’s sexuality, particularly in light of the fact that Waldo is himself a serial adulterer.

Llareggub’s youngest citizens, too, desire intimacy—even if in their embarrassment they treat the act of striving for connection like a schoolyard game. Gwennie’s order for the boys to kiss her “where she says” seems to be intentionally vague. When Gwennie says “where,” she is referring to a geographic location, but “where” could also refer to a location on her body, which is suggestive of a premature curiosity with physical intimacy, even more so than the simple request of a kiss.The play’s depiction of children’s early experimentations with sexuality is further evidence of its frank, open attitude toward sex. That Gwennie demands that the boys kiss her in different natural settings—in Milk Wood and on Llareggub Hill, for example—reinforces nature as a symbol of freedom from social norms and cultural constraints. 

The play generally assumes a positive stance about humanity’s innate goodness, but this moment subtly complicates this when it shows how even children are capable of senseless cruelty. This senselessness is underscored by the ease with which the children transition from cruelty to running to the sweetshop to buy candies with their “sticky,” dishonorable money, as though their ruthless teasing of Dicky were nothing at all. First Voice’s observation that the children’s teasing “means nothing at all” to Dicky, who loves his mother ins spite of her “fat birth-smelling bed” and “cowbreath” mirrors Polly Garter’s imagined conversation with her baby in the beginning of the play, in which the baby contends that despite Polly’s flaws, she’s good enough as she is. Both scenes point to the broader idea that people are innately good and ought to be judged on their goodness rather than their flaws or mistakes. 

Gossamer and Sinbad could have a relationship, but a romance likely won’t develop between them since they’re mutually unwilling to let the other know their true feelings. This shows how heavily misunderstanding and a socially constructed fear of shame or rejection stands in the way of humanity’s natural urge to connect with others: Sinbad withholds his feelings because of his grandmother’s disapproval, and Gossamer keeps her feelings to herself, too torn between “terror” and “delight” at the uncertain, unpredictable nature of intimacy to act on her desires. As a result of their combined inaction, Sinbad sees Gossamer as “the butcher’s unmalting icemaiden daughter,” who is too educated to be interested in him. Gossamer and Sinbad’s story of unrequited love is particularly tragic, though: it’s presented as a quite typical example of social anxiety and misunderstanding preventing people from seizing opportunities and connecting with others.  

The irony of Mr. Pugh’s careful efforts to conceal the name of his book from Mrs. Pugh is that she already knows what the book is, since Willy Nilly told her earlier that day when he delivered it. Mr. Pugh should know this, since it’s common knowledge that Willy Nilly broadcasts everyone’s private business to the rest of the town, so there’s a comical element of absurdity to his not knowing that Mrs. Pugh is well aware that he’s reading about poisoners, not saints. Mrs. Pugh’s wry remark about “Saint Polly Garter” being “martyred” by Mr. Waldo is another example of the play’s ample use of playful innuendo. It also shows that, while many of the townspeople subscribe to Christian beliefs, they aren’t above committing minor sins, such as making a blasphemous comment for the sake of wordplay-based comedy. In realty, most characters compromise their personal or religious morals in one way or another, but this is what makes them entertaining, relatable, and refreshingly ordinary. 

The Morgans’ relationship is fairly typical among Llareggub’s married couples in that it lacks intimacy and honesty. Mrs. Organ Morgan’s eagerness to share with her husband her titillating discovery of Polly and Waldo in the woods together shows how eager and starved she is to connect with him about anything at all, which is why she cries when his response of “Bach” (a Baroque composer, and one of Morgan’s musical heroes—not one of Polly’s children) shows that he hasn’t been listening to a word she’s said. Lastly, Mrs. Organ Morgan’s remark about how Polly and Waldo had pretended to be “looking for nests” when Mrs. Organ Morgan discovered them in the wood reaffirms nature’s association with freedom, and sexual freedom, in particular.

First Voice’s description of Lord Cut-Glass as a man who “lives in […] a life of siege” suggests that he has paranoid tendencies and is perhaps not of sound mind—hanging 66 ticking clocks on the wall seems an extreme (and not particularly effective) defense against enemies who may not even exist in the first place. Lord Cut-Glass’s suspicions about Spring are similar to Jack Black’s: both men see something uncivilized, pagan, and unvirtuous about the way the Spring air inspires Llareggub’s townspeople to sing, be intimate, and let down their guard. When Second Voice describes Llareggub Hill as it exists to Lord Cut-Glass’s mind as “Armageddon Hill,” they suggest that Lord Cut-Glass sees Llareggub Hill and all the supposedly uncivilized activities that take place there as indicative of humanity’s evil, debauched nature.

The sleepiness of Llareggub in the waning afternoon is reflected in the lazy movement of the sea, which “lolls, laps and idles.” The narrators draw attention to the water to reestablish the dreamy, contemplative mood they created in the play’s opening scene, in which the town was still, cloaked in darkness, and all its people were fast asleep.

Since water symbolizes dreams and nostalgia, Cat’s position beside the sea symbolizes his inability to detach himself from feelings of nostalgia for his seafaring past, and grief over the fellow seaman he has outlived.  

This scene between Rosie and Cat, spoken in an exchange of rhymed verse, establishes a connection between poetry, nostalgia, and the sea. Cat’s emphasis on the “Blue seas and green,” evokes his longing for his seafaring days and the past more broadly. To Cat, the sea is a metaphor everything he's lost. This is why he uses nautical imagery to convey is longing for his former lover, expressing his desire to “shipwreck in [her] thighs.” Rosie’s sudden disappearance into the darkness proves that Cat’s time spent in memory is an inadequate and temporary relief for his grief, though. Ultimately, the past is gone, and, like Rosie, his memories of it will only fade with time. 

It's unclear what the little girl is trying to tell her mother about her interaction with Nogood Boyo, but her mention of his offer to give her “three pennies” is reminiscent of Gwennie’s arrangement with the schoolboys to give her a kiss or a penny, which has some disturbing connotations, depending on how much older Nogood Boyo is than the girl. Meanwhile, on the water, Nogood Boyo continues to live up his name, conjuring dirty images of Mrs. Dai Bread Two in his head, though he seems ashamed and reluctant to do so. That Nogood Boyo’s dirty thoughts take place while he’s on the water reinforces the idea that nature—whether it be Milk Wood or the sea—allows people to behave more freely than society would otherwise allow. When Nogood Boyo insists that he “want[s] to be a good Boyo, but nobody’ll let [him],” he seems to identify implicitly the asymmetry between humans’ natural desires and the society that stifles those desires and makes them shameful. When he says “nobody’ll let [him]” be good, he refers to the dirty image of Mrs. Dai Bread Two that pops into his head without his consent, implying that it’s this instinctive and unwanted image won’t let him be good. In reality, Nogood Boyo’s thoughts are natural, and it’s society that makes him feel bad about them. At any rate, Nogood Boyo manages to construct a logic that allows him to condemn his dirty thoughts while taking pleasure in them anyway, on the grounds that he has no control over them. 

Mae Rose Cottage uses Llareggub Hill in the same way everyone else does: as an escape where she can go to let loose and give in to her natural desire without fear of judgment. Her action of blowing on a dandelion while fantasizing about “the dirty old fool” she wants for a lover underscores the connection between nature and sexuality. That Jenkins’s poem-room is decorated with images of bards and preachers reinforces his dedication to the artistic, performative pursuits that are central to the bardic tradition. The painting of Milk Wood depicted as “a lettuce salad dying” represents the decaying, antiquated town of Llareggub. Lastly, Jenkins’s comment about his father dying “of drink and agriculture,” seems to underscore how vastly different his life is than his father’s. Whereas his father suffered and died of self-destruction—of drinking and working his body into the grave—Jenkins’s life is characterized by contentment and creation: by his resolute journey to find beauty in his humble town, to document the history of its people, and to compose and perform poetry that celebrates and memorializes the meaningfulness of the town and people he so admires. 

Daisy’s refusal to hurt the cows suggests that the natural state of living beings is to be peaceful rather than violent. The vitriol that Utah Watkins directs at the cows is a learned thing—it’s his desire to make a profit from their milk that fuels his anger, not a natural desire to harm them. Bessie Bighead’s close connection to the cows, evidenced by her decision to call them by their names, suggests that she’s more in touch with peaceful nature than with cruel society; after all, society hasn’t been good to Bessie or given her the intimacy she needs. The only person who ever showed her any intimacy was Gomer Owen, and he only kissed her on a dare. Bessie’s desire to mourn Gomer’s death anyway suggests her desperation to connect with someone—anyone. The idea that “the night sucks of her soul and spits it into the sky” suggests that the nighttime—when all of Llareggub’s people are asleep and not around to treat her cruelly—is a freeing time for Bessie: a time that allows her normally constrained, muted soul to soar high into the heavens.

Mrs. Ogmore-Pritchard’s evening will be almost identical to the one the listener bore witness to in the very beginning of the play. The parallels between last night emphasizes the fact that the day in Llareggub that the audience has just witnessed is no different than any other day in the quaint, ordinary village, and that what made it meaningful and unique was the narrators’ keen observational skills and lush, poetic use of language, and the audience’s willingness to find significance and beauty in the mundane lives of Llareggub’s ordinary people.

Mae Rose Cottage’s longing to be so “bad” that she forces God to “strike” her conveys her inner desire for erotic pain. Her disappointment when nothing happens reflects the play’s larger theme of the universality of longing and failing to connect with others and have one’s desires met.

The Reverend’s point about God being able to see Llareggub’s townspeople’s goodness in spite of their flaws speaks to the play’s broader, optimistic stance on humanity, which is that despite the atrocities it is capable of committing (and has committed) there is no point at which humanity ventures past the point of redemption or forgiveness. To the Reverend, humanity—even in the aftermath of the biblical fall of man—is always deserving of goodness and improvement. That the Reverend looks to Llareggub Hill as he contemplates humanity’s goodness reinforces Llareggub Hill’s function as a symbol of humanity’s resilience in the face of change, and the innate goodness that fuels this capacity ofr resilence. 

Gomorrah is a biblical city that God destroyed for its wickedness. Jack Black’s declaration that he’s “off to Gomorrah!” to break up the lovers is played for comedic effect to convey his critical, condemning attitude toward sexual promiscuity. The goings on of the other characters in this scene—Nogood Boyo getting into trouble at the wash-house, Cherry Owen and the other drunkards returning to the bar, Sinbad Sailors continuing to pine silently for Gossamer—illustrates the continuation of ordinary life in Llareggub. Everyone settles back into their habits, and life goes on. If the listener were to have access to whatever tomorrow might bring for Llareggub, chances are, it’d be not much different than what they bore witness to today.

“A hill of windows” refers to the distinct appearance of the many lit windows of the townspeople’s houses against the contrasting darkness of night. When the narrative explains that these windows “call back […] the dead that have run away to sea,” it refers to the way the return of night will inspire the people who sleep behind those windows to dream, once more, of the “dead” and the “lost” that they can only encounter in the “sea” of their dreams. The reemergence of night gives the play a symmetry that provides a feeling of closure: things are back to the way they began, with the town quiet, peaceful, and cloaked in the darkness of night.

Cherry Owen’s “righteously” judgmental remarks about dancing are rather humorously hypocritical, given the fact that he’s not a particularly upstanding citizen himself, already on his 17th beer while the night is still young. 

A “tumulus” is an ancient burial mound. By referring to Llareggub Hill as a “mystic tumulus” that has existed since before the arrival of the Celts, Jenkins places Llareggub within the larger context of history. His observation is hopeful and speaks to the resilience of humanity in the face of great change. Jenkins sees Llareggub’s people as part of the collective history of humanity, and he believes that their voices and lives are as worthy and as capable of withstanding the ravages of time as the ancient peoples who buried their dead beneath Llareggub Hill.  

Waldo’s song about suffering until he is propositioned for sex in Pembroke, a town in West Wales, expresses his longing for connection, and his belief that intimacy—no matter how imperfect—will provide temporary relief from suffering. Captain Cat’s story ends as it begins: haunted by nostalgia for the life and people no longer with him, tortured by the grief of remembering the dead, yet simultaneously obligated to remember them in order to keep their memories alive and their voices heard.

This absurd, drunken confrontation between Cherry Owen and Organ Morgan is undoubtably a story that Mrs. Cherry Owen will delightedly recount to her husband the following morning, in keeping with their established routine. Again, the play establishes that ordinary, routine life in Llareggub will continue business as usual after the audience is no longer around to bear witness to its goings on.

There’s something tragic about the fact that Myfanwy and Mog would rather maintain the safe, predictability of a letters-exclusive romance than dive in headfirst, meet in person, and risk heartbreak or disappointment. Mog and Myfanwy’s learned insecurities—their fear of social embarrassment and shame—interfere with their natural, inner desire for each other. Still, it’s comical, as well, that they are simultaneously so in love and yet so content to avoid each other in perpetuity.  

That Mr. Waldo and Polly Garter meet up in Milk Wood emphasizes the wood’s function as a symbol freedom from social norms. Mr. Waldo “smacks his live red lips” and temporarily quells his hunger, but their physical intimacy is ultimately unfulfilling for Polly, since Willy Wee is the only man with whom she truly desires a connection.

First Voice ends their narration as they began it: with an invitation for the listener to be present and listen to the night that surrounds them. This symmetry shapes the play, imbuing it with a sense of closure and coherence. First Voice’s description of Milk Wood as a place of sin in the eyes of “the hunters of lovers” refers to Jack Black, who actively breaks up the lovers who go to the wood to engage in their trysts. In contrast, Mary Ann Sailors’s and Reverend Eli Jenkins’s views of the wood are more positive and hopeful, depicting the ancient wood as a sigh of humanity’s resilience in the face of change, and a sign that the people of Llareggub, in particular, have an “innocence” and inner goodness that won’t be diminished by the wrath of time. Jenkins’s observation about the woods coming alive “for the second dark time this one Spring day” refers to the way the wood comes alive tonight just as they did at the beginning of the play. It implies a permanence or predictability: the wood will come alive again and again, into eternity, because the wood—and the innocence and virtue it represents—are powerful forces that will withstand the ravages of time.