In the first scene, Jack particularly bothers Ramsden because Ramsden considers himself a progressive thinker while Jack’s revolutionary ideals make Ramsden look conservative. This is because Ramsden’s progressive beliefs entail working within the existing social system while Jack’s require the dismantling of that system—an actual revolution. The play ties progressiveness to the young people in the play and conservatism to the older characters. In fact, Ramsden seems to be both afraid of Jack’s ideas and unable to fully understand them. The supposedly symbolic gesture of tossing Jack’s book in the trash serves to excuse Ramsden from reading a text that he probably could not understand.

A dichotomy occurs between Hector Malone, Jr. and Hector Malone, Sr., or perhaps more accurately, between Malone, Sr. and Violet, who is pulling the strings. Malone is fighting a long-gone battle by devoting his life to revenge on the English for their poor treatment of the Irish. In fact, buying property from English nobility who cannot afford to keep those properties up is actually helping the English in a sense. Malone takes on the traditional, conservative role of patriarch, using his money as a means to exert control on his son’s life.