Hertha from "Spring Storm" by Tennessee Williams

HERTHA: I see. (Pause.) Sometimes I wonder if anybody's ever gone anyplace--or do we always just go back to where we started?--I guess there's something significant about the fact that the world is round and all of the planets are round and all of the planets are round and all of them are going round and round the sun! (She laughs.) The whole damned universe seems to be laid out on a more elliptical plan. (She rises.) But I can't get used to it, Arthur. I can't adjust myself to it like you're doing-- (She gropes for words.) --You see I can't get oer the idea that it might be possible for somebody--sometime--somewhere--to follow a straight line upwards and get some place that nobody's ever been yet! (Pause.)

ARTHUR (looking up at her with a slight smile): You mean to Paradise, don't you?

HERTHA: You're laughing at me. You think it's foolish.

ARTHUR (slowly): I know what you mean. But I don't believe in it. I think it's just one of those romantic fallacies that everybody gets knocked out of him in the course of time.--Where are you going?

HERTHA: I'm going on up the rest of the way.