"The humble and meek are thirsting for blood"
About this Quote
Orton’s line is a scalpel aimed at the polite face of morality. “Humble and meek” are supposed to be the safe citizens of Christian fable: the ones who endure, forgive, turn the other cheek. Orton flips them into predators, “thirsting for blood,” and the shock lands because it’s not just a twist; it’s an accusation. He’s telling you that virtue can be a costume, and that the crowd most invested in appearing harmless may be the most eager for punishment, scandal, and righteous violence.
The intent is satiric but not airy. Orton’s theatre consistently treats respectability as a kind of social kink: the tighter the manners, the more perverse the appetites. “Thirsting” makes it bodily, almost erotic; the desire isn’t principled, it’s visceral. The meek don’t simply want justice. They want spectacle. They want to watch someone pay, preferably while insisting they’re above it.
Context matters: Orton was writing in a Britain where deference, censorship, and class propriety still posed as national character, even as the culture was loosening in the 1960s. As a gay man repeatedly disciplined by institutions (from the library courts after his early prank to the broader legal and moral regime), Orton had reason to distrust the sweetness of public decency. The line reads like a diagnosis of the mob that hides behind manners: the moral majority as an audience, hungry for carnage but insisting on its own innocence.
The intent is satiric but not airy. Orton’s theatre consistently treats respectability as a kind of social kink: the tighter the manners, the more perverse the appetites. “Thirsting” makes it bodily, almost erotic; the desire isn’t principled, it’s visceral. The meek don’t simply want justice. They want spectacle. They want to watch someone pay, preferably while insisting they’re above it.
Context matters: Orton was writing in a Britain where deference, censorship, and class propriety still posed as national character, even as the culture was loosening in the 1960s. As a gay man repeatedly disciplined by institutions (from the library courts after his early prank to the broader legal and moral regime), Orton had reason to distrust the sweetness of public decency. The line reads like a diagnosis of the mob that hides behind manners: the moral majority as an audience, hungry for carnage but insisting on its own innocence.
Quote Details
| Topic | Dark Humor |
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