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jodylynnw's review
3.0
V. S. Pritchett earned his reputation as the greatest English short story writer. He wrote careful stories where each line blends seamlessly into the next. However, what elevates his stories from mere craft was his ability to create honest and rich characters, who do not serve a plot or serve Pritchett’s writing ability. Instead, Pritchett, in his collection, Essential Stories, introduces his readers to a myriad of characters, full of flaws and grace, living out lives both agonizingly familiar in all their wretched humanness, yet undeniably original in their construction.
In “A Serious Question,” Mr. and Mrs. Harkaway sleep in separate bedrooms. This seems common enough. However, they talk to each other through the walls of the bedroom, and we find out that even in separate rooms, in the dark, both are unable to be honest with one another. Mrs. Harkaway mentions children and their conversation grows bitter and angry. Mr. Harkaway “punches his pillow” and Mrs. Harkaway “troubles” hers. When she is woken from a dream by noises outside, the title comes into importance; she asked her husband if she shut the gate, and he insists that he did. Instead of finding men stealing their apples, the Harkaways encounter horses in their garden. Both chase them off, and in a moment of passion, Mr. Harkaway, “thought that he shone like the god upon his wife with sudden love,” picks up Mrs. Harkaway and carries her to her room. He sneezes, the spell breaks, and he retreats back to his room, divided by a wall.
Where “A Serious Question” is full of character description, “A Lion’s Den” uses mostly dialogue to reveal the characters. A concerned Teddy visits his mother and father. What ensues is a painful conversation where two parents vie for their son’s attention with passive-aggressive news of their daily lives. Pritchett surprises the reader with the realization that the father secretly hoards, and that the mother enjoys showing her son the proof, even when he begs her to stop. All three are a family with no understanding of one another. The father says, “It’s a good thing I know your mother…In forty-five years, I got to know her.” Pritchett drives the irony deeper, and leaves the reader to wonder who Daniel is and who the lions are.
Balancing between “A Serious Question” and “The Lion’s Den,” “The Wheelbarrow” mixes both dialogue and details to demonstrate two characters at a crossroads. In “The Wheelbarrow,” the protagonist is Miss Freshwater’s niece. The lack of a first name forces the reader to keep a distance while she grieves for loss and the passing of her own opportunities “What paralyzed Miss Freshwater’s niece was the emptiness of the place.” Pritchett uses Robert Evans, a Welshman, to balance out Miss Freshwater’s niece’s grief. She hires him to help her get rid of items in the house. What appears to be a budding romance turns out to be one-sided. Miss Freshwater’s niece goes to Evans’s revival tent to “show him what he missed.” However, she hears him preach, “Oh my friends, I was a slave of the strange woman the Bible tells about, the whore of Babylon, in her palace of moth and dust…and burned the adulteress in the everlasting fire, my friends-and all her property.” Again, the reader is familiar with a somewhat jilted lover, but Miss Freshwater’s niece is no weak woman. She tells Evans that he never burned her wheelbarrow, and she walks to the bus, leaving the ugly mess behind her.
Pritchett used humor to show a character’s resentment of his famous brother in “The Fall.” Charles Peacock, an accountant, is getting ready for the Annual Dinner. He pretends to be other people and uses different characters to talk to fellow colleagues. Also, he uses alcohol to assist his rehearsed conversations. The reader can gauge Peacock’s strangeness by the others around him. Some find him funny while others find him odd or tiresome. He ends up alone in a room, demonstrating to a picture of Queen Victoria how to stage fall, an action he practiced with his brother when they were younger. It is only when he goes to bow that he actually falls because “Shel had never taught him.” Pritchett wove a tight story, using the humor to illuminate the loneliness in most people.
Eudora Welty said, “We read Pritchett’s stories, comic or tragic, with an elation that stems from their intensity.” The Harkaways will live out their marriage, divided by a wall that they created. Teddy will struggle with the strangeness and embarrassment that comes when you realize how flawed your parents are. Miss Freshwater’s niece is a survivor. Charles Peacock will continue battling with his brother through his strange impersonations. Like Welty said, “Life goes on in them without flagging,” and that is Pritchett’s true gift.
In “A Serious Question,” Mr. and Mrs. Harkaway sleep in separate bedrooms. This seems common enough. However, they talk to each other through the walls of the bedroom, and we find out that even in separate rooms, in the dark, both are unable to be honest with one another. Mrs. Harkaway mentions children and their conversation grows bitter and angry. Mr. Harkaway “punches his pillow” and Mrs. Harkaway “troubles” hers. When she is woken from a dream by noises outside, the title comes into importance; she asked her husband if she shut the gate, and he insists that he did. Instead of finding men stealing their apples, the Harkaways encounter horses in their garden. Both chase them off, and in a moment of passion, Mr. Harkaway, “thought that he shone like the god upon his wife with sudden love,” picks up Mrs. Harkaway and carries her to her room. He sneezes, the spell breaks, and he retreats back to his room, divided by a wall.
Where “A Serious Question” is full of character description, “A Lion’s Den” uses mostly dialogue to reveal the characters. A concerned Teddy visits his mother and father. What ensues is a painful conversation where two parents vie for their son’s attention with passive-aggressive news of their daily lives. Pritchett surprises the reader with the realization that the father secretly hoards, and that the mother enjoys showing her son the proof, even when he begs her to stop. All three are a family with no understanding of one another. The father says, “It’s a good thing I know your mother…In forty-five years, I got to know her.” Pritchett drives the irony deeper, and leaves the reader to wonder who Daniel is and who the lions are.
Balancing between “A Serious Question” and “The Lion’s Den,” “The Wheelbarrow” mixes both dialogue and details to demonstrate two characters at a crossroads. In “The Wheelbarrow,” the protagonist is Miss Freshwater’s niece. The lack of a first name forces the reader to keep a distance while she grieves for loss and the passing of her own opportunities “What paralyzed Miss Freshwater’s niece was the emptiness of the place.” Pritchett uses Robert Evans, a Welshman, to balance out Miss Freshwater’s niece’s grief. She hires him to help her get rid of items in the house. What appears to be a budding romance turns out to be one-sided. Miss Freshwater’s niece goes to Evans’s revival tent to “show him what he missed.” However, she hears him preach, “Oh my friends, I was a slave of the strange woman the Bible tells about, the whore of Babylon, in her palace of moth and dust…and burned the adulteress in the everlasting fire, my friends-and all her property.” Again, the reader is familiar with a somewhat jilted lover, but Miss Freshwater’s niece is no weak woman. She tells Evans that he never burned her wheelbarrow, and she walks to the bus, leaving the ugly mess behind her.
Pritchett used humor to show a character’s resentment of his famous brother in “The Fall.” Charles Peacock, an accountant, is getting ready for the Annual Dinner. He pretends to be other people and uses different characters to talk to fellow colleagues. Also, he uses alcohol to assist his rehearsed conversations. The reader can gauge Peacock’s strangeness by the others around him. Some find him funny while others find him odd or tiresome. He ends up alone in a room, demonstrating to a picture of Queen Victoria how to stage fall, an action he practiced with his brother when they were younger. It is only when he goes to bow that he actually falls because “Shel had never taught him.” Pritchett wove a tight story, using the humor to illuminate the loneliness in most people.
Eudora Welty said, “We read Pritchett’s stories, comic or tragic, with an elation that stems from their intensity.” The Harkaways will live out their marriage, divided by a wall that they created. Teddy will struggle with the strangeness and embarrassment that comes when you realize how flawed your parents are. Miss Freshwater’s niece is a survivor. Charles Peacock will continue battling with his brother through his strange impersonations. Like Welty said, “Life goes on in them without flagging,” and that is Pritchett’s true gift.
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