The story has two very different parts.
First: A just married couple go to see a solicitor to
make their will. They feel elated making this great document with an attorney that
is a really nice person. But, after the appointment, the weather isn’t so nice:
the sky is threatening with clouds and rain. All the way, they went to
celebrate it, and make love twice and spend the rest of their day off at home
because of the rain. There they discuss what they’ve just done and how can a solicitor be so nice and inventing a family for him.
Second: In the evening, while his wife is sleeping,
the husband gets up and decides to write a love letter to his wife, because he
has never written one. The beginning is easy, but he doesn’t know how to go on.
So it’s only three lines long and signs it. He puts it in an envelope with only
his wife’s name on the address, but he doesn’t know what to do with it. Was he
giving it to her? In the end, he hides it, waiting for a special moment to delivery
it. But he never does, because they get divorced, and in these circumstances it
wouldn’t be a good moment. And he keeps the letter forever.
I think this story is a very special one because in it
the divorce isn’t a kind of catastrophe, but something that will happen in the
course of any marriage. It’s as if a divorce was a regular phase in the life of
everybody who is married. In my opinion, the key of the story is the written
document that tells our legacy. They make their will to give their possessions
to the other, and the husband writes a letter to remember all the love he felt
for his wife, even when they got divorced. And not “love” in general, but the
love they experienced for each other in that Friday when they made their will.
So that day off was the treasure, the diamond, of their love. And then, like a
testament, he will never deliver it while living. Perhaps his heirs will.
QUESTIONS
Have you done your will and your last orders? Do you
recommend doing it? Why?
When do you usually dress up? Did you find in an
embarrassing situation because of your clothes?
What do you think about formalisms? When are they necessary,
and when are they old-fashioned? A dress/position, does it change your
personality?
In your opinion, why is the husband thinking about his
wife’s bum when they were going to the solicitor and even at the beginning of
their meeting?
What can be the difference between “grow older” and “age”
(verb)?
What is the symbol of the umbrella in this context?
After the meeting with the solicitor, “the clouds had
thickened” and while they were having lunch, “the sky turner threatening”. What
does it suggest?
Why do you imagine this day was more a celebration for
them than even their wedding?
So much thinking about Mr Reeves, what can be the
author intention for this? Can another person’s character change your points of
view?
Do you regret that the habit of writing love letters
has been lost? Do you think it’s better the modern way with WhatsApp or emails?
Examples of love letters.
What do you think it’s better for a love letter, the
details or the solemn statements and promises?
“The essence of love letters is separation”. How true
is this sentence?
Are you a person who procrastinates? Do you think it
is a serious problem and that it can be solved? How can it be solved?
The way of destroying a letter: Do you approve of rituals,
or do you think they’re unnecessary formalisms?
Do you have a secret place at home?
“It was like looking at his own face in the mirror,
but not at the face that would […] replicate
what he might do”. What do you know about “The Portrait of Dorian Gray”, by
Oscar Wilde?
Why do you think that at the end he says he was a
“poor sad fool”?
VOCABULARY
solicitor, giggly, grim, steered, drafted, pending, commitment,
clingy, common, enhanced, slithery, shrug, pelt down, stair rods, starter home,
sopping, Welsh rarebit, lingeringly, inkling, smitten, welling, nuzzled, woo, assailed,
random, stash, fountain pen, release, bland, snags, prickly, chocking, faltered,
yearning /longing, misdeed, spilled, fitted, propped, endorse, anointing, poker,
quilted, penned, last ditch, warped, fabrication, concocted, smirking, mustered