Summary and analysis
NOTES ABOUT THE STORY
Second Best is a story abut dualities, beginning by the title. Two rabbits, two sisters, two suitors, two dead moles. And everyone of these pairs are, in a certain way, opposites. One rabbit is wild and the other tame. Jimmy Barrass is an urban gentleman, with university education and Tom Smedley, a country lad, full of energy. Two dead moles, one by Anne’s hands, in a burst of anger, and the other, victim of Frances, killed by premeditation. Anne, a teenager country girl, is sensible; Frances, twenty-one and living in the city, is whimsical.
Second Best is a story abut dualities, beginning by the title. Two rabbits, two sisters, two suitors, two dead moles. And everyone of these pairs are, in a certain way, opposites. One rabbit is wild and the other tame. Jimmy Barrass is an urban gentleman, with university education and Tom Smedley, a country lad, full of energy. Two dead moles, one by Anne’s hands, in a burst of anger, and the other, victim of Frances, killed by premeditation. Anne, a teenager country girl, is sensible; Frances, twenty-one and living in the city, is whimsical.
In the opening scene, the two sisters are sitting and talking on the grass in a field, and the nature is in full blossom. Anne is a beautiful plump girl, wise and practical. Frances is a student in Liverpool. They have just arrived from the city.
Anne,
although several years younger, has the common sense of a mother.
While she is pulling a kernel out of its shell is she disclosing a secret?—, he talks to
Frances about Tom. She tells her that he has given her a wild
rabbit, and yet she has already a tame rabbit. Here perhaps the narrator
alludes to her innocence (the tame rabbit), and to the loss of it (the wild one).
Anne
was hoping that Tom took her to a Feast, but instead he invited a servant
from the rectory. Anne is angry and the narrator now mentions plants with
thorns, as thistles, gorse, stubble…
Then a mole appears. At the beginning both sisters see it as a beautiful creature. Anne catches the mole and plays with it. It’s blind, as love is —is it a symbol of Cupid? Frances tells her to kill the animal —it's a pest, but, for the moment, Anne doesn’t have the courage to do it. She wants to put it in her pocket, but you can’t imprison love and the mole revolts —love has no sense, it’s wild.
Then a mole appears. At the beginning both sisters see it as a beautiful creature. Anne catches the mole and plays with it. It’s blind, as love is —is it a symbol of Cupid? Frances tells her to kill the animal —it's a pest, but, for the moment, Anne doesn’t have the courage to do it. She wants to put it in her pocket, but you can’t imprison love and the mole revolts —love has no sense, it’s wild.
After
that, Frances tells her that Jimmy Barrass, her would-be-fiancé, has comitted to another girl. Then the mole bits Anne; she bleeds and now
does kill the mole: she has lost her innocence.
They cross a bridge and come to a field that shows all the summer splendour. Tom is mowing there. The air is full of intense smells.
They greet the vigorous country lad, well build and full of energy. And immediately, because he needs a woman, he fells in love with Frances —she wears a white dress, like a bride. Tom wonders is she would have the courage to kill a mole —to kill her romantic love.
Now it’s Frances turn, she has to make a decision —she also needs a man, and this new love has to be sensible. The next day she takes him a dead mole —she has killed definitively the love she felt for Jimmy, and offers herself, free of all constraints, to Tom.
They cross a bridge and come to a field that shows all the summer splendour. Tom is mowing there. The air is full of intense smells.
They greet the vigorous country lad, well build and full of energy. And immediately, because he needs a woman, he fells in love with Frances —she wears a white dress, like a bride. Tom wonders is she would have the courage to kill a mole —to kill her romantic love.
Now it’s Frances turn, she has to make a decision —she also needs a man, and this new love has to be sensible. The next day she takes him a dead mole —she has killed definitively the love she felt for Jimmy, and offers herself, free of all constraints, to Tom.
QUESTIONS
-Killing animals. What has to be the human ethics about it? Is it ethically right? Always, or according to the case, to the species…?
-It appears that for Lawrence, being plump make you closer to nature. Do you think that our physical constitution has some influence in our character?
-Country people have a different way to see nature from city people. What can you tell about these differences?
VOCABULARY
turf, brimming, wilful, budding, kernel, fret her fat over, thistles, gorse, fallow, fidget, swaddled, crab-apples, stooks, moudiwarp, your rag out, cross, jawing about, winsome