SUMMARY, by Glòria Torner
The first sentence
we read, “was she the only one?” is the repetition of the title, and it appears
twice more in this initial paragraph. And with this humdrum question, the
writer is introducing to us the memories of an elderly woman, Lily Hobbs, who
remembers her complex relationship with her first husband, Albert Tanner, and,
one year later, her different second marriage with Duncan Ross and their two
daughters, Joyce and Margaret.
Every 25th
of June, Lily remembers her first love. She got married when she was eighteen
years old. Her happiness was short-lived because Albert had to leave home to go
to war. At that moment, she kept his new white shirt, the last one her husband had
worn before leaving home, without washing it. She hung it in the wardrobe as an
object of blind adoration. Lily caressed, smelled and put on this “sacred
shirt” that reminded her of a magical memory of him with desperate romanticism.
Now this shirt means love.
During the war, Albert
wrote some letters to Rose, but, when months went by, he wrote her less. After a
while, she knew that her husband had had his first leave, but it was cancelled.
The shirt is still without washing. And now the shirt also means fidelity.
A few months
passed, and then Alfred returned home for fifteen days, but he wasn’t the same
man. She was waiting for love, but he didn’t touch her. He was a cold and
strange man who didn’t look like a soldier, but a salesman, or almost a
criminal. She doubted whether he has injured or is still healthy. Then he
explained to her that he was suffering from shell shock, and he has to report to
a doctor to evaluate his illness.
This is the moment
that Lily hesitates about washing the shirt, but she decides not to do it. At
home, Albert, who is very angry seeing the shirt in a poor condition, orders
her to wash it because he believes that his wife has had an affair. This climax
of suspicion and disturb is increasing in a huge aggressivity. Lily thinks that,
perhaps, he is preparing his desertion. Anyway, she washes it, and she thinks
that, by doing so, he will calm down and will love her again. The shirt means
crisis.
One day, Lily
proposes him a plan to go on a boat to Marlow on Sunday. It would be a nice
excursion because Lily wants to make love. Lily tells him she wants him to wear
the shirt during the trip, and he does it. They were very happy, the weather is
fine and they enjoyed being together. Now the shirt means sexual desire.
But suddenly he
has a change of mood: he says he wants to go back because he must return to the
war. This is the second time the shirt remains hanging in the wardrobe, but now
it’s no longer a fetish object. It means sadness.
Later, Lily
decides to throw it to the fire. Burning the shirt means heartbreak, poignancy,
desperation and hate.
Two days later,
Lily receives a telegram telling her that her husband, Albert Tanner, has died
“of wounds”, on the 25th of June, ending the short marriage between
Lily and Albert, like an elegy about how the war wasted lives and blasted
hopes.
Following the story,
she also remembers her second life. Three months later, Lily is going to
Reading because of a job as a maid. On the train, she met Duncan. It was a lucky
meeting because in him, she finds her new husband, the man who gives her love
and sex.
But now she goes
on remembering and thinking about the relationship between her sad past,
Albert, and her real present, Duncan, who satisfies her desires.
At the end of the story,
the first interrogative sentence becomes an affirmative one: that closes the
story with this maxim.
SOME
QUESTIONS AND REMARKS
After reading this
sad and melancholic story, there are some questions in my mind:
Is the first
marriage a real one, or it is only loneliness? Has she had sexual pleasure only
in the second marriage?
Is “Albert” his name before leaving home, and “Bert” after going
to war? I don’t know.
Finally, the story, “was she the only one”, is a reflexion about how a war can change a man.
TOPICS TO DEBATE
-Is it a film cliché, smelling our beloved clothes in order to remember them? Do you believe pheromones really affect humans?
-What do you know about shell shock? Have you seen the
film Benediction or Regeneration or Johnny Got his Gun or
Colonel Redl??
-Bert was a little fastidious: do you think his character made him prone to shell shock? Do you think some illnesses are psychosomatic?
-What do you think about military service? Has it to
be obligatory?
-What implications does the word “appetites” have when
meaning a woman’s sexual desire? Can shell shock cancel sexual desire?
-Did she really wish Albert went back to the front?
What was harder for her: her husband’s shell-shock or her husband being in the
trenches?
-Do you approve of desertion or shirking?
-What can you tell us about the beginning of the WWI?
-Why do you think he had become a corporal so quickly?
-“Wear this shirt for me” meant for Lily “let’s make
love”. Do you remember other expressions from literature meaning “let’s make
love”?
-“Hello, Lily. Can I come in?” was a very formal
greeting and Lily felt it immediately. Can we discover other people mood only for
the words they have chosen? Do you know any example?
-What is now “the height of sexiness”? What does “sexiness”
depend on?
-Do you think our sweat smell differently according to
our feelings / mood? They say animals are scared when they are going to die and
that this fear corrupts their flesh, so we are eating corrupted meat all the
time. What do you think about it?
-“He wanted to go back and be really dead”: was it the
true reason?
-Why did she think the “intelligence” was hers?
-For children, do you prefer having boys or girls? In
some countries there’s a preference for girls, and in some other for boys? Do
you know why?
VOCABULARY
stud, ripe, fussy, leave, shell shock, measles, MO, lent,
fabric, sheer, skulking, bellowed, private, mangle, break down, tub, fumblingly,
thwarted, coaxing, tit-for-tat, willow, swan, put-upon, jetty, oars, loll, reeking,
flustered, intelligence, cope, swathe, morsel, decoy