Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding, by Katherine Mansfield

SUMMARY, by Josep Guiteres

In this story we have the themes of gender roles, domination, submission, control, identity and tradition.

Throughout the story, Frau Brechenmacher is always at the disposal of her husband.

When her husband arrives home, the Frau has already prepared all the clothes for him to go to the wedding, making sure that he would be ready before her.

Even the Frau uses her daughter Rose to help her to prepare his husband’s things for the wedding. In reality, she is teaching her how to serve her husband.

When the couple goes to the wedding, he walks in front of her it as if there was a hierarchy that the Frau had to follow, that is, the Herr occupies first place in the entire story.

When they arrived at the place where the wedding was being held, the Frau sat next to her friend Frau Ledermann, who told her that it was very striking that her skirt was open at the back; but she was so attentive to her family that she forgot to take care of herself.

At the wedding it seems that men and women are separated as if each one had their own place in this event.

According to the conversation between the two women, the bride, who already has a daughter, did not want to marry anyone, but agreed to marry due to the traditional composition of the family.

When the Herr gave the gift to the bride and the groom, of all those present, the Frau was the only person who did not laugh, possibly because for her the gift symbolizes the result of her life.

When the couple arrived home, the Frau prepared dinner for her husband, an obvious sign of submission to the man. The Frau went to bed and curled up like a child, and this position tells us that she has not grown since she has not had the opportunity to develop her own life.

QUESTIONS

-They leave the children alone in the house. How has our concept of safety changed? Can you tell an example of it that shocks you?

-The father was the top authority in the family, and he had the monopoly of violence. How has it changed?

-How do you know the Brechenmacher family is a low-class family, and what details show us that they pretend to be of a higher class?

“Giving her [the bride] the appearance of an iced cake all ready to be cut and served in little pieces to the bridegroom sitting beside her.” What in a current wedding ceremony goes on showing the male domination, according to your view?

What stories with illegitimate children do you know? Tell us a summary of one of them.

How could be possible that a woman is more male chauvinist than a man?

Herr Brechenmachen carries “the coffee pot to the bridal pair… She lifted the lid, peeped in, then shut it down with a little scream”. What was inside the coffee-pot? What can be the meaning of this present?

-How can you imagine Frau Brechebnmachen wedding night?

 

VOCABULARY

muddled, cinders, fir, saucers, overawed, bows, perspiration, froth, wedged, dandle, clout

ANALYSIS

AUDIOBOOK

Lore (video: watch from minute 140)

Remember This, by Graham Swift

Remember This

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

Wonders Will Never Cease, by Graham Swift

WONDERS WILL NEVER CEASE,
by Begoña Devis 

The story is about the friendship between two men, who both did the same PE course at college. This is a metaphor about seeing life as a race, like athletes or behind women. In both cases, the trophy is the goal.
The narrator is fascinated by his friend Aaron, who according to him gets the best women, while he must conform to those he rejects. In fact, he ends up marrying one he rejected, Patti.
But after the years his friend calls to ask him, along with his partner, to witness his wedding. Then he sees that his friend isn’t so attractive as he expected, and that his future wife isn’t either. In fact, he now believes that his wife is more beautiful than Aaron’s.
In addition, he also likes the relationship he has with his wife more than the one his friend has with his, which seems much more childish to him.
Is it possible that he has done things better than his admired friend? It could be: Wonders will never cease.
 In my opinion, it means that sometimes we believe ourselves inferior to other people, just because they seem to have chosen a more interesting path, while we have chosen a more ordinary accommodating one. But then it turns out that everything is deceiving, and that we have been wasting our time ascribing virtues to other people that they did not have.
On the other hand, the story is terribly sexist, although it must be understood according to the way of thinking of the other times, hopefully forgotten by now (I hope).

QUESTIONS

-Talk about the characters

The narrator

Aaron

Patti

-The narrator says about himself: “I’m the type who sees the life like a book, with chapters.” How do you see life? Like a novel, like a river, like a circle? Why?

-The protagonist has to content himself with the girls Aaron rejected. There are big novels about being the “second one”. Do you remember any?

-The wedding in the story is a very simple ceremony, with only the narrator and his wife invited. Why didn’t he invite more people?

-Talking about weddings: have you ever had to make a speech in one? What do you have to say in a like speech? Do you remember famous speeches in films? Prepare a speech for a friend/son/daughter wedding and tell us in our meeting.

-What is the pun with “Wanda will never cease”? Do you know other puns in English?

-In the story there are two different kinds of love: Aaron and his wife, Patti and her husband. Can you describe them?

-What do you think it’s the morality of the story? Who are the happiest? Why?

VOCABULARY

hurdles, hang out, letting the side down, count me out, hankering, out of the blue, cagey, wound up, arm-twisted, spell it out, shacked, pared-down, locked up, twigged, glint, going places, kid myself, goosing, sorting ourselves out, head start, crashing, peep, upended, mucking around, stopwatch, handicap, real deal, missis, chuckling, yanked

Fireworks, by Graham Swift

Fireworks

This story deals with the feelings of a father when his only daughter is about getting married. Bur two weeks before the appointed wedding, there is the famous missile crisis. Are they going to celebrate the wedding, or they prefer waiting for the end of the world? A few days after, it’s the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes Day, but now the celebration will be a bit different and perhaps not so happy as in previous years.

QUESTIONS

-What do you know of the crisis of the missiles in Cuba?

-How do you think the world will end? Do you think it’s going to be and end for the humanity? What is, according to your opinion, the best literary end of the world?

-Is Monday the worst day of the week, or it is a cliché? Do you have a favourite day? And a day you hate? Do you know the origin of the prejudice against Fridays (in Anglo-Saxon countries) or Tuesdays (as for example in Spain)?

-About news: Why are they all the time negative? Is there a secret objective? Or is it simply because people don’t like good news?

-Can you see an analogy between the pair of presidents and the pair of fathers-in-law?

-Do you keep old clothes or do you prefer donating them? Is there any piece that you love specially and want to keep it forever?

-What do you know about Guy Fawkes Day? And about Guy Fawkes?

-Is there an analogy between Guy Fawkes Day and a wedding?

-There had been a worldly alarm of a nuclear explosion, and at the end there were only fireworks. Do you think the author wanted to mean something with this?

-What was your experience with weddings? Have you been in a very unusual wedding?

 

VOCABULARY

flippant, distraught, forked out, crackling, tantrum, chucking it down, glued, aimer, get into flaps, grizzling, fixture, thrill, regalia, give it a miss, foible, slouching, juddering, rant, plonked, Bovril, debriefings, swig

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, by Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane at the Wikipedia: click here

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky at the Wikipedia: click here

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky: summary

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky: audiobook

Movie

Presentation, by Josep Guiteres

STEPHEN CRANE

Crane was one of America's leading realist writers who influenced most modern American naturalism.

Biography

He was born in 1871 in Newark (New Jersey). He was the fourteenth and last child of a married couple belonging to the Methodist church. He married Cora Taylor, owner of the so-called Hotel de Dream, a combination of a hotel and a nightclub brothel.

 In 1890, he worked as a reporter of the slums in New York. In 1893, he wrote his first novel, Maggie, where he describes the life of a girl of the streets.

In1895, he wrote a classic of American literature, The Red Badge of Courage, where he describes realistically the psychological complexity of fear and courage on the battlefield in the context of the American Civil War. This novel was made into a film by John Huston.

In 1897, he was hired as a correspondent for the Greco-Turkish war, and in 1898, for the Spanish-American War.

He wrote The Open Boat and Other Tales which narrates his experience in a shipwreck for four days. In 1900, before his death from tuberculosis in Badenweiler (Germany), he wrote his possibly most popular book, Whilomville Stories.

The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky

Jack Potter, sheriff of Yellow Sky, married his girlfriend in San Antonio in the morning. They are happy but nervous about their new status as a couple and uncomfortable with their clothes that attract the attention of people, but they are so in love that don't even realize it.

Now they travel in a luxurious Pullman train from San Antonio passing through the plains of Texas to Yellow Sky. Potter worries that the inhabitants of Yellow Sky will be offended because he didn't inform them of his decision to marry, therefore he wishes to get home without attracting attention.

Meanwhile, in the "Weary Gentleman" saloon, a young man enters announcing that Scratchy Wilson, the last member of a gang of criminals, is drunk and prowling around town with two loaded pistols, and the barkeeper closes the doors and windows.

Wilson walks through the town playing with his guns, but, as nobody pays attention to him, he decides to go to Potter's house, but he finds him on the street.

Wilson challenges Potter, who tells him that he is unarmed because he’s just got married. When Wilson sees the bride, changes his mood, forgets the challenge, holsters his pistols, and he leaves in a huff.

 OPINION

In my opinion this short story defines the writer as realistic and modern: When people look at them in a strange way because of their appearance they don't even realize it; when Wilson is on the street giving war and the others are calm in their houses and in the bar; when everything seems to end in a great tragedy…

No way, don't worry, nothing happens here and in the end everything is settled easily.

QUESTIONS

Say something about these characters:
 
Jack Potter
The bride
Scratchy Wilson
The barkeeper
The drummer
 
Tell us something about San Antonio.
What is a Pullman?
Describe the train.
Talk about the train workers’ behaviour.
Describe the atmosphere inside the saloon.
How do the couple feel about Yellow Sky people?
How do the couple love each other?
 
Can you find any good descriptive images?
There are some actions that nowadays are clichés in a Western. Can you find some?

VOCABULARY

frame house, keening, leaden, heinous, parade, bliss, hangdog (glance), drummer, tear, pen, galoot, starboard