Irish and English Literature and Culture

TASK 8

Contemporary Ireland

Anne Enright “Until the Girls Died”

Student: Alejandro Jesús Sánchez López

Deadline: Monday, June 1st, 2020

1. Please read the short story by Anne Enright.

2. Write a short summary of the story.
3. On the basis of the story analyze the following issues (using quotations)

a. The setting of the text: how do we know time and place of the narrative.
b. Discuss the structure of the story with reference to generic short story
organization.
c. Write a short (personal) response to the ending of the story.

2.

A girl dies in a car accident, and with it, a series of thoughts follow the wife of a man
who seems to be related to the girl who has died. That girl works on the street, and the wife in
question fades into a confrontation of thoughts that she herself seems to channel towards a
pre-established idea of what a married couple represents: the husband is faithful to the wife
and they are enormously happy together. Comings and goings in the wife's mind that portray a
conflict that emerges in our society. A life built with a person whom you want to be godlike at
all costs. There is an implicit need to try to believe her own lie, to convince herself of how
good and wonderful her husband is, trying to act normally, although she has real evidence that
her husband had some kind of relationship with the girl who has died. In this short
psychological study, we will travel through the thoughts that a European woman faces when
she feels betrayed and alone in front of a subject that makes her suffer. Anne Enright portrays
many everyday household items, kitchen items, appliances, customs, and standards that are
imposed on young children. All of this frames the psychological profile that a woman can
show before the infidelity of her charming husband.

3.

a)

The scene is set in Ireland, and I bet specifically that it takes place in Dublin, since as I
can show in the following quotes, the wife, Emily, talks and knows about Dublin locations:
‘O’Connell Street might be full of slappers, but if one of them slaps off, pissed, in her mini
skirt and high heels, and gets herself run over,... (p.4). My idea is reinforced because the wife
talks about her being near Walkinstown (a Dublin location where the church where the
funeral will be held is located): ‘The church is in Walkinstown, so that’s her family off the
Cromwellsfort Road’; ‘’But I am not going to jump in the car and hack my way across town
to Walkinstown’ (pp. 8-9). Apart from this, the girl ‘...died the stupid way that people do - in
a car crash, in Italy’ (p. 3). So we know first hand the location where the girl has died. The
Italian location is more precisely referenced one page later: ‘And until the girl died, beetling
along in her little Renault Clio on the wrong side of a road in Tuscany, until the girl died, that
was enough for me’ (p.4).

As far as the narrative of the story is concerned, it appears to be an infinite present. I

explain. There are no explicit references that can determine what exact year, season, or time
this series of Emily's actions and thoughts are being described. It is spoken in the present and
refers to a past time that can make us place the plot in some year higher than 2000: ‘What
school did she go to; do they have pictures in the corridors, of former girls in a row, the class
of - what year would she be? - the class of 1998. So young.’ (p. 9). When talking about the
past of the girl with whom her husband has been unfaithful, she seems to want to leave the
event in the past, stuck in still images that will not leave the halls of a school, anchored in the
innocence of a girl who she did not come to steal from her husband, and that she was simply
an innocent girl who will not break her marriage because her husband ‘is a fantastic man’ (p.
4), and a fantastic man is not supposed to be disloyal to his lovely wife. Returning to the
reference of the infinite present: Anne Enright tries to give a feeling of timelessness by
resorting to not specifying a specific year because she is dealing with something that is
immune to time and culture: infidelity and the figure of women in a society of roles.
Sometimes we have temporary brushstrokes that give rhythm to the narrative and try to frame
the action, but never contextualizing or giving a general character to the problems presented
in this short story: ‘I know that’ (p. 5), she, all the women, already know that but before she
did not be able to manage the situation (‘I did panic’ (p. 5). She is trying to overcome, to
progress, to understand. Some expression of time without too much narrative load also
appears: ‘It was half past five’ (p. 6). Near the end of the story she tends to narrate in the past,
giving the feeling that something happened and was overcome: ‘After a month of this, I
looked at my husband and saw that he was old’ (p. 10); ‘So I went to the cemetery and sought
out her grave’ (p. 11).

b)

A short story is usually structured as follows:

-Introduction: Where the characters are introduced. Here the setting and tone are set.

-Confrontation: Here the interest of the reader rises, before reaching the conclusion of the
story. Complications come to meet the protagonist. Often things get ugly for characters, and
they must find ways to tip the scale.

-Resolution: What the characters try to do at the end to solve the conflicts that have been
previously exposed.

In 'Until the Girl Died' the first sentences suppose the action that rises (‘’The girl died.
Well, what was that to me? The girl died. And it was nothing to do with us, with either of us.’
(p. 3)), an action that impacts and poses a problem: that a woman discovers that her husband
was unfaithful to her. We have an introduction after this event in which the background of this
girl, her husband and the possible relationship between the two is explained to us,
emphasizing the values of her husband: ‘He is not a bastard, that is what I am saying. I am
saying that he is a fantastic man. My husband is a fantastic man’ (p. 4), ‘He works hard, my
husband. And I have always been a great asset to him. And we are ordinary people. And I am
proud of that too’ (p. 4). After this, Anne Enright delves into the subject of the wife's own
grief. The motivations and methodologies that he uses to solve his torments in one way or
another are expressed. It is a phase of absolute denial and self-deception: ‘The only friend he
has is me. And he can’t tell me, because I really do not want to know’ (p. 7), ‘I don’t want to
know’ (p. 7). After this there is a state of evaluation in which she tries to get answers; She
seems to have come out of shock a bit and is ready to face the issue without hesitation:
‘“Who’s dead?” “Some girl”, he says’ “What girl? Someone’s daughter?” He doesn’t answer’
(pp. 7-8), ‘I make my cup of coffee and I calm down’ (p. 9), ‘Bloody right she was full of fun.
Or not. Maybe she was shy, unassuming. Easily impressed. She might have been a quiet kind
of girl… No. I am not going to find this out, or anything else’ (p. 9). Its purpose is the
resolution of the conflict; how she takes precedence and makes the values of her marriage and
family unity prevail above all, trying to close that chapter in her life: ‘It was time to call him
back home’ (p. 10), ‘She did not matter to him, I know that. I know she did not matter. So I
went to the cemetery and sought out her grave’ (pp. 10-11), ‘Then I went home and said to
my husband. Then I went home and said to Kevin: “Let’s do something for Easter, what do
you think”’ (p. 11).

c)

Women many times, and according to my experience and the environment that
surrounds me in Spain, they have to put their own feelings before the feeling of unity and
family, despite the fact that they feel deeply damaged and hurt. There is no explanation on the
part of the husband, who is the one who has broken that emotional unit, and yet it is the wife,
Emily, who spends the whole story trying to calm her thoughts, to understand, to convince
herself that her husband is wonderful and that he wouldn't do something so ugly. It is she who
comes to empathize with the girl with whom her husband had a secret affair. That shows
devastating female unity. In her grave we are told how Emily tells the girl who died that she
really mattered, that she had a life, aspirations, dreams and illusions like anyone else.
Although Emily finally decides to ignore her husband's adventure and act normally, talking
about what they can do for Easter. We are shown the strength that a woman has for her
family, for her children, the improvement she achieves, overcoming all her pain, all her
doubts, reaching an understanding of the matter with a frankness and honesty typical of a
medieval hero. I think that in this short story we are being told precisely about that, of
contemporary heroines, of our mothers who suffer in silence, of those mothers who continue
to cook salmon as if nothing bad happened, of those mothers who always try to focus on
everything good, and if it does not exist they invent it. This woman puts her children and their
well-being before that of herself, worrying about whether they will be traumatized after the
events: ‘Kids bury that sort of stuff very deep’ (p. 6). Those timeless super heroines who
"bury" problems by bringing flowers and telling them that they really matter, that they are
part of their personal improvement, but that she must continue with her life.

References:

https://www.turnerstories.com/blog/2019/3/1/how-to-structure-a-short-story (28/05/20)

Enright, A. (2008). Yesterday’s Weather (Until the Girl Died). New York : Grove Press ;
[Berkeley, Calif.] : Distributed by Publishers Group West