The secret life of Walter Mitty

Author

James Grover Thurber (December 8, 1894 – November 2, 1961) was an American cartoonist, author,
humourist, journalist, playwright, and celebrated wit. His short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” has
been adapted for film twice, once in 1947 and again in 2013. The story is considered one of Thurber’s
“acknowledged masterpieces”. It was made into a movie of the same name in 1947, though the movie is very
different from the original story. It was also adapted into a film in 2013, which is again very different from the
original.

Summary

“The secret of Walter Mitty” tells the story of the aging Walter Mitty on a trip into town with his overbearing
wife, Mrs Mitty. Walter is inept at many things, he is an absent-minded driver, he can’t handle simple
mechanical tasks, and he forgets things easily. What makes Walter exceptional is his imagination.

While Walter goes through a day of ordinary tasks and errands, he escapes into a series of romantic fantasies,
each spurred on by some mundane reality. As he drives his car, he imagines he is commanding a “Navy
hydroplane” through a terrible storm (1). When he rides past a hospital, he imagines he is a world-famous
surgeon saving a VIP’s life. When he hears a newsboy shouting about a trial, he imagines he is crack shot being
interrogated in the courtroom. As he waits for his wife to finish at the hairdresser’s, Walter sees pictures of
German plane and imagines he is a British pilot willing to sacrifice his life for his country. Lastly, as Mitty waits
outside against a wall for his wife to buy something in a drugstore, he fantasizes that he is a bold and brave
man about to be shot by a firing squad. The story ends with the inscrutable Walter Mitty awaiting this
romantic death.

Characters

 Walter Mitty: in real life, Walter Mitty isn’t anything special. He gets bossed around by his wife a lot.
He can’t do simple mechanical things. He’s forgetful. He’s not a great driver, and people always seem
to be either yelling or laughing at him for one blunder or another. To compensate for his failings in the
real world, Mitty creates an entire “secret life” for himself: a series of fantasies in which he is
powerful, decisive man admired by those around him – everything he is not in reality
 Mrs Mitty: Mrs Mitty is like a caricature of herself. She’s so bossy, so overbearing and so domineering
that she stands out in a story in which she only has five lines. Behold all of Mrs Mitty’s dialogue, which
pretty much speaks for itself. All she really does is tell Walter what to do or scold him for doing it
wrong.

Themes:

 Dissatisfaction: title character Walter Mitty finds himself dissatisfied with his mundane, everyday life,
and the role of passive husband to which he is relegated. Mitty dislikes the way people treat him – as a
bumbling, aging man – when he in fact imagines himself to be something much greater. “Walter Mitty”
paints a picture of the sort of everyday dissatisfaction we all have felt at one point or another felt our
lives – surely we are too ordinary, our lives too boring, our skills too commonplace. Whether or not
Mitty’s way of dealing with such dissatisfaction, by retreating into a world of fantasy, is effective or not
is subject to debate.
 Heroism and Masculinity: Mitty is mechanically inept, a poor driver, a passive husband and a forgetful
man. In his fantasy, however, he is skilled, decisive, bold, brave and perhaps most importantly,
respected by those around him. These are the qualities that Mitty holds up as the pinnacle of
masculinity. Just what Thurber intends to present as masculine ideals is not clear.
 Marriage: “the secret life of Walter Mitty” portrays a marriage in which the wife is domineering,
controlling, bossy and in short, “wearing the pants”. Her husband, Walter Mitty, is by contrast passive,
 submissive and under his wife’s thumb. One point of view is that Thurber’s portrayal of Mrs. Mitty is
sexist; perhaps he’s putting down ALL women as bossy and unloving. Another perspective is that Mrs.
Mitty is simply a caricature of one type of woman.

Setting:

In the U.S. they live far away from the city centre. They have to travel to go there. The real-life setting of this
story is pretty mundane: a hairdresser, a parking lot, a hotel lobby, a drugstore – all everyday elements of any
town or city. The banality or dullness of these locations reflects the dullness of Walter’s everyday life. This is
greatly contrasted with the settings of Walter’s fantasies: a “navy hydroplane” in a storm, an operating room, a
courtroom, a dugout, a wall before a firing squad. These settings are dramatic, exciting and out of the ordinary

The end:

He uses his fantasy world to combat what he dislikes about reality, and it would seem that his fantasies are
winning out – at least as far as this story is concerned. They dominate reality. On the other hand, Walter is
facing a firing squad – hardly victorious, he’s about to be shot. You could view the firing squad symbolically, as
representative of the people in the real world who hassle Mitty about being a dreamer. In this sense, the
ending seems like a defeat for Mitty. He can dream al he wants, but there are always going to be people who
“shoot” him for it.

1) Distraction: first paragraph – first dialogue: he’s a commander and then his wife takes him to reality.
2) He pass by the hospital: he’s a surgeon
3) Reading aloud the headline of newspaper: he’s a specialist, he’s a certain fighter pilot.

Climax: he reacts in a way

Theme: unhappiness (leads to daydreaming) – dissatisfaction
Tone: humorous and pity
Irony: when he feels like a hero

His internal conflict is the result of his boring real life where he doesn’t have friends or an extraordinary life as
he’d like to have.
There are two worlds: the real one and the fantasy one.