Royal Beatings

By Alice Munro

March 6, 1977

Chanel A. Nez

Composition II ENGL-1120-085

Instructor Mr. Muratore

March 26, 2024

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Introduction

Alice Munro______.

Royal beatings were given to a child who did not deserve them. Her words were never

taken into consideration. Her stepmother Flo would not reason with her, instead Flo assigned the

royal beatings. As her father gave the royal beatings, he never listened to his own daughter if she

ever dares to say something. The title itself focuses on the main event that changed how Nadine

viewed her father and Flo, leading to a bigger impact on her stepmother’s life later down the line.

The story focuses on the outcomes of a person’s life based on how they treat others. In the story

Nadine appears to be closer to Flo but observes her father more attentively. At the time of her

father’s adjudication, Nadine was not allowed to defend herself while Flo, the plaintiff, kept

feeding more reason to settle on a royal beating. Nadine never stood a chance, she was not given

a chance, Flo’s argument was partially invalid, and her father did not mind playing the part of an

abuser. The unjust actions towards Nadine will only add onto the miseries of Flo and her father’s

poverish life because she is only a child for so long.

Summary of the Story’s Events

The Royal Beatings took place in Hanratty, Ontario throughout many years of Nadine’s

childhood and the story ends in Vancouver during her middle aged life. Nadine’s childhood took

place during the Great Depression era and WWII somewhere during her adolescence. Nadine

was a young girl who had been very observant and curious about her father Harry, at times even

took interest in whatever her stepmother Flo had to say of others. Harry took pride in his work,

refurbishing furniture, as Flo took over what had been Nadine’s mother’s store after marrying

Harry. Flo had a son with Henry, of whom they named Brian. Brain is Nadine’s half-younger

brother that is rarely mentioned throughout the story. Although Nadine does share a not so
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appreciated rhyme by the adults. Nadine remembers a silly rhyme and tells Brian who cannot

stop saying it because it is catchy. Flo then point’s outs Nadine’s immaturity in doing so, now

seeing her as a bad influence on Brian, Brian immediately leaves the room. At the time Nadine

was 11 or 12, her and Flo came to a disagreement as Flo had followed up with a claim to have

had sacrificed a lot for Nadine. Nadine knows that it is untrue, that Flo is exaggerating and is

expecting Nadine to forever be grateful to her. Then Flo intently threw a cleaning rag at Nadine

in which landed on her ankle. Nadine intently swung it around her ankle in which Flo gets

extremely upset and calls upon Nadine’s father to discipline her. As Flo explains to Harry what

had just occurred between them, she includes false information, as Nadine starts to counter argue

against Flo. It was clear her father did not want to hear a word from Nadine as he stops her from

speaking any more. He does not give it a second thought after he stops Flo from explaining as to

why Nadine is deserving of a punishment. Henry goes after Nadine, he beats on her as if he were

a gorilla violently attacking a wonderer, not to kill but to intently hurt. Going forward three to

four years later, Nadine was not receiving anymore beatings, it may have been due to her age or

Harry’s. A year after WWII ended her father passed, Nadine moved to Vancouver sometime

during her life, and Flo was shunned by Nadine.

Analysis of a Major Character (Flo)

Flo doesn’t mind gossiping not knowing the full truth of a story, she judges others

quickly without looking at herself, and can be small minded. Once she and Nadine appeared to

be close before Nadine was able to attend school. Flo then shared stories of others and what had

once been the gossip of the town, like Becky Tyde’s life story. Nadine one day remembers a

catchy inappropriate phrase or rhyme and shared it with her younger half-brother Brian. Whom

then repeats the phrase without a second thought endlessly. Flo does not appreciate what Brian is
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saying, knowing it was Nadine who taught it to him because she asked Flo what it had meant

before because she heard it at school. After Brain ran off after Flo warns him to not say it

again…

What do they have to say to each other?... Flo speaks of Nadine’s smart-aleck behavior,

rudeness, sloppiness, conceit, willingness to make work for others, and ingratitude. She

mentions Brian’s innocence, Nadine’s corruption. She dwells a moment on Nadine’s

name…“You think you’re somebody,” says Flo. “Who do you think you are?” Nadine

contradicts and objects with a poisonous readiness and mildness, displays theatrical

unconcern. Flo goes beyond her ordinary scorn and becomes amazingly theatrical herself,

saying it was for Nadine she sacrificed her life. She saw the father saddled with a

daughter and thought, What is that man going to do? So she married him, and here she is,

on her knees.i

Nadine is now furious with Flo’s claims while Flo is growing tired of Nadine’s influence on her

son. Flo then calls for husband, Nadine’s father, Harry to punish Nadine for being every negative

thing Flo believes she is. Before fully telling Harry everything she has to say about Nadine, Flo

starts to close and lock the doors and windows. Assuring no escape from Harry and any possible

witnesses.

“Well, we don’t need the public in on this, that’s one thing,” Flo says, and she goes to

lock the door of the store, putting in the window the sign that says “Back Soon”…“Oh, I

don’t know,” she says, in a voice worn down from its emotional peak. “I don’t know what

to do about her.” She looks down, following Nadine’s eyes, and sees her dirty knees, and

rubs them viciously with her hands, smearing the first around. “She humiliates me,” Flo
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says, straightening up. There it is, the explanation, the discovery. “She tries to humiliate

me. She has no respect. How am I supposed to put up with it?”ii

When Flo returns, she adds more wood to what the ignited fire would be that she started

within Harry. Now it is lies that are beginning to pour. As a reader Nadine is not the reason for

Flo’s humiliation, Flo’s own actions are, as she is quick to judge and imitate others behind closed

doors. Flo appears to pinpoint any negative thing she can on Nadine, who is not her child and a

burden to her family image as Harry is actively absent in Nadine’s life.

An Important Quote

Prior to the contents of this quote, Flo watches Harry gives Nadine a beating, a royal

beating that she herself assigned Nadine. Moments before Harry begins the process, Flo asks him

to not be too hard, to give her a talking to but he ignores Flo. He beats Nadine in a way no child

should be punished. Flo is frighted by the man she is seeing, as Nadine begs for forgiveness until

she lost her will to talk but let out shrieks of pain. Her father grows tired and practically beat

Nadine towards Flo as a sign to remove her as he is tired. Flo instructs Nadine to leave the room

while she has the chance. Nadine then quietly makes her way back to her room. She falls onto

her bed and listens to Flo’s sniffles. Harry makes clear to Flo that she was the cause for the

beating, that it was what she asked him to do, and if she didn’t want just that, she shouldn’t have

recommended it.

They argue back and forth on this, Flo’s frightened voice growing stronger, steadier,

getting its confidence back. By stages, by arguing, they are being drawn back into

themselves. Soon only Flo is talking; he will not talk anymore. Nadine’s sobbing has had

to subside rather quickly, to let her listen, and when she loses interest in listening, wants

to sob some more, she finds she can’t work herself up to it. She has passed into a state of
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calm, in which outrage is complete and final. She will never speak to them again, she will

never look at them with anything but loathing, she will never forgive them. She will

punish them, she will finish them. Encased in these finalities, and in her pain, she floats

in curious comfort, beyond herself, beyond responsibility. iii

Nadine decides, in that moment, she will never forgive nor give either of them a second

thought. Here is where her curiosity and attentive observations end. She is physically and

mentally exhausted from undergoing such a punishment as she cannot even cry anymore. Her

exhaustion puts her in a state of recovery, her state of calmness, despite being so angry with Flo

and Harry. In that very moment, she is set on never allowing them to take part in her life. She has

decided to not care or give them pleasure through self-inflicted pain, that included absence

because what they did to her was wrong, this one of few similarities she has with another

character named Becky Tyde in the story.

Analysis of the Story

Royal beating. That was Flo’s promise. “Nadine, you are going to get one royal beating.

“The words lolled on Flo’s tongue, took on trappings. Nadine was a child with no need to

picture things, to pursue absurdities, and the first time she heard this threat, instead of

taking it to heart she pondered: How is a beating royal? She came up with a three-lined

avenue, a crowd of formal spectators, some white horses and black slaves. The blood

leaped out like banners-an occasion both savage and splendid.iv

The opening paragraph introduces the two main characters at focus. That being Nadine

and her stepmother Flo. This introductory paragraph tells the reader who is going to receive the

royal beatings, and who is assigning. Nadine, being the receiver, in face with the threat cannot
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help but to wonder what could make a beating royal. Her imagination shows her lack of logic,

meaning she was threatened with this at a very young age.

In real life it was Nadine’s father who was the kind of the royal beatings. Flo was her

stepmother, and the beatings she gave never amounted to much-they were quick cuffs...

“you get out of my road,” she would say. “You mind your own business. You take that

look off your face.” But it was up to Flo to supply the royal beatings with dignity, to

surround them with some high air of necessity and regret...v

Here, we as readers are informed of who is giving the royal beatings. Nadine’s father,

who we learn later in the story is named Harry, is called the king of royal beatings. This

emphasizes his strength and how serious he takes on his role as punisher. The part where Flo

contributes a high necessity and regret to the atmosphere is a bit of foreshadowing because we do

not know as to how she handles the assigning and the aftermath of the royal beatings. When Flo

would assign the beatings, she did it with confidence at first and anger towards Nadine, that was

her dignity. In the face of Flo’s regret Harry did not back down from his assignment. He would

be determined to fulfill his role.

He doesn’t answer. The belt is coming off, but not hastily. Now it is being grasped at the

necessary point. “All right, you.” He comes over to Nadine, pushed her off the table. His

face like his voice, is entirely out of character. He is like a bad actor who turns a part

grotesque. It is as if he is favoring and is insisting on just what is shameful and terrible

about this, so that Nadine will have no doubt about it, so that he himself will have no

doubt. That does not mean that he is pretending, that he is not real. He is real and he is

acting. Nadine knows it; she knows everything about him.vi

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Nadine, as observant as she had been could not even predict the outcomes of her first

royal beating. She thought she knew her father as she had watched him for years. First, she

assumed that he was acting, that he was not going to hurt her as bad because of the assignment

was absurd. In the very moment as he moved towards Nadine, she quickly realizes that it is

happening, that he was not holding back. Nadine then affirms her father is not just playing a role,

he will fulfill it. Just like all the royal beatings that were assigned after that day by Flo.

The beatings stopped after three or four years, either because Nadine was getting too

shamefully big or because her father no longer had the strength to deliver them or simply

because the time for them had passed-like the time for losing baby teeth.vii

Now, Nadine is fifteen or sixteen, she is not receiving the royal beatings anymore. She

concluded it was either because she grew out of it with age or her father was just getting too old

to carry them out. The fact that Flo had once filled the air with regret was no longer. This can be

a result to more assigned royal beatings in the following three to four years after Nadine’s first.

Well her father died a year after the second World War II. After his passing, Nadine was still at

home because Flo had gone to Nadine to ask about a term, she was unfamiliar with in her

father’s notes: Spinoza. Nadine knew what it was but told Flo that she did not, confirming her

long silent towards her. Fast forwarding to what I would assume is Nadine in her middle aged

life, she lives happily. One morning in Vancouver, in her home, on a Sunday, with her partner

who slept in, turned on the radio as she looked outside her window, she has one heck of a view. If

you are like me, I was confused as to why the interview with an old man was important, and why

Nadine paused for appreciation.

There was a pause-of appreciation, it would seem-then the announcer’s voice saying that

the foregoing had been an interview with Mr. Wilfred Nettleton, of Hanratty, Ontario,
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recorded on his hungered-and-second birthday, two weeks before his death last spring. A

living link with our past, Mr. Nettleton had been interviewed in the Wawanosh Country

Home for the Aged.viii

It was because the person being interviewed was Hat Nettleton, the name was not

ringing any bells because he was not an important character, until I went back to the Becky Tyde

story, it was shared by Flo. He was one of the three men who gave Becky Tyde’s father a horse

whipping for being such a bad man, he abused his daughter Becky more than any other of her

siblings, his wife also passed on early, and after the rumors of impregnating his daughter Becky

to supposedly dispose of it caused the town to give him a lesson. A few of the town’s people

assigned Hat Nettleton and two other men to beat up Becky Tyde’s father. In which they did and

were later arrested after his death but were released approximately two years after serving time.

… But Flo was in the same place Hat Nettleton had died in; she had been there when that

interview was made, though she would not have heard it, would not even have known

about it. It didn’t matter to Flo where she was. After Nadine put her in the Home, a

couple of years earlier, she had stopped talking. She had removed herself, and spent most

of her time curled up into a corner of her crib, where she sat looking crafty and

disagreeable, not answering anybody, though she occasionally showed her feelings by

biting a nurse.ix

Nadine’s pause for appreciation was because she knew that Flo was in the very same

place as Hat Nettleton, who eventually passed shortly after his interview at the age of one

hundred and two. Meaning Flo lived miserably from the days Nadine has put her in the home.

Since her son Brian did not interfere or take his mother Flo out of the home, it is safe to conclude
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that she may have neglected or partially treated him as poorly as she did Nadine. Her treatment

towards both, mainly Nadine has led her to the misery of her life, and her isolation from society.
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Notes (Munro, 1977, para.

 i
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 75,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
ii
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 86,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
iii
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 101,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
iv
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 1,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
v
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 2,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
vi
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 93,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
vii
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 121,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
viii
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 145,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
ix
Munro, “Royal Beatings, ‘ by Alice Munro,” The New Yorker, March 7, 1977, para. 147,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1977/03/14/royal-beatings.
Serafin, Steven. “Alice Munro | Biography, Works. & Facts.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 6 July, 2022,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Munro