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The Moving Finger
The Moving Finger
The story begins with the death of the first Mrs. Grancy, which is big shock (alludes to second death). She was proud,
controlling, and dominant, but the death of his wife was still a big blow to Grancy. He rose from his misfortune by marrying
again. All his friends were surprised at this decision. “After one such calcining* most men would have kept out of the fire; but
we agreed that he was predestined to sentimental blunders, and we awaited with resignation the embodiment of his latest
mistake.” Though all were mistaken as the new Mrs. Grancy was one of the finest woman both in looks and in character.
During their loving relationship, Mr. Grancy’s friend Claydon paints a life-like painting of her, but she too dies soon. While
painting the portrait, Claydon falls in love with Mrs. Grancy, since she is the muse of his best artwork.
Mr. Grancy is even more broken, and goes to Europe on work (to escape is fears and loneliness). He comes back as a man who
is looks much older than he his age. When he reaches home he realises his wife’s portrait looks the same: young and beautiful.
So he pushes Claydon to modify the portrait of his wife to match his look. Claydon does it with utter despair.
Soon, Mr. Grancy visibly ages again, and calls for Claydon to change the portrait. This time, Claydon want to take the
portrait, as he is still in love with the original version. So he changes the expression of Mrs. Grancy to trick Mr. Grancy into
thinking the portrait thinks it is time for him to die. Ultimately, Grancy dies, leaving the portrait to Claydon, who promptly
restores the original version, and reveals his feelings about Mrs. Grancy to the narrator.
Significance of the first wife’s death
- Allows Mr. Grancy to become a strong confident man
- Introduces a new woman who lets him “burst into a flower”
- highlight Ralph’s need to feel connected to another person. Though his
marriage was unhappy he never divorced his wife.
Title and POV
➢ Why was the short-story titled The Moving Finger?
○ Title refers to Claydon’s moving finger while he is painting
○ Alludes to the expression “the writing on the wall,” which means something is obvious or in danger. Reflected in
the title, the story suggests that Mr. Grancy realised the obvious affair. “When Claydon painted her, he caught
just the look she used to lift to mine when I came in. I’ve wondered sometimes at his knowing how she looked when
she and I were alone.” While many can ignore what is right in front of them, they cannot deny it’s there.
○ symbolizes "the writing is on the wall" in the sense that she is the one who "kills" Mr Grancy by the look which
Claydon painted on her face. A lot of what happens in the story is influenced by Mrs. Grancy who is living
through the painting.
➢ Narrative
○ Unknown narrator
○ First person peripheral view
■ The narrator talks about his/her feelings only and explains his/her views only.
Tone and style
- Macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works
emphasize the details and symbols of death.
- This story explores the Gothic “Uncanny”: Something familiar that becomes
strange or mysterious; difficult or impossible to explain.
- the uncanny is the painting of Mr Grancy’s second wife
- he saw his wife’s painting, he thought that the painting felt lonely and as if it were being left
behind
- change the painting to make it look older
- Gothic literature is the genre that combines fiction and horror, death, and at
times romance.
- Satirical style
Structure
➢ Start of story: “The news of Mrs. Grancy’s death...” (line 1)
➢ Descriptive and uncommon vocabulary
➢ Archaic vocabulary
○ “five-and-forty” (meaning 45)
○ “luncheon”
➢ Long paragraphs, Segregated chapters, Fast-paced
➢ Exposition: The first Mrs Grancy dies. We are given insight to the type of relationship that they had whereby she was always
disparaging of him.
➢ Rising action: Just when the reader thinks that there is no longer hope for Mr Grancy, he remarries and has a beautiful picture
painted of his new wife.
➢ Climax: The second Mrs Grancy's death and the adjusting of the painting to make Mrs Grancy "grow older" with Mr Grancy. Also,
Mrs Grancy and Claydon's affair.
➢ Falling action: Mr Grancy dies and the realization that it was Claydon who actually killed him.
➢ Denouement: Mr Grancy leaves the painting to Claydon and Claydon alters it to return it into his original work. He puts it on
display with all his other treasures
Themes
➢ Entrapment
○ Moral entrapment
○ Entrapment of women (quite literally in a painting; Mrs. Grancy 2 between Claydon and Mr. Grancy)
○ Confining circumstances (Claydon redoing the painting)
➢ Loneliness, isolation
○ Mr. Grancy is alone in his first marriage
○ Mr. Grancy is alone once his wife dies
➢ Status of women in society
○ Mrs. Grancy is just a pawn in the Claydon v. Mr. Grancy rivalry
➢ Rivalry
○ The story revolves around the Claydon v. Mr. Grancy rivalry
➢ Adultery and consequences
➢ Death
➢ Drugs and intoxication
➢ Possessiveness
➢ Love
○ Claydon and Ralph’s love for Mrs. Grancy.
➢ Dependency
➢ Supernatural
“When Claydon painted her he caught just the look she
used to lift to mine when I came in — I’ve wondered,
sometimes, at his knowing how she looked when she
and I were alone. — How I rejoiced in that picture! I
used to say to her, ‘You’re my prisoner now — I shall
never lose you. If you grew tired of me and left me
you’d leave your real self there on the wall!’ It was
always one of our jokes that she was going to grow
tired of me” (III, paragraph 3, line 1)
Extract
“When Claydon painted her he caught just the look she used to lift to mine when I came in — I’ve wondered, sometimes, at his
knowing how she looked when she and I were alone. — How I rejoiced in that picture! I used to say to her, ‘You’re my prisoner
now — I shall never lose you. If you grew tired of me and left me you’d leave your real self there on the wall!’ It was always one
of our jokes that she was going to grow tired of me” (III, paragraph 3, line 1)
➢ This quotation alludes to the affair between Claydon and Mrs. Grancy.