Previous Next

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. 

The Difficulty of Knowing What Is Real

Throughout the story, Munro develops a theme of the difficulty of knowing what is real. The most obvious manifestation of this theme is Fiona’s declining memory. Over the course of the story, she forgets practical things, like the contents of kitchen drawers and how to get home from a walk, and gradually more personally significant facts, like who Grant is to her. Her memory loss in some ways erodes her individuality, as she allows the staff at Meadowlake to put her in clothes she would not have chosen and to cut her signature long hair. At the same time, her behavior as she loses her memory causes confusion in Grant, who isn’t sure at first whether she may be playing some kind of game, just as he wasn’t sure in their youth if her suggestion of marriage was genuine. Through Grant, Munro explores the ways all people experience a shifting sense of what is real. After his dream, Grant must intentionally sort out the real parts of the dream from those invented by his mind. The retelling of the events casts him in an almost noble light, leaving the reader with a sense that this isn’t the complete story, and that Munro is also not allowing for a definitive version of the reality she presents. 

The Complicated Nature of Loyalty in Love

Through Grant and Fiona’s long and sometimes troubled marriage, the story explores the theme of the complicated nature of loyalty in love. In one sense, Grant has not been a loyal husband. He has had several affairs during his marriage, including one that forced his early retirement, hurting him and Fiona financially and socially. He has kept these affairs a secret from Fiona. Even as Fiona fades into depression in a nursing home, he at least considers sleeping with Marian. However, in other respects he has never wavered in his care for Fiona and has never stopped being the young man mesmerized by her vivacity. He takes pride in not allowing his affairs to dissolve his marriage, in never spending a night away or withholding sexual attention from Fiona. Grant is lonely without his wife and looks forward to his first visit to her at Meadowlake with a boyish excitement. Most complicated is his response to her attraction to Aubrey. Although he is initially filled with resentment, when he sees how she suffers without Aubrey in her life, he takes steps to bring her back the man he believes she wants. In the end, his loyalty to her is rewarded at least for that moment with her attention and affection, and he savors their embrace as loving husband and wife. 

The Power of Approval and Disapproval

At many points in the story, Munro refers to the fact that personal approval has the power to motivate and control. Both Grant and Fiona’s other suitors put up with her ridicule for the sake of earning her approval, something Grant continues to look for throughout the story. In his dream, a row of young women sits in judgment against him, an image of disapproval that terrifies him, but Fiona dissipates their power by dismissing them as silly. In the real-life version of that series of events, it is the power of the disapproval of the student he slept with, her rejection of his authority by painting RAT on his office door, that causes massive upheaval in his and Fiona’s life together. This act of disapproval takes Grant by surprise because he has not taken in the change in power dynamics since the era of Jacqui, when women came to male professors’ offices looking for approval from them, rather than feeling empowered to grant or deny their own. When Grant decides to arrange for Aubrey to visit Fiona, he does not anticipate the force of Marian’s disapproval of the idea. Yet he perseveres because he hopes that providing Fiona with Aubrey will lead to the gift of her approval. Throughout the story, Fiona’s approval is a powerful motivator for Grant. Indeed, what seems to hurt him most in the early visits to Meadowlake isn’t so much that Fiona doesn’t know him as that she doesn’t take time out to approve of him and to appreciate his presence and gifts.

Previous section Main Ideas Next section Motifs

Take a Study Break