Beyond the Pale by William Trevor

Beyond The Pale

By William Trevor

1. Summary of the story:

Four English friends are spending two weeks in the County of Antrim, in Northern Ireland. They are staying in a small hotel called Glencorn Lodge, where they have been staying every year in June, since 1965. It is a majestic Georgian house by the sea, close to the village of Ardbeag. This Bed & Breakfast belongs to the Malseed family, an English couple. The story takes place in a very natural, relaxing and quiet environment. They know this location and have their own habits: walking through the neighbourhood, buying some clothes, playing bridge late at night… The four holidaymakers are aged in the early fifties. Milly, the story teller, give us her analysis of her friends’personnality; Strafe is married to Cynthia, but their couple isn’t on the right track and Strafe has an affair with Milly; finally, Dekko, the fourth main character is a philanderer who is scared of commitment. We directly feel that Milly is totally unsympathetic towards Cynthia.

When they arrive at Glencorn Lodge, they are warmly welcomed by the Malseed and quickly make themselves at home. At night they play a couple of Bridge games after dinner. They notice a strange red-haired man sitting alone at another table. They have some guesses about the reason of his presence at Glencorn Lodge. Strafe assumes he must be a commercial gent. They decide they should sleep in order to be fit the next day. Once they all rejoined their personal room, Strafe slips into Milly’s room for the night.

The next day, they plan to have a walk to Ardbeag. Finally, Cynthia decides to stay and laze at the hotel. The three other protagonists enjoy their time on the field trip. When they come back from their stroll, the mood has totally turned from peacefulness to intense stress in the hotel. It happens that the strange lone man from the day before has come to talk to Cynthia before jumping from the cliff to the sea, killing himself. Cynthia is in shock and needs to rest a little. The whole hotel is in tension. By the time she comes back from her room, the three characters have found out what has happened. After lunch, they go to their rooms for a nap. Some of them have strange dreams during their short sleep. When Cynthia comes down, she starts explaining what the guy told her. He told her his childhood story. When he was a child, he met a girl at Glencorn Lodge and they fell in love. They promised each other they wouldn’t break apart, but life separated them. The girl became a terrorist bomber. It hurt him so much that he finally decided to kill her. This Story relates to the conflicts in Northern Ireland. After committing this murder, and telling Cynthia the story, he decides to kill himself by jumping in the sea. While she is telling her friends the story, they try to calm her down by telling her to stop talking and to have some more rest, but nothing stops Cynthia. She looks like she has gone totally crazy. In the end of her speech, Cynthia accuses her husband of cheating on her with Milly. The story ends in an icy silence and a feeling of total destruction of a friendship that appeared to be true.

1. Characters:

The main characters are Dorothy Milson, Major R. B. Strafe, Cynthia Strafe, Dekko Deacon and the red-haired suicidal stranger. Milly, Strafe, Cynthia and Dekko are friends. They are all aged in the early fifties.

• Dorothy Milson: She is the narrator of this short story. Other characters call her Milly, in reference to her name Milson. She is a widow in the early fifties. She is totally banal and looks like everyone. She likes her hair and needs to take care of them very often. She was married to a man called Ralph, but he died of food-poisoning. She has an affair with Strafe but doesn’t expect anything from him. Indeed, Strafe has a wife, Cynthia, and he doesn’t want to break up with her. She clearly shows some antipathy towards Cynthia.

• Major R. B. Strafe: R.B. are the initials of his real name: Robert Buchanan. His nickname is Strafe. He used to work for the Army, but he left years ago. Now he is working in the Ministry of Defence. He went to school with Dekko. He has a wife, Cynthia, who gave him two sons. They look like their father and both are in the Army. Millie describes him as a sentimental man. He is easily moved to tears. He doesn’t notice little pointless things. He is pretty fat and has gingery hair and a gingery moustache. On holiday, he doesn’t share the same a room with his wife.

• Cynthia Strafe: Major R. B. Strafe’s wife. She doesn’t seem aware of her husband’s affair. She is small and ineffectual. Milly thinks that Cynthia shouldn’t be with Strafe because he is too different from her. In her opinion, a man like Dekko would be better for her. She reads a lot, especially History and tourism Books. In the story, she turns totally crazy after the strange man’s suicide.

• Dekko Deacon: He is a womanizer. He goes out with young girls but is very scared of commitment, so, he never got married. He is pretty discreet. He is very tall, always well-suited. He has a beaky face and mousy hair. He has a loud and gormless laugh.

• Suicidal stranger: Nobody knows him and he has no companion at the hotel. He has red hair and is around thirty years old. He looks uncouth and looks like he has nothing to do at Glencorn Lodge. He looks mysterious, unkind and in is own world. The story he tells shows a really passionate man and yet tormented by his love story. He suffers a lot of the fact that life separated them and that she became a terrorist bomber. He kills himself after murdering the girl he loved.

• Mr. and Mrs. Malseed: They are the owners of the hotel since the sixties and are English. They come from the same area as the 4 holidaymakers. This couple is very welcoming and patient. They don’t give a number to each room, but a name of a kind of flower. They decided not to make some advert for their hotel because they want it to be a quiet place with its usual people. Mrs. Malseed is a very sophisticated woman. She wears different clothes everyday, and changes them in the evening. She has smooth grey hair and almost always wears a black velvet band in it. She’s very tall. Her fingers are wonderfully beautiful. She has a stressful life, but manages to stay calm. Mr. Malseed is shorter than his wife. He wears tweed suits. He is bald. He has dark brown eyes and he knows how to make you feel comfortable in the hotel.

• Mrs. Kitty: She’s the waitress at the hotel

• Arthur: He is the groom. He has a beaten, fisherman’s face and short grey hair.

1. Explanation of the Title

The title has different meanings:

• As you can read at the beginning of the story, the title “Beyond the Pale” refers to behaviour that is unacceptable for people who adopt this behavior as much as for people who consider acting in such a way. It shows that you can chose to face those people, or pretend you don’t see them. We are all concerned by this story because violence is in all of us.

• The word “pale” is an adjective meaning whitish and light in colour. But this “pale” is simply a barrier.

• To be beyond the pale is to appropriate oneself a place which is considered like a part of our ‘home’. This meaning has appeared in English in the fourteenth century. By 1400, it had taken various meanings: barrier, fence, enclosure beyond which nobody can go. An example is the Pale in Ireland by English.

1.  The situation

The story takes place in Northern Ireland, one of the four nations of the United Kingdom. Three others are England, Scotland and Wales. Situated in the North-East of the Island of the Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland, to the South and the West. We are all concerned, like the characters in this story. Indeed, the violence is in us, whatever we did.

...