Document 3- The letter

Document 3- The letter

MAIN FACTS

1. The main character involved in this passage is Helen. She is 52 years old = she is in her early fifties. She is a middle-aged / mature woman.

Her mother has just passed away = died. She has just lost her mother.

She seems to be a single / unmarried woman. She may be a spinster or a widow.

The characters mentioned are Peter and her mother.

Peter Datchett is Helen’s former boyfriend or lover. They don’t see each other any more. The relationship is over.

Peter is 56 years old. (l.43) He was a lecturer in college.

2. When the scene begins, Helen is at her mother’s place, probably in her bedroom. She is clearing her mother’s clothes and belongings = she is taking them from the closet / wardrobe to sort them out and give them to a charity or throw them away.

3. She has just found / come across a letter in her mother’s jacket.

It is surprising because it is an old letter addressed to her. She was the addressee of the letter and the letter was unopened / not opened.

4. The letter she has just found was written in 1965. She discovered the letter after her mother’s death that is to say at least 20 years after the letter was written. The scene certainly takes place in the late 1980s.

They were certainly seeing other in their twenties / thirties and now they are in their fifties.

1989 is the date when the book entitled “Passing on” was published.

GOING INTO DETAILS:

1. Chronology of events

There is a misunderstanding between Helen and Peter

Peter tries to phone Helen (But she didn’t answer the phone)

Peter writes a letter to Helen

Peter asks Helen to have dinner with him

He posted the letter on March 10th 1965

Helen’s mother picks up the letter and puts it in her pocket

She doesn’t hear from Peter

She is too proud to make the first move

Time goes by

She throws away some old letters

Helen’s mother dies

Helen finds a letter

She reads the letter

She sits by herself

She remembers the past

She gives up the idea of tracing Peter

Helen hates her.

This text is composed of a flashback because Helen remembers / recalls the past. She looks back on the past to understand her present situation and what happened.

B. Narrative technique

1. The passage corresponds to what Peter wrote in his letter. It is the letter that Helen is reading.

Peter’s point of view is adopted here and we have the impression that Peter is speaking to Helen.

2. In the rest of the text, the point of view adopted is Helen’s because we have access to her thoughts and her feelings.

3. The other passage in quotation marks at the end of the text correspond to the letter that she thought of writing and sending to answer Peter’s letter written in 1965. She imagined that she could write Peter a letter and

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