How vainly men themselves amaze by Herbert Ernest bates

How vainly men themselves amaze by Herbert Ernest bates

I’d like to give you the lingua- stylistic interpretation of the story “How vainly men themselves amaze”, written by one of the great English story-teller, Herbert Ernest Bates.

Speaking about the author’s predominant attitude to what is presented; we can say that the general tone of the story is of psychological and social nature. The writer touches upon the problem of relationship between men and women. The story is basically about genuine love and love affair, about hypocrisy and infidelity

The plot centers round the event which took place in France. So, Franklin, a young man of 18, meets one day on the beach a middle-aged woman, Mrs. Palgrave by name. She has two children and there is a pretty maid, Heidi, to take care of them. Franklin has a love affair with Mrs. Palgrave, but a few days later she has to go to London. However, Franklin doesn’t waste time and decides to go out with Heidi whom he likes and who tells him about the existence of Mr. Palgrave, an old person of about 60.  Soon, Mrs. Palgrave returns to France and learns about Franklin’s “new” love affair and because of it and because of her being selfish and jealous she sends Heidi to her native country, to Germany. Franklin becomes furious; he realizes he had deep feelings for Heidi, but could do nothing now. Besides when one day passing by Franklin, Mrs Palgrave accompanied by her husband, turns her head and goes through the motions of not seeing Franklin.

So, the story consists of relatively independent elements such as narration, description and dialogue which make the composition of the story. Through the dialogue the characters are better portrayed, it also brings the action nearer to the reader, makes it seem swifter and more intense. The story is presented in the third-person narrative with the omniscient narrator who stands outside the story and has access to any event or thought and emotion of the character.

From very beginning the reader plunges into the atmosphere of events and we get acquainted with the characters. 

The story opens with the description of a French beach in France. That’s the setting where the use of similes and epithets, which give an individual perception and evaluation to the given object:

The sand on the seaward side of the dunes glittered like fine white sugar in the sun…..dry tuft of dune grass…..a sharper gust of breeze.

contributes to the atmosphere of brightness and warmth.

Further on the author introduces one of the main characters, Mrs. Palgrave by means of direct method of character-drawing. She is considered to be a round and a dynamic character as she is complex and changes in the course of the story. Moreover she can be called the antagonist. Credit must be given to the author for being extremely resourceful in molding the portraits and nature of his main characters in a subtle and convincing way. So, describing her appearance he employs epithets:

“the auburn-haired….beautifully boned woman”

“evenly tanned to a deep gold”

“long beautifully shaped legs”

besides with her ‘red mass of hair, orange –pink nails, orange-pink mouth” she could be compared with the fox seeking  for a new prey and all her appearance shows that she is a woman who takes care of herself and she likes bright colors not only in make-up, but also in dressing:

“a pair of yellow beach shoes and a yellow scarf, a pink towel, the two-piece emerald swim-suit”.

So, she is dressed to kill that is her bright colorful appearance is meant for attracting a prey. 

Also the author very skillfully describes the way Mrs. Palgrave eats fruits, which is also one of her method of seduction, the way to bring her prey closer. To demonstrate this author again resorts to epithets which make the image more emotional.

“She, using a small silver knife, began to peel a peach, taking off the thin rose downy skin with delicate strokes and then carefully, almost meticulously, laying the fragments on another paper tissue…..and as peach-juice ran over the teeth she licked it away with the slow curl of her tongue…”

A special importance is given to Mrs. Palgrave’s eyes as they are known to be “the mirror of the soul”: such a brilliant usage of epithets and simile, which is used to add a visual aspect to understanding concepts, in the sentence:

“the pupils of them were like bright bird’s eggs, mottled and stenciled green and orange-brown. For a quarter of a minute she held him in a gaze without the flicker of an eyelid”

“…he became acutely aware of peculiar nature of her eyes…”

reveals her secret nature; the author is hinting at her savage nature as she is using Franklin like a vampire.

So, Mrs. Palgrave can be described as a very selfish, hypocritical, unfaithful and jealous woman who doesn’t like to share anything if her own with anybody. She doesn’t like people around her even her own children are grown up without their mother’s love.  She uses people for her own profit and after that she gets rid of them without regret. It can be proved when she sends Heidi back to Germany, and when she is walking with her husband, turns her head and goes through the motions of not seeing Franklin. For Mrs. Palgrave it is the only short intrigue but her cruel nature doesn’t let her not to transfer to Heidi and Franklin’s relationship.

Her attitude towards Heidi is revealed through the usage of epithet in the sentences:

“That wretched German girl”

She never conceals her dislike towards Heidi and there are some reasons for it.  Heidi is an elegant, admirable girl. The attractiveness is brought home to the readers in the epithets and similes:

“blonde tall young woman”, “had an aloof aristocratic

I’d like to say that on the whole the story is gripping, involved and keeping in suspense.

Mrs. Palgrave appeared before us as a selfish and hypocritical, unfaithful and jealous woman who didn’t like to share anything of her own with anybody. She was jealous of Heidi because of her being young and admirable. Another reason is that Franklin really deeply fell in love with her. Although she realized that she had only a short intrigue with Franklin without any sincere affection, she didn’t want him to have something with Heidi. It is obvious that she had a dog-in-the-manger attitude towards him.

Concerning Franklin, he is showed as a sensitive, generous, sociable person, not malicious at all.

I’d like to say that there is no denoument as we don’t know what will happen after Franklin’s knowing about Heidi’s departure. The author lets the reader judge for himself.

The message in my opinion can be formulated as follows: nowadays relationship between men and women has changed and this story is a bright example of this change. Franklin wanted only to “amaze” himself following linear thinking and not analyzing the situation at all. He knew Mrs. Palgrave was married and had two children, but they decided to break moral principles.  They both were not after emotional relationship, but sexual satisfaction. They both knew it was just a short period intrigue without past and future.

As a finishing touch to my summary, I’d like to point out that story  conveys deep thought, keen observation and interesting plot coupled with beautiful, expressive language and a simple, lucid style.