«My uncle Silas» H.E. Bates

«My uncle Silas» H.E. Bates

relationships housekeeper story conflict

The author of the text is H.E. Bates, an English writer and author. The title is «My uncle Silas». After the first reading of the title of the story we can suppose that it’s clear and the text is only about some single person, but later we’ll understand it’s about relations of two close to each other persons.

The narrator of the text is a nephew of main character, he knows everything about the events and characters. He visited his uncle and witnessed an amusing scene when housekeeper foresails to take a bath

The place of action isn’t clear but considering on the unusual dialect of characters like these «git us a glass o’wine», «it's waste o’time», «I got summat else to do 'sides titivate myself wi’soap», we can suppose that action takes place little borough, far from civilization, where people speak in such way.

All events are presented in the chronological order, but the most part of the text prevails a description of the life of characters.

The climax in the story is when uncle Silas was in the bath and asked the housekeeper to bring him a wine and taters, but she refused to do for him anything until he has been in the bath.

There is any other subplots and anticlimax.

This is a story about relationships of uncle Silas and his housekeeper, who takes care about him. Unfortunately we don’t know her name. The story is subdivided into short paragraphs with simple sentences and is also full of dialogs between Silas and his housekeeper that is why we such good see and understand their relation. Style of their conversation is grumbling and even insulting (like «old nanny-goat»), but we can understand that in deeply in the soul their feel warm sympathy to each other.

The main character is uncle Silas, old grumbling man who live alone didn’t like to wash himself because as he thought that «It's waste o’time». Sometimes he pretense of being engrossed in the newspaper to avoid bathing. He lead quiet life, and love to sit in armchair and read a newspaper.

The minor character is his housekeeper, who tolerates all his the whims, gruffness and keep him in a straightjacket and forces him to take a bath. Uncle Silas don’t like this activity but he is susceptible to strong character of his housekeeper.

The conflict is mostly external, they can’t imagine their life without scandals, and it’s like a tradition, fighting with each other is the style of their communicating, or entertainment.

I think characters during all this dialogs are annoyed with behavior of each other, but on the other hand I suppose that do it especially to show their character or just to drive each other round the bend.

The theme of the story is the relationships between two alone old persons, who are had been lived in one house for donkey years. They don’t say to each other warm words and don’t reveal their attachment, but they know that they both need each each other.

The text is full of stylistic devices and figures of speech, especially we can see it in Silas’s speech. There are unfinished sentences or aposiopesis («never mattered to me since that day when…», «you want me…»), metaphors («as bitter and stinging as ice», «lathered thinly, like snow», «like an ostrich»), repetition «You want to finish me? Who want to finish me! You want me…» in some variants and meanings. Also his speech content a lot of figures of speech like these «git us a glass o’wine», «it's waste o’time», «I got summat else to do 'sides titivate myself wi’soap».

In my opinion, life of that characters will continue by this way for a lot of years, because they fill themselves comfortable with each other, communicating by this strange way. Deeply inside they are thankful to each other.