THE INTERVAL
Starting Point. Mr. O’Sullivan states that the story arose primarily from his foreseeing, in 1915, that one result of the War would be a revived interest in the supernatural. This foreknowledge illustrates that the author must be a little ahead of his time, rather than a little behind it.
The clearness of his prevision is illustrated in such stories as Gordon Arthur Smith’s “Jeanne the Maid” (1915), Edith Wharton’s “Kerfol” (1916), Alice Brown’s “The Flying Teuton” (1917), and Frances Wood’s “The White Battalion” (1918). It would be safe to hazard that these authors foresaw a similar demand.
Title. Meaning of “The Interval”? Is it apt?
Setting. Why did the author choose London, rather than an American city? Is it clear from the story alone that Mr. O’Sullivan is thoroughly familiar with English locale and character?
In the first paragraph occurs the sentence, “A dense haze, gray and tinged ruddy, lay between the houses, sometimes blowing with a little wet kiss against the face.” What color effects are in harmony with the atmosphere of the story?
Plot. The struggle is in the mind of Mrs. Wilton. She wishes to be assured that “it was not all over, that he was somewhere, not too far away,” etc., page 385. The situation is here disclosed, suspense having been used as to Mrs. Wilton’s purpose in the previous pages. “This must be the tenth seer she had consulted since Hugh had been killed,” page 384 is the most revelatory sentence.
Is the struggle successful?
The initial incident is this visit to the clairvoyant who “sees” Hugh.
Which of the incidents constitutes the dramatic climax?
“She slipped out of bed hastily ...” (page 390) is the climax of action, or as much as is expressed. The reader must finish it for himself.
(The final sentence, with seeming carelessness dropping the information that “after her death the slippers could never be found,” is an incentive to the reader’s fancy. It has no plot value, except by suggestion.)
Did Hugh really return, or did Mrs. Wilton see him as a logical result of her brooding? If the former choice is made, the inference is that the reader accepts Hugh as a bona fide ghost; if the latter, then he is only existent through the sick-woman’s mind and the mind of the clairvoyant. (See article, “Representative Ghosts,” Bookman, August, 1917.)
Details. Does the author believe the clairvoyant was genuine? If so, why does he say (page 384), “A look of complicity, of cunning, perhaps of irony, passed through the dealer’s cynical and sad eyes”?
Are the visitations of Hugh arranged in climactic order?
Is Mrs. Wilton’s illness adequately motivated? What is the double explanation of it? Do you accept the natural or the supernatural reason?