The Wheatleys: appearance and reality

At the beginning of the book, when Stephen introduces Keith´s family, it is clear that he regrets having been born a Wheatley and would have liked to be a Hayward instead. Keith´s parents have a glamour his own parents don't seem to have: “I think I feel a brief pang of admiring jealousy for yet another demonstration of his unending good fortune. A father in the Secret Service and a mother who´s a German spy- when the rest of us can´t muster even one parent of interest!” As for her own mother, Stephen believes “There's something so hopelessly ordinary about her that it's difficult to take account of her existence.” As regards his father, he considers Mr Wheatley´s job was “too dull to describe”, and that his father´s appearance is as “unsatisfactory” as his own. Besides, his father uses words which are “embarrassingly private” as nobody else in the Close uses them. Stephen seems to envy even the way in which Mr Hayward punishes Keith, as he comments about his own father: “ (...) the worst punishment he could contrive was a generalised swipe at their heads, which they effortlessly ducked.”

The Haywards: Appearance and Reality

               At the beginning of the story, as described in previous posts, Stephen idealises the Haywards. In his distorted view, the Haywards are the perfect family and Stephen wishes his own family were like them. Little by little, we realise how unreliable Stephen's point of  view is and we start perceiving the conflicts and the dark truth behind the Haywards´ immaculate white walls. Stephen also realises his initial conception of Keith´s family was inadequate, but his understanding of their problems is still not complete. We- readers-. are sometimes a step ahead him in interpreting the clues provided by his close observation of this family. A good example of this difference is provided by  chapters 8 and 9.

What information do Barbara Berril and Mrs Hayward provide as regards Keith's personality?

  In chapter 5, both Barbara Berrill and Mrs Hayward provide some new information as regards Keith, which throws light on his character. Up to this point, we have only learnt about him from Stephen's point of view, and according to him, Keith has a very strong personality that made him the leader of all their conjunct projects. Keith admired him blindly and  felt extremely grateful to be his only friend.  However, what the female characters comment on Keith  give us a new insight on his character.

On the one hand, Barbara Berrill says nobody likes Keith because he is very bossy and arrogant. The reason  nobody visits Keith is because he doesn't have any friends and that’s why Stephen is so welcomed at Keith's house. Therefore, we understand Stephen's gratefulness just stems from his sense of inferiority, because he shouldn´t be grateful to have to suffer Keith´s haughtiness. On the other hand, Mrs. Hayward confirms what Barbara commented about Keith:` “It's such fun for Keith,” she says “ finding a real friend, because it does get a bit lonely sometimes if you don’t have any brothers or sisters, and he doesn’t make friends easily.”´ However, her next statement about Keith astonishes Stephen completely: “But Keith’s easily led, as I’m sure you realise”. In Stephen's view, Keith is always “the instigator and commander of every enterprise”. Having a different perspective make us wonder if Stephen may have played a more active role in their adventures than the one he is convinced he has. The question arises:  What did Mrs Hayward observe and know about her son that made her get the idea that he was influenced by Stephen? Could it be that even though Keith suggests the ideas for their projects, Stephen is the one who gets carried away by them and the one who keeps them going? Could Stephen´s role be more important than what he himself realises?

In conclusion, the female character´s comments on Keith confirm the unreliability of the narrator, and make us question his perspective on the roles they played in their relationship.

Dramatic irony

According to Enciclopaedia Britannica, dramatic irony is defined as “ a literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters.” (http://www.britannica.com/art/dramatic-irony)

In chapter 3 of Spies,  dramatic irony occurs when Keith and Stephen discover the x´s and the !´s in Mrs. Hayward´s diary. These events are described by young Stephen, who has the innocence of a little kid, but we -readers- understand their findings in a different way because we have more knowledge and experience.

The x´s appear in Mrs. Hayward's´diary once a month, some months 2 days earlier or later than others. We realise immediately what meaning the x´s have: they mark Keith´s mother´s menstrual period. However, Keith and Stephen have no knowledge of this so they relate them to their belief that Keith´s mother was a German spy. They conclude that the x´s record her meetings with the Germans. Besides, her menstrual period coincide with the nights of no moon: "Yes, the x´s are approximately keeping step with the lunar calendar. Each month the x is close to the same sign, the full black circle. The night of no moon". So the children infer that dark nights are ideal for these meetings.

After working on the hypothesis about the meaning of the x´s, the children find the little exclamation marks: "The exclamation marks however, happened only 3 times so far this year, and at irregular intervals- on a Saturday in January, on another Saturday in March and on a Tuesday in April. These last date, I´m somehow disturbed to see, is also marked "wedding anniv.""  Keith and Stephen are not able to build up any consistent  theory about  these exclamation marks, but we assume that they keep track of Mr. Hayward and Mrs. Hayward's´sexual activity, which was important in case of pregnancy.

To conclude, there is a gap between our deductions and Stephen and Keith´s due to the character's lack of information about sexual matters. That explains why it is possible to speak about dramatic irony in this chapter.

Auntie Dee

Auntie Dee was Keith's mother´s sister. She was formally known as Mrs. Tracey. Only Keith's family called her Auntie Dee .She was married to Uncle Peter, who was away because of the war. They had a daughter called Milly.  Her house was very untidy, most probably because of the absence of Uncle Peter: "The grass on the untended lawn was as high as the rusting croquet hoops left over from earlier summers". Even though Keith disapproved of the neglect of her house, Stephen considered it had an almost sacred quality as it  “reflected the glory of Uncle Peter”

Her family lived three houses down Keith's so Mrs Hayward would often sent his son with food for Auntie Dee. Although Keith's mother and Auntie Dee were sisters, they were different both in appearance and personality: "Keith's mother was tall, Auntie Dee was short. Keith's mother was unhurried and calmly smiling; Auntie Dee was always in a rush and smiling, not calmly at all but with a reckless display of white teeth and cheerfulness"

Stephen seemed to like Auntie Dee for many reasons. First of all,  Auntie Dee addressed Stephen as well as Keith: "She'd speak, not just to Keith, but quite directly to both of us, as if I existed as much as Keith did"  Secondly, she was Uncle Peter´s wife, and Stephen clearly admired him. Last but not least, she was his friend´s aunt, and anything that belonged to Keith was admirable for Stephen, specially because it was different from what he had: “ “Would even Uncle Peter have been quite such a perfect uncle if Stephen himself hadn´t had to make do with a handful of obscure aunts in flowered dresses?”