43 pages • 1 hour read
Maeve BinchyA Week in Winter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Personal Transformation
Several characters go through dynamic personal transformations through the novel as they overcome fear, self-doubt, and various forms of trauma to emerge stronger after their stay. In Chicky’s and Freda’s cases, this transformation comes as a result of their involvement in a heady, toxic romantic relationship (not coincidentally, it’s their parallel perspectives that open and close the novel). Chicky goes from a thoughtful and introverted young Irish girl to a free-spirited bohemian living in New York. However, this exploratory phase quickly leads to a more authentic evolutionary period in which Chicky begins working for Mrs. Cassidy’s boarding house and learns new skills and a new way of life. When she returns to Stoneybridge, Chicky presents herself as someone completely transformed by her experiences—and as a success story to motivate others, like Orla. For Freda, this transformation comes as a result of denying her visions and, later, ultimately accepting them.
Orla and Corry, or John, are another pair who help each other achieve (or at least aspire to) the personal transformation each one needs. In Orla’s case, this process involves overcoming a resistance to opening her heart and to being vulnerable to the needs of others. Corry, like Chicky, undergoes a broad and dynamic transformation from a young aspiring actor to a high-profile movie star and, ultimately, to a professional who manages to keep the disparate threads of his life in balance. Although Orla and Corry are very different people with very different lives, they see in each other a reflection of that resistance to certain elements of the self. This external point of view helps them look at their futures and their own potential in a new way.
Rigger arguably undergoes the biggest transformation of all, and to illustrate this scale of change, his life is portrayed in its entirety, beginning with his initial conception. His early years are a rapid downhill spiral of crime and inner vice, particularly regarding his selfish attitude toward his family. The novel makes it clear that he is descending rapidly toward a prison sentence and a point of no return. It is only by a combination of kindness and luck that he receives a safe place to stay and is ultimately reborn as someone new. At Stone House, he learns the value of manual labor and of investing himself wholly and completely in something outside of himself. Through his time with Chicky engaging in the natural world, he transforms from an angry adolescent to a young professional as well as a husband and father. This process gives him a unique perspective with which to watch and understand the transformations of those around him.
The Internal Versus External Self
In addition to the overarching transformations taking place, several of the characters struggle with an imbalance between the persona they offer to the outside world (or the external self) and their more authentic, organic sense of being (or the internal self). In the first chapter, Chicky creates a clear and dramatic divide between this persona and reality, to the point that she begins to fool even herself: “She wrote home week after week and believed in the fairy tale more and more. She started to fill a spiral notebook with details of the life she was meant to be living. She didn’t want to slip up on anything” (9). Eventually, this life becomes so rigid that she remains trapped in her lies forever as “Mrs Starr,” living off an inheritance and navigating the bereavement of a widow. Although her story ends on a positive note, it also represents someone who becomes so engulfed in their external persona that they lose their true self completely.
Corry is another character who overtly illustrates this theme. Like Chicky, he adopts an entirely new name to fit his new persona, in contrast to the one he was born with. As both an actor and a celebrity, his life represents the gap between the real and the manufactured selves. In his professional life, his job is to emulate a fictional character to the point that the invented character becomes indistinguishable from reality. In his personal life, he plays a different kind of character in the eyes of the press. This duality becomes particularly apparent during his second marriage, in which his new wife attempts to mold him to fit the character that she’s creating. For a while, even Corry isn’t sure where reality ends and begins. When he eventually retaliates by trying to reclaim his authentic self, she slanders him to the tabloids and creates an even bigger gap between the real and the imagined. At Stone House, Corry unearths his birth name, one that had been largely forgotten throughout his life. This discovery represents a reconnection with the innermost self in a safe space away from the pressures of the external persona.
Other characters navigate this divide in smaller ways. For example, Lillian tries to corral Winnie into a character of her making: “Perhaps she was living in some never-never land. Acting a role, playing a part, cast now and possibly for ever as the old, old friend of her future mother-in-law” (136). Anders also undergoes a clear internal conflict as the demands of his external self—for the meticulous clothing and attitude of a corporate heir—clash with his own authentic needs. In Ireland, he finds a place where he can embody that truth in a way he wasn’t able to at home. Eventually, this experience gives him the strength to be honest with himself and to manifest who he truly is.
Healing and Redemption
Throughout these journeys, several characters experience healing and redemption as they emerge from challenging or traumatic experiences. One place in the novel where this theme takes center stage is in the story surrounding Henry and Nicola, who come to Stone House to recuperate after facing two separate instances of intense psychological trauma. In both cases of murder-suicides, the two doctors felt responsible for the tragic actions of others; each believed they could have made different choices or been better prepared. Both carry profound guilt. When they come to Stoneybridge, though, they see their own journey reflected in the character of Dr. Dai—another character who reports his own redemption arc. Both of these watched lives show a person losing their way due to their own perceived inadequacies; later, both save someone and, in doing so, realize how they can make a real difference. Although these acts of retribution don’t restore what was lost, the experiences do help each of the characters understand their capacity for good.
Another character who tries to find healing after a traumatic loss is Rigger’s mother, Nuala, who experiences depression after Rigger’s descent into criminality. Like Henry and Nicola, Nuala feels she has failed at the job she set out to do on the path that she was given. Although her motherhood wasn’t a conscious choice, she still tried to do her best by her son. When Rigger deviates so drastically from the image of him she tried to create, Nuala loses her sense of purpose and herself. This loss leads her to withdraw and distance herself from her son’s life: She refuses to attend his wedding or even meet his children. It’s not until Rigger’s new wife reveals how incomplete he is without his mother that Nuala is able to gain a fresh perspective. In this moment, Nuala begins her journey of personal redemption by making a more concentrated effort to be the mother that her son still needs.
