Ind Aff

Peter is the narrator’s love interest and the antagonist at the same time. He is seen primarily through the much more cynical lens of the narrator when she is older, not through the young protagonist’s adoring gaze. He is the narrator’s professor and thesis advisor, but unlike her character, his character has a life of his own from the beginning. He is married to a wife he does not love but nevertheless feels obligated to due to their three children. He is described repeatedly as moody, indecisive, and quick to complain.

In contrast to these unflattering details, the text also states: “Peter might be forty-six, but he was six foot two and grizzled and muscled with it, in a dark-eyed, intelligent, broad-jawed kind of way… ‘Muscular academic, not weedy academic’ as my younger sister Clare once said” (Paragraph 21). These details explain part of the narrator’s pull to him: the physical attraction.

He is also characterized by his academic authority, which he constantly flexes to the narrator by lecturing her on Sarajevo’s history and the history of Methodism. He seems to take pleasure in doing so with phrases like “of course,” and he even jumps to correct her when she misstates the number of people who died in World War I. Though she tries to get him back with a correction later on, he doesn’t accept it, signifying an outsized ego.

At the story’s end, the narrator’s view of him has changed and she refers to him by his title, “Professor Piper,” instead of “Peter” a few times, a reminder of the role he should have stayed in all along without becoming familiar as a lover. However, he himself remains a static character; he is “startled” at the narrator’s change of heart, not comprehending what has changed in their relationship.

Mrs. Piper is Peter’s wife and thus the narrator’s competition for the role of Peter’s official partner. The Pipers were married 24 years ago and have three children together, but they have long since fallen out of love. Mrs. Piper thus becomes a foil to the narrator, meant to highlight the narrator’s qualities through the contrast between them. Weldon’s construction of these foils represents the meagre choice of roles that patriarchal creates, leading to competition between women: a wife and mother, or a lover.

Mrs. Piper is a swimming coach, and the narrator repeatedly mentions this in a disdainful tone (with reference to the smell of chlorine). The narrator further portrays Mrs. Piper as “sweaty” and dull to frame herself as comparatively attractive and intellectually curious. Although Peter claims the narrator has “a good mind but not a first-class mind” (Paragraph 4), she is at least “eager and anxious for […] instruction” (Paragraph 6), whereas Mrs. Piper “only likes telly” and once “spat in the face of knowledge,” according to Peter (Paragraph 6). The narrator imagines them as enemy combatants, and Peter’s love is the prize. As far as the narrator is concerned, “I was winning hands down. It didn’t seem like much of a contest at all, in fact” (Paragraph 6). The narrator’s internalized misogyny—she consistently minimizes Mrs. Piper to elevate herself—and trivialization of the affair—viewing it as a contest—emphasizes her immaturity and exposes her superficial confidence, revealing her ample room to grow.

Clare is the narrator’s younger sister and is 23 years old (to the narrator’s 25). This sister character is another foil to the main character. According to the protagonist’s description, Clare is “of the superior human variety kind” (Paragraph 21). As a beautiful redhead who is also smart and “competent,” Clare seems to the narrator to have it all, from graduating from university early to having already found a husband —the narrator notes that “[s]he can even cook” (21). The narrator feels competitive with Clare but thinks that this is a losing battle due to Clare’s near-perfection.

However, the protagonist also manages to find and critique flaws in Clare, namely her husband’s appearance and the city in which they live. For these reasons, she describes Clare as “capable of self-deception” (Paragraph 21). Overall, the narrator paints Clare in a way that reveals her extreme envy of her sister. In this way, the characterization of Clare shows the insecure side of the narrator. Clare is also “surprisingly” encouraging of the narrator’s relationship with Peter, which is important to the narrator given that she must crave the approval of her “superior” sister.

Taken together, the characters of Mrs. Piper and Clare demonstrate that the narrator’s self-image vacillates depending on to whom she is comparing herself. Weldon suggests that her lack of an independent identity is something into which women are socialized and that they view themselves and each other depending on qualities that men might desire. Furthermore, Clare and Mrs. Piper underscore how the narrator is a fluid enough character to give over almost her entire self-image to being Peter’s lover and how competing for male attention (whether it’s direct competition over Peter or competition with her sister over whose partner is better) takes up the majority of her psychological energy.