Analyse af John Cheevers 'The Music Teacher'

The main setting of ‘The music teacher’ takes place in the home of Seton and Jessica. Throughout the story, their relationship develops, leading to a gradual improvement in the atmosphere of their home. It appears that the music lessons are crucial for this remarkable change. Before Seton’s piano lessons, “sobbing and moaning rent the air” (p. 530, l. 9) of their house, which is replaced with the drill that Miss Deming has taught Seton. Furthermore, the smell of gloomy and burned supper is exchanged with “a whirl of palatable suppers and lovemaking” (p. 540, ll. 21-22). The Setons live in a wealthy neighbourhood, where marital problems are considered a taboo. This is shown by the “social infamy” (p. 534, l. 5) that their house had suffered ever since “his wife had hidden her charms” (p. 535, l. 36). The atmosphere of the restaurant where Seton takes Jessica to dinner, is the self-same as always, and Seton even experiences the light as “the same light that had fallen there ten years ago” (p. 532-533, ll. 38-1). This indicates that the restaurant as well as the physical environment of their lives have not changed, contrary to the conditions of their relationship. Miss Deming’s house is located on the other side of town, in “one of those back streets of frame houses” (p. 535, l. 7-8), which is in a fairly poor condition compared to the region where Seton lives. At his first piano lesson, Seton “felt painfully large for the house, the bench, the situation” (p. 535, l. 34), which does not only describe the size of Miss Deming’s house, but also reveals Seton’s distress with the situation.