Analyse af Fay Weldons 'Live Like a Dog, Alone'

”Live Like a Dog, Alone” is a short story by Fay Weldon. The story is about a woman called Miriam, who is on her way home from a visit at the hospital with a cap. The refugee cap does an unusual thing as a cap driver; he tells her about his personal life. He tells Miriam that he is alone in his life. She tries to cheer him up even thoug she thinks he is uninterested at first. Later on in the conversation she begins to find him charming and better-looking than she had imagened. She has thougts in her mind about the cap driver, like having sex together, get married and that he will run off with a girl from his owm country. At the end of the story the driver invites him selfs to her house and she accept it, but just to see if she has right about the prediction.

B2: Characterizing of Miriam and her life

Miriam is the main character of the short story. She is a successful businesswoman at the age of fifty-five, but does not show her age, because she takes good care of her herself and get face-lift. She lives alone without children and husband, but she has been married once and but they did not get any children. Her husband had left her for an English actress, and left her penniless. Miriam thinks that the cause of her husband had left her is, because of her habit. She has a habit or instinct to cheer people up in any case. She must be an extremly caring person who wants to make everybody happy. In the text there is example which shows her habit: ”It was her instinct to cheer people up, in any case. (…) The habit had driven her husband mad: she suspected it was the real reason he’d left”(p.9, l. 63-64). After her husband had left her she has started to make money and now she own a nursing agency and because of the successful agency, she had been voted businesswoman of the year. Even though she is successful and has a lot of money, her life is not perfect which it has to be. Miriam has a heart disease which makes that she visit the hospital regulary. When the cap driver says:“I would never let any woman of mine go to the hospital on her own”(p. 11, l. 127-128). He just has found Miriam’s weak: namely her loneliness.“ It was her weak spot. Only in the hospital, her heart stopping and restarting, did she feel the weight of her loneliness.”(p 11, l. 129-131). Thanks to the driver, she really realize her loneliness and makes her think about it.