Analyse af Joanna Trollopes novelle 'Miss Mackintosh'

Miss Mackintosh is an English short story written by Joanna Trollope in 2003. The protagonist and narrator of the story is Lucy Mackintosh, also referred as Miss Mackintosh. Miss Mackintosh is a librarian in her forties who lives at home with her father. She has presumably always lived at home because she went under a controlled and protective upbringing. She has always been dependable of her parents and lived a life as they obliged. She was not the seedy individual of her life and was incapable of making her own choices, up until the death of her mother. After her mother died of cancer, Miss Mackintosh had to look after her aging father which made her controlled life begin to disintegrate. ------------------------------- Miss Mackintosh was used to be protected by her parents and to have them making her choices. She was a secluded child who was now forced to take responsibility in the further development of her life.Miss Mackintosh lived her life for her parents, not for herself or anyone else. She lived a ‘coded’ life with boundaries and frames. Therefore she is not aware of her former conditions and why her life has begun to disintegrate because she is like a computer as she says: “I can’t now remember exactly what broke me, but I know it was something trivial, something like failing to follow a computer procedure correctly, or mislaying a report I laboured long to write.” (Ll. 1-3). A fact supporting this is that her name is very similar to the name of a computer company: Macintosh. Actually her entire family is like computers: “I am not someone who weeps easily, I never have been; not weeping runs in the family, even at funerals.” (Ll. 3-4).The death of her mother and her aging father who was incapable of nursing her, untied a knot that was tying the independency, volition and desire of Miss Mackintosh. A knot untied without her being aware of it or the reason: “I can’t remember exactly what broke me, but I know it was something trivial” (L. 1). “But that day, I found myself crying.” (L. 4). Miss Mackintosh has always been living the ‘perfect’ life according to her but now it is disintegrating as she claims, and therefore she is incapable of keeping up appearances.Her colleagues are shocked by her look and so is Miss Mackintosh. Here we get introduced with Douglas Gilchrist who has visited the library for years, several times a week. Mr. Gilchrist was the saviour of Miss Mackintosh that day when he took her out for a cup of coffee, away from the colleagues who has just seen the real Miss Mackintosh her non-fake and vulnerable side. The name Gilchrist actually means “servant of Christ” which indicates that he is not only the saviour of this situation but is going to be the saviour of her life. Mr. Gilchrist takes Miss Mackintosh to a pub and buys a double brandy for her without asking her and orders her to tell him about what is wrong with her: “I think you had better tell me about it.” (Ll. 42-43).Mr. Gilchrist is the saviour of Miss Mackintosh’s life in the way that he takes over the role of her parents – the controlling role. Miss Mackintosh needs someone to be dependable and controlled by: “It was as if someone had turned a key, pressed a button.” Again this shows that Miss Mackintosh is like a computer who needs someone to turn it on and control it. When her father was controlling her, he was suppressing her feelings and opinions, but when Mr. Gilchrist was controlling, he was letting/ordering her to talk about her feelings; so he is also a saviour in that way. Miss Mackintosh learns that she has been suppressed by her father’s way of living and therefore she begins to stand up to her father. Mr. Gilchrist is not suppressing Miss Mackintosh, and lets her listen to her own needs. ------------------------------------------------ Later on we see that they get more involved with their relationship as they begin to pronounce each other by their first name: “Douglas” and “Lucy”. In addition, Mr. Gilchrist, or Douglas, invites Lucy to Venice and Lucy accepts in despite of her father. Her father wants her to stay with him and just get married as quickly as possible but Lucy tells him no. Lucy feels strong, she is no longer a controlled woman, like a computer, she is no longer Miss Mackintosh. Lucy feels like a new person, a happy, independent woman: “I looked at myself in the mirror, the mirror that had reflected Lucy Locket in all her stages, the mirror that had reflected the shadow and echo.” (Ll. 191-192). Notice the use of “had” in past tense. Lucy is no longer suppressed by her father and feels saved and reborn. “But there was someone else there now. I smiled at her. I smiled at Lucy Mackintosh, single woman. Single, independent woman.”. ““Wrong, Daddy,” I said.” (Ll. 192-194). Mr. Gilchrist, the servant of Christ, had helped her ‘resurrect’. Resurrect as a new Miss Mackintosh, as a Lucy – a ‘human being’.