Elizabeth Jolley’s Wednesdays and Fridays consists entirely
of letters written from a landlady/mother to her tenant/son. Using letters to tell the story, as opposed
to more traditional techniques, constricts the information available to the
reader. This improves the reader’s
experience of the story as curiosity is piqued and humor is added. It is, however, a difficult thing to
accomplish as it is difficult for the author to realistically fit what they
want to say in a letter, particularly in this case where it is not a discourse,
but just Mabel Doris Morgan repeatedly contacting her son and receiving no letters
in reply.
The letter style of narration fits
this story well. Upon first reading, readers
may not notice that Mr. Morgan and the landlady share a last name, or may assume
it’s a coincidence. As the letters get
more detailed and personal, this causes them to wonder why the landlady is so
lenient with her tenant and why the tenant is so close to his landlady. When the reader officially finds out the
landlady is the tenant’s mother in the final letter, it makes all the leniency make
sense and is funny. The reader also gets
bits and pieces of stories and, because it’s bits and pieces, it’s funny. How did Donald Morgan ruin his sheet? Why are the curtains green? All of this humor is only possible due to the
incomplete information Jolley chooses to give readers by writing entirely in
letters.
When Mabel Doris Morgan signs the
last letter as Donald Morgan’s mother, it completes Wednesdays and Fridays, but it also brings up questions. Since the landlady is Donald’s mother, why
does she communicate with him via letter?
Why wouldn’t she just tell him these things? In the last letter, Ms. Morgan says he won’t
come out of his room, but in previous letters Ms. Morgan mentioned feeding him
meals, so why didn’t she chat with him then?
For me, this kind of took me out of the story a little bit and made me
question its realism.
By: Kelley Nichols
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