Taplow on Crocker-Harris
Part of the twists and turns that the narrative takes in this play is dependent upon the opening scene’s conversation between one of Andrew’s students and Frank Hunter, the fellow instructor whom it is soon revealed is having an affair with his wife. The central component of this conversation is Taplow’s opinions about his teacher expressed in confidence when he’s not around. Such as, for example, his psychological profile constructed in metaphor:
“He’s all shriveled up inside like a nut and he seems to hate people to like him.”
“The Himmler of the lower fifth.”
A metaphor actually plays a rather significant role in how the storyline plays out. Andrew apparently learns for the first time that the headmaster has given him a nickname to reflect his iron-willed disciplines demands from his class. The person who shares this information just so happens to be the man replacing him following his decision to leave the school, Peter Gilbert. Gilbert for some reason—perhaps because he has just met Andrew—seems to think this he will take being compared to one of the most infamous Nazi war criminals of them all as a pure compliment. That turns out to be not so much the case.
Moving on from Millie the Mountain
Frank and Millie are having an affair. One gets the feeling that neither is really all that terribly invested in it, but things definitely take a sharp turn for the worst when Frank gets his first real, unvarnished, bare-bones look into the black hole at the center of Millie’s soul. Millie thinks Frank is overreacting regarding her treatment of her husband, suggesting he’s making a mountain out of molehill. Frank responds thusly:
“the mountain I’m making in my imagination is so frightening that I’d rather to forget both it and the repulsive little molehill that gave it birth.”
“The artful little beast”
The story veers harshly into Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf territory when Taplow returns with a copy of Browning’s translation of the Greek text he is studying. He has taken the time to write a transcription on the gift; a quote from the play. Andrew is quite moved by the gift, Millie less so. She blares out a guttural laugh directed to his gullibility at not seeing the gift for the obvious bribe in exchange for good marks that it is, referring to Taplow in less than complimentary metaphorical terms.
“Muck”
Of course, she’s probably onto something, though that hardly justifies her repugnant delivery of the truth. Earlier, when Taplow is discussing the very same work of literature with Frank—while Andrew is still away from the house—he himself uses a rather unpleasant metaphor in reference to Agamemnon by Aeschylus.
