Essay Questions

What is the significance of “the silver-framed photograph” to Judith Hearne? Apply psychoanalysis.

Moore explicates, "THE first thing Miss Judith Hearne unpacked in her new lodgings was the silver-framed photograph of her aunt. The place for her aunt, ever since the sad day of the funeral, was on the mantelpiece of whatever bed-sitting-room Miss Hearne happened to be living in." In the framework of Lacanian psychoanalysis, the photograph is an Objet Petit a for her departed aunt. Having the photograph makes up for her aunt’s presence. It makes her to experience her aunt’s presence in her life for she adored her aunt.

How does Hearne cope with her loneliness?

Moore writes, "For it was important to have things to tell which interested your friends. And Miss Hearne had always been able to find interesting happenings where other people would find only dullness. It was, she often felt, a gift which was one of the great rewards of a solitary life. And a necessary gift. Because, when you were a single girl, you had to find interesting things to talk about. Other women always had their children and shopping and running a house to chat about." Interesting narratives aid Hearne to deal with her lonesomeness. Although she is single, storytelling makes her life interesting. Hearne observes her landlady and her son for they are potential exciting subjects in her narratives.