The story “One Wednesday Afternoon” is about the relationship between a married couple, and the husbands mother. Sylvia is the wife, and she is not the traditional sort of wife that was common in these times. Instead of staying home with a baby, she choose to work in a factory in order to make money for herself. Shed liked getting her own money so she could treat her self to nice things like clothes and make up and having her hair done. Her mother-in-law resented her greatly, and didn’t think she was a worthy wife for her son. Jack, Sylvia’s husband is a very quiet man, and although he loves his wife very much, he finds it hard to show his true feelings. One day whilst working in the factory, Sylvia gets her hair caught in one of the machines, and is taken to hospital as her scalp has been ripped off. Jack is informed, and goes to see her in hospital. His mother goes too. She has no sympathy for Sylvia, and thinks she deserves it “ It’s a judgement on her”. Jack is very worried about Sylvia, but once he finds out she is ok he settles down a bit. This accident makes jack realise how much Sylvia means to him, and he decides that things must change. When he tell his mother this she gets the wrong idea, and thinks that he means that he is going to leave Sylvia. She is wrong, he means that he is going to spend more time with Sylvia, and show her his true feelings, and be more supportive of her in the future.
In “the Half Brothers” there are two marriages. The first is of true young love, between Helen and her husband. They marry when she is just 17 and him 21 “she was scarcely seventeen when she was married to him: and he was barely twenty-one”. When her beloved husband died, she was left with Gregory, and wanting the best for him, she accepted a marriage proposal from William Prescot. This marriage was not one of love, but more of convenience, and to be sure that Gregory would have a good life . “At last William Preston and she were wed; and she went to be mistress of a well-stocked house”. Prescot had promised to support Gregory and this was all Helen wanted. There was never any love for William from Helen. In “One Wednesday Afternoon” there is just one marriage, and this is of Jack and Sylvia Lister. This is a marriage of love, but Jack doesn’t always show his love for Sylvia as he is a shy character. At the end of the story, Jacks feeling towards Sylvia change dramatically, as the accident has made him realise how much she means to him “No, Now’s me chance to show her”
The working environments in the two stories are totally different. In “the half brothers” the story is set in Cumberland, so therefore is going to be associated with countryside and farm work. William owns a farm, and Gregory helps out the old Shepherd on the farm. In “one Wednesday afternoon” , the working places are very different. The Listers live in an industrial town, and both work in factories. The stories differ on the places of work, but the causes of the main incident or death are both related to the work area. Gregory in "The Half Brothers" dies whilst out in the countryside looking for his brother, and Sylvia gets her scalp ripped off when her hair gets caught in a machine at the factory.
In the two stories there are many different family relationships. Both of the stories contain jealousy. In "The Half Brothers", William is hugely jealous of Gregory as his mother has so much love for him. William sees Gregory as being Helens connection to her previous marriage. Also as Helen has so much love for Gregory, she has little or no love for William. In "The Half Brothers" Fanny is also jealous that Helen gets married to William and not her “Aunt Fanny was a good deal shocked at this”. The relationship between Gregory and his brother isn’t a very good one. Gregory is excluded from most family activity, so doesn’t really get the chance to know his brother. His relationship with William is very bad because he hates him.
In "One Wednesday Afternoon" Sylvia’s relationship with her mother-in-law is very bad, as Jacks mother disapproved of the marriage. She doesn’t like Sylvia as she thinks that she is not a good wife to jack. She is also jealous that Sylvia has taken her son away from her. She thinks that Sylvia should stay at home and look after the baby instead of going out to work. As they all live in the same house, the relationship between Sylvia and Jack’s mother is going to put pressure on jack because when he is pleasing one of them, he will probably be upsetting the other one. Jacks mothers sees Sylvia as a bit of a tart who is only concerned with her looks “ She wanted too much brass for lipstick an’ donnin’ up in fancy clothes”.
Both of the stories contain issues to do with health. In "The Half Brothers", there are many different illnesses. The first is of Helens first husband, who dies from tuberculosis “He fell into ill-health, and died of consumption”. The next death again affects Helen, as it is her daughter who dies, just two weeks before Gregory was born “The little girl took ill of Scarlet fever, and in a week she lay dead.” The next death in the story is of Helen herself. After going into labour early, she dies a few days after the birth of her new son from complications “My father sent for Carlisle for doctors, and would have coined his heart’s blood into gold to save her, if that could have been; but it could not”. The final death of the story is of Gregory. He sacrifices his life, in order to save his half-brother. As his brother is stranded in the cold for so long, Gregory gives him his cloak, and then dies from hypothermia. This death changes William, as it makes him realise how nasty he was to Gregory, and how sweet Gregory was that he would sacrifice his own life to save that of another “ I ask him to forgive my hardness of heart”.
The health issue in "One Wednesday Afternoon" is that of Sylvia. Whilst she is at work, she gets her long hair caught in one of the machines, and he scalp is ripped from her head “It was a nasty accident. I’m afraid a good deal of her scalp has gone”. The accident in this story is really the main focus, but all the deaths and illnesses in "The Half Brothers" are just small contributing factors to the story. After this accident in "One Wednesday Afternoon", Jack realises how much he loves Sylvia, but it has taken him almost loosing her to realise this. Jacks mother seems pleased at the accident , and sees it that Sylvia deserves it for not being what she calls a proper housewife. “It’s a judgement on her, that’s what it is…a judgement.”
There are issues of education matters in both stories to, but both the stories education matters are different in "The Half Brothers", Gregory isn’t denied of an education by William Prescot, but Gregory isn’t very bright, so he is taken out of lessons. “He could never be made to remember his lessons; the schoolmaster grew weary of scolding and flogging, and at last advised my father to take him away, and sent him to some farm work that might not be above his comprehension”. His only education from then on was of the countryside where he spent most of his days with “old Adam” learning how to look after sheep an so on. Adam was the only person who saw any good in Gregory, and would speak no bad words about him “My father would try to bring Adam round to speak of Gregory’s faults and shortcomings; but instead of that, he would praise him twice as much as soon as he found out what was my fathers object”. While Gregory receives a small education in farming, his brother receives a proper school education, and is a very bright boy . “I suppose I was a clever lad; at any rate, I always got plenty of praise; and was, as we called it , the cock of the school. The schoolmaster said I could learn anything I chose”. When Gregory’s brother gets lost, Gregory’s knowledge of the countryside helps to save his brother, but as he is so kind-hearted, ends up dying to save his brother. In "One Wednesday Afternoon", Jack has a very poor education background we can assume. We can assume this as he is just doing work in a factory, and if he was well educated, he would be doing a better job. We also can guess that he doesn’t have a very good education from when he visits his wife in hospital. He seams to be embarrassed around the young, smart doctor who he speaks to “ Are you her husband? The man nodded dumbly”. Jack appears to be so intimidated by the young doctor, that he can barely even look him in the eye “The man brought his eyes up from the floor”. Sylvia must have some kind of education to have got a job, but her job is still only in a factory, so it cant have been that good of an education.
The language used in each story is very typical of the period in which it was written, and the setting in which it was written. In "The Half Brothers", there are many Victorian style words and sayings “Died of consumption”, “Came to bear her company”,” I don’t think I ever scouted him”. Because of the Victorian influence of the story, the language is all very formal and proper, which sometimes makes the story harder to read and understand. In "One Wednesday Afternoon" the language is very different. Words which are used such as “Bairn” and “ Donnin’ up” tell us that the story is set in north England. There are lots of slang words used n this story, which makes the language very informal. The length of the sentences and paragraphs in the story vary a lot, and the use of vocabulary is very easy to understand.
Laura Miller
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