In the story Hardy Reverend Tywcott is considered to have committed ‘social suicide’ by marrying out of his class Tywcott realises this and moves to London to stop the gossip about the marriage because they no nothing about them but they also lose there pretty quite country home to live in some narrow dark street.
After years of marriage they have a child called Randolph which adds further misery to her life later on she never really adjusts to life as the vicars wife which means being a middle class citizen from a working class background. When Randolph is of an adolescent age he corrects his mother for her wrong use of words ‘has mother not have’ he is ashamed of her and never shows any respect towards soon after. Reverend Tywcott dies Randolph is at a public school so Sophie is left home a lone she has no friends as Tywcott was to ashamed to go out with her she starts to think about moving back to Gaymead.
Sophie is looking out at the fruit and vegetables carts, One day she is looking out and sees Sam Hobson her Fiancee from her younger days they decide to go out for a trip to Covent Garden and rebuild their friendship and make up for lost time eventually there relationship progresses and Sam asks for her hand in marriage for the second time Sophie accepts but says she must talk it over with Randolph who prohibits the marriage to protect the name of himself as he expects Sophie to marry a gentleman Randolph starts to insult his own mother ‘I’m ashamed of you! You’ll ruin me’ ‘It will degrade me in the eyes of the gentleman of England’.
For Years Sophie pleads for Randolph to accept that she wants to marry Sam but Randolph is suspicious that she might marry with out his permission he forces her to swear on a the crucifix that she will not marry Sam that he is doing it to protect his fathers memory.
In the closing lines Sophie passes away and her lasts words are ‘why maynt I say to Sam tat ill marry him why maynt I’ It is obvious Sophie has died lonely without one shred of happiness in her life the fact that Sam the one person that loves her for what she really is not even invited to her funereal and Randolph has so little respect for his mother or cannot even forgive Sam even tough he plans to be a priest who cannot prejudge anyone.
It is such a tragic end to the story and someone who couldn’t be any kinder ends up paying a large price for one mistake she makes when she young. Who ends up being like a second class citizen by her Husband and son when there is the possibility that she could have had happiness if she was to have to married Sam from the start.
In ‘A Chip in the sugar’ Graham is telling this story in a monologue Graham is a middle aged man with some kind to have some kind of mental illness he has a very liberal view and shares his opinions with his mum who he lives with, Vera Grahams mum suffers from memory problems and the two of them are dependent on each other there life is pretty stable.
Vera sees an old friend Frank Turnball on a day out with Graham he comes up and makes one short statement ‘Filey 1934 no sand in the bedrooms!’ they both start to burst laughing. Graham already feels threatened by him and the more involved the two of them become the worse it becomes. With Frank around he starts taking out to new places puts a bit of adventure back into Veras life and the relationship has changed from ‘thinking the world of each of other’ Graham starts complaining ‘that doctor says I need a stable environment its not with your fancy men popping around every 5 minutes’ Vera thinks Graham is overreacting and replies with ‘you think you have got one over me Graham Whitteker’she knows the truth about Grahams sexuality but does want to say anything either because she believes it is wrong or she feels it is none of he buisness.
Grahams mental problems means he has to visit the local community center reguarly to vent out all his problems which Graham has a problem with opening up his feelings so spends many sessions pretty quite but this time he calls out as soon as the seesion begins Graham feels this is a very serious problem that his mum is not as dedicated to Graham as he would like and feels he is no competition to Frank Graham opens up and is looking for support from the group and ends being criticised and he is told he shouldn’t be so over protective of his mum and be happy for her Janice (a women at the group) asks if they are having sexual intercourse Graham understanbly replys ‘I don’t even want to think about it’, then the rest of the group accuse him of being scared of sex which is a bit unfair cosidering he wouldn’t pass judgement on someone, it is possible they don’t know about Frank his views on society are extreme compared to grahams and feels that this may influience his mother.
One night Franks daughter appears at Grahams doorstep and tells him about her dad and his habbit of leading vunrable women on false hopes, news which will come as a relief to Graham as it will be the end of his relationship with Grahams mum but knows it will be hard to tell his mum about Frank but when he does Vera lifts the lid on ‘getting one over graham whitteker she says I know about the gay pornography in his room Graham just goes upstairs saying nothing as usual and that is as far as they clashed but don’t want to make a big deal out of it.
The next morning Vera says to Graham ‘I do love you Graham’ and the two of them plan on going to Ripon for the day Vera says ‘we like old buildings don’t we’, and life for Graham and Vera is back to normal.
The two stories have their simularities the biggest one is the both the mothers marriages coolapse for two different reasons in the sons veto Randolph phrobited the marriage of Sam had done nothing to offend Randolph, Sophie despratly wanted to marry sam but he kept vetoing the marriage in case it dented his reputations. Whilst in the ‘chip in the sugar’ Graham doesn’t stop the marriage he don’t like the fact his mum is seeing some one but it turns out Frank has a reputation of leading women astray and unlike a sons veto Vera still has someone in Graham whereas Sophie ends up dying a very lonely old women.
