Molly is in a world of her own and is scared and very vulnerable to harm. When she is on the cliff she is petrified of its height and as personification is used it creates an even more dramatic scene; ‘sheer, sheer, the white cliff rising’. Unfortunately Lacey is very insensitive to Molly’s needs and is almost oblivious to her feelings.
GAP
‘Weekend’ was written by Fay Weldon and shows the relationship between a married couple; Martin and Martha. Martin is very dictatorial and always seems to belittle his wife and patronise her; ‘“don’t get like your mother darling”’. Martha wants to be seen as a ‘proper’ mother and so gives her children; ‘educational games and whole-wheat biscuits’. Martin is very rude to Martha, arrogant, and is definitely the dominating partner in the relationship, who gives out all of the orders; ‘“What kind of person am I married to?”’ We can see that Martin controls the relationship and that Martha only carries out an action once Martin has ‘allowed it’. When another couple arrive at the cottage one night we can see that Martha is not just belittled by Martin but by outsides also. One example of this is Katie, Martins oldest friends new young wife; ‘Katie was languid, beautiful and elegant.’ Katie talks down to Martha because she thinks that she is better than her; ‘as if speaking to a servant in a time of shortage of staff’. Martin is very bossy towards Martha and fussy; ‘“cook the mushrooms separately, remember, with lemon. Otherwise the water from the mushrooms gets into the egg and spoils everything.’” Martha feels that she always has to remain happy incase she ‘spoils everyone’s weekend’ and this is because she is put under so much pressure to love and please her husband, children and friends.
Martha is a very self-conscious and an unconfident female in this short story. She is very timid and anxious to please everybody but as there is so much for her to do and to remember it is just like a constant reel of thoughts and worries and her life becomes more and more unmanageable; ‘home on the bus at six-twelve and prepare tea and sandwiches for the family: then she would strip four beds and put the sheets and quilt covers in the washing machine for Monday: take the country bedding acquired at intervals throughout the week…’ Her mind is focused on the jobs that she has to do and she realises that nothing will get done if she relaxes because the rest of the family do not contribute one bit; ‘But no potatoes peeled, no breakfast cleared, nothing. Cigarette ends still amongst old toast, bacon rind and marmalade. “You could have done the potatoes,” Martha burst out’. She tries to act as if everything is perfect just so that she can concentrate on pleasing everybody else so much, but she forgets to enjoy herself. She doesn’t want to argue, but Martin is a very explosive character, which makes it particularly difficult; ‘Oh bad temper! Prime sin! They looked at her in amazement and dislike. Martin too.’
Martha is treated as the ‘scape-goat’ and is undermined by Martin every times she speaks; ‘“Martha did you really net them? Be honest, now!”’ All of the family problems are passed onto Martha and if anything goes wrong she is blamed; ‘Martin frowned at Martha; he thought the appearance of martyrdom in the face of guests to be an unforgivable offence. She feels that she must compare herself to Katie because Katie has the perfect figure and personality and I think that Martha is scared that Martin will take off with Katie if she is a better wife; ‘And Martin flashed Martha a distant, spiritual smile. His hand lay on Katie’s slim brown arm, with its many gold bands.’ The children laugh at her; ‘funny, lively laughing Daddy being witty about Mummy’s car. Mummy done for drunken driving.’ Martha is even supposed to do the gardening it seems, even though she does every other task every single day; ‘pulled out pansies in mistake’.
Martin is the dominant member in the relationship. He is very scrupulous, dictatorial and down right rude; ‘Domestic details like this were very boring, and any mild complaint was registered by Martin as a scene. And to make a scene was so ungrateful.’ He is very patronising towards Martha and causes her to feel inadequate. He is also extremely arrogant and does not seem to appreciate Martha as much as he should. He tries to sound as if he’s being nice to Martha but the reality is that he’s just two faced. He looks down on Martha and makes her feel as if she has to get everything perfect in life; ‘Pork is such a dull meat if you don’t cook it properly.’ When Katie arrives at the cottage she immediately takes all of the attention and seems to be rather too self-assured. Katie is manipulative and somewhat horrible to Colin. Martin is very lazy; ‘Martin would switch off the television’, ironic; ‘Martin had had a long hard week’ and very temperamental.
GAP
Martin and Martha are a very strange couple, and Martha just seems to live to please Martin. It is very coincidental that their names begin ‘Mart’ because this makes the couple seem stereotypical, but after close analysis we can see that this couple is anything but ordinary. Colin’s children also have the same stereotypical names; ‘Mary and Joanna and Janet’. The difference in the cars they drive shows a glimpse of how different their lives are; ‘Martin had a little sports car for London and work: it could nip in and out of the traffic nicely: Martha’s was an old estate car, with room for the children, picnic baskets, bedding, food, games, plants, drink…’ When Katie and Colin appear on the scene they seem to be a perfect couple at first, but soon we notice that they don’t want the same kind of lifestyle; ‘“I’m never going to get married,” and Colin looked yearningly because he wanted to marry her more than anything in the world’. Katie seems like something out of cosmopolitan; ‘Katie found the rice dish rather strange, toyed at it with her fork, and talked about Italian Restaurants she knew.’
Martha is very tense and her family don’t really seem to care. In fact they just seem to laugh at her as if she is a joke; ‘Mummy, with the roots of melancholy somewhere deep beneath the bustling, busy, everyday self.’ We can notice how the roles of men and women have changed so much over time as in Samphire Molly is supposed to ‘Love, honour and obey’ Lacey, whereas in Weekend, Martha has a job, looks after the children and loves her husband; ‘Amazing how Martha’s wages were creeping up, almost to the level of Martin’s. One day they would overtake. Then what?’ We can see in Weekend that Martha is worried of losing her husband to Katie and this shows how women think they should be. When Martin is thinking about Martha he doesn’t seem to be attracted to her anymore and instead just thinks of her as someone to look after the family; ‘Reassuring, mind; but the skimpy nightie and the broad rump and the thirty-eight years are all rather embarrassing.’