The short story “The Lady with the Red Shoes“ written by Ita Daily published in 1975 deals with the conflict between conservative traditions of former times and liberal modernity.
The plot is told from the perspective of the main protagonist who spents his holidaiy in Mc Andrews Hotel in County Mayo without his family due to unfortunate circumstances. Firstly, everything proceeds as usual. However, the guests of the hotel are disturbed when a remarkable American woman has entered for dinner, who attracts the attention by her glaorous and modern outward appearance and by her unpleasent behaviour. Her extraordinary orders anger the waitor Murphy and eventually she leaves the dining-room furiously because she is not allowed to smoke inside. Thereafter, the protagonist follows her an keeps an eye on her and imagines that he has already passed the poor girl during his childhood. Thus, she has to be an emigrant who rises from property and prosperity during her lifetime in America and afterwards temporarily returns to Ireland. When she was a child, she looked up tp Mc Andrews as a symbol of wealth and now she has come back to fulfill her dream of once being noble and having a nice dinner to impress everyone with her riches. Indeed, she is disappointed by her visit and hence, being aware of this, the protagonist feels with her and desires to talk to her, but nevertheless, he never did.
Schreibe einen Kommentar