Shades

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Walter, still trying to avoid contact with Frances, is trapped into teaching her a certain piece of piano music. Victor catches them together, realises that Walter is a threat to his claim on Frances, and so formulates a cunning plan to claim her permanently for himself. In the meantime, word reaches St Matthias that Reverend Hubert Brompton of Mbokothwe has gone mad, and Walter sets off to rescue him.

Victor is related to Frances only through marriage but they had been together since early childhood. Indeed, Frances looked upon him as an older brother. The isolation of the mission, however, sometimes draws disparate people towards each other.

Victor is about 21 while Frances is 18 years of age. Each are reaching the stage where sexual urges are beginning to emerge. Frances is still innocent but the same cannot be said of Victor.

It quickly becomes evident that Victor has already had a sexual relationship with the former wheelwright's daughter. Indeed, he was probably saved from an embarrassing marriage only by her father's assault on Sonwabo and the family's dismissal from the mission.

The event, however, initiated Victor into the sexual world and he wants more. With the wheelwright's daughter gone, there is no-one else on the mission except Frances.

Initially Walter was not perceived as a threat. When Victor catches Walter teaching Frances to play the piano, however, he realises by the expression on both their faces that the missionary is indeed an adversary.

The young man's manipulative skills are therefore stretched to the maximum. He must make an urgent plan which will not only rid him of his adversary but will secure Frances to him for all time.

It is the moment for his greatest game which he dares not lose. His goal is Frances but in this game she must lose her reputation forever. She must become his — and he will achieve this by forcing her to have sexual intercourse with him. Thereafter her only salvation in a hostile Victorian world will be through marriage to him.

Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?

Read the notes in the left column before answering the questions below:

What effect does the piano lesson have on Walter and Frances? Motivate your answer. (6)

[Need help?]

You have to bear in mind that Walter has been trying resolutely to put Frances out of his mind. Such determination is completely blown by this piano-playing incident, sitting so close to her — bordering again on a close friendship. Frances, on the other hand, is already harbouring a profound sense of guilt for her sensual actions in being kissed by Victor. She is in need of a friendship with someone in whom she can confide, with someone she can trust — and, of course, with someone who is her intellectual equal. For this brief moment, she finds all this in Walter.

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Why does Victor become intensely jealous when he finds Frances and Walter together at the piano? (5)

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Is this not the realisation on Victor's part that he is losing Frances? Frances had always been there for him. It was always presumed that they would marry, and he believed he would rescue Frances from the mission station through marrying her. The realisation suddenly dawns on him, however, that it is he who needs rescuing by Frances but that he is on the point of losing her unless he acts quickly and decisively.

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Victor initiates a plan to trap Frances to him for all time.

• What is this plan? (4)



• Why will it work? (NOTE: you need a thorough knowledge of Victorian morality to answer this question.) (4)

[Need help?]

It seems that Victor is pretty astute in the morality of the time — or at least he knows the way in which Frances thinks. If he can trap her into having sexual intercourse with him, she will view it as a consummation of a marriage to him. She will therefore be his for all time. The wedding ceremony would then be a mere formality, to happen at some later date. His plan therefore must be sex with Frances — even forcing himself upon her if need be.

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Why is Frances so important to Victor? Explain carefully. (5)

[Need help?]

There is a very clear chink in Victor's armour. He presents a confident exterior. Everybody admires him. He appears to be the master of his own circumstances. Inside, however, is a gnawing insecurity. Only Frances gives him completeness and he cannot bear the thought of a lifetime without her at his side.

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What words tell us clearly that Victor did indeed have sex with the wheelwright's daughter? (5)

[Need help?]

Look at words such as: "his initiation into manhood had been swift"; "a trysting place was easy to arrange"; ". . . that recall preyed on him relentlessly. The power of it. The ascendency."

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Why does Crispin offer to accompany Walter to Mbokothwe? (4)

[Need help?]

Crispin offered to shoot birds for the pot, didn't he? But do you think he had any other reasons for going — such as getting away from St Matthias, being able to be independent, escaping the place of his constant humiliation?

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