Shades

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Walter takes leave of St Matthias. He journeys to King William's Town where he catches the train to Grahamstown to visit the Bishop en route to Port Elizabeth and his ship to England.

In the meantime, Victor sends a telegram to Frances requesting her to meet the train. She, believing she is to meet Victor, decides that it is time to end the charade and break off her engagement to him.

A local study-guide explains that Frances believed the telegram was from Walter.

It claims that Frances dressed in her mission clothes because she knew she would be meeting Walter and wanted to be ready to return with him to the mission.

The guide also claims that she refused Aunt Alice's offer of the trap because she knew that, once she was married to Walter, they wouldn't be able to afford such transport. She must therefore get used to walking.

What nonsense! Has the author of the guide even read Shades?

Here are some points which clearly contradict such a view:

• As Frances heads off to the station, says Marguerite Poland, she did not think what she would say when she met Victor. (p. 441)



• She could not tuck her hand within the crook of Victor's arm and walk along the platform and go home with him. (p. 441) Is it likely she'd say this if she expected to meet Walter?



• She could not let Victor kiss her and surrender to the need to hold and touch and feel for, if she did, she would be a liar and a thief. (p. 441) Is it likely she'd think this of Walter?



• Once at the station, she waits for the train. "What would she say when Victor stepped off the train and saw her there?" the author writes. (p. 442) Note, she does not speak of expecting Walter to step off the train.



• Frances scans the faces of the soldiers alighting from the train. "No, he was not among them. They looked shabby and older and shorter and less valiant than Victor. Perhaps he had changed his mind and stayed at St Matthias." (p. 443)



• The passengers disperse. "No — no Victor," Marguerite Poland writes. "He must have missed the train."

Frances is clearly expecting to meet Victor and not Walter! Please do not be fooled by incorrect study-guides! And treat all study guides — even this one — with suspicion.

Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?

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

"Oh, Victor knew why Walter had gone from Mbokothwe. Victor knew!"

• Explain how Victor knew. (4)

[Need help?]

Do you not think that the letter of farewell from Benedict had something to do with it? For the first time in his life Victor realised that, to be a man, one had to step away from what one holds as secure and move into the unknown. Benedict was doing it — so perhaps Victor should do the same. If Victor were to face up to reality, he would see several things: Frances did not love him; He himself was not marrying Frances for love but for psychological security; It was Frances and Walter who should be marrying; Walter was leaving Mbokothwe because he couldn't bear to be there any longer without Frances; Walter was being a gentleman by stepping aside to allow Victor to marry Frances — perhaps it was now time for Victor to be a gentleman!

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"The telegram to Frances arranging for her to meet Walter at the station was the first honourable thing Victor had ever done."

• Comment. (5)

[Need help?]

Was Victor's decision to set Frances free really all that honourable? Or had he rather decided to set himself free? After all, Victor had moved up in the world — and was already dating the Warburton daughter. Indeed, the Warburton girl held far greater promise for a bright future than Victor's marriage to a naive mission girl — who in any case would probably never forgive him for what he had done to her. If this is true, then Victor has not done an honourable thing at all but has merely set it up so that Walter and Frances would meet each other, thereby freeing himself to marry the Warburton girl and pursue his dream of empire building. After all, Frances would not be a great empire builder. Moreover, she also held it in her hands to make Victor's life eternally miserable. With this interpretation, Victor remains the great manipulator right to the very end!

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Why does the telegram "belong in the musical-box"? (3)

[Need help?]

Consider the meaning of the musical box: It had been brought back from Mbokothwe by Walter; Her brother Crispin had spent so much time in restoring it; It represented a moment in their lives when Walter had given Victor a dressing down for being a total prat.

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Frances, in dressing to go to the station, rejects all the fancy clothes which Aunt Alice has prepared. Instead she dons her old travelling dress.

• Why does she do this? (5)

[Need help?]

Frances believes that it is Victor she will meet at the station and she intends to break up with him. Then she will return to St Matthias. Is it not logical, therefore, that she would don her comfortable mission clothes and be herself again, free from the finery that she had so detested for the past eighteen months? Indeed, at long last Frances has matured and has decided to do things in a way that comforts her — including the way she dresses.

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Explain why Frances insists on going to the station alone? (4)

[Need help?]

Frances intends to break up with Victor. If she allows Aunt Alice to accompany her, her aunt will surely side with Victor and argue Frances out of the plan. Then it will be two against one, leaving no chance of her winning. It was therefore critically important that Frances be alone during this important moment of her life so that she can confront Victor face to face and with no-one to take his side of the argument.

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Why does she reject the offer of the trap but chooses instead to walk to the station? (4)

[Need help?]

For much the same reason as the above. Indeed, it was useful to walk because she could then plan precisely what she would say to Victor when she saw him. It also gave her the opportunity to psyche herself up before she met Victor.

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When does Frances realise that it is Walter and not Victor who is to meet her at the station? (3)

[Need help?]

All the passengers from the train pass her until there is no-one left. She watches each to see whether Victor is among them. And then she sees Walter dressed in his familiar mission garb, stopping to light his pipe. It is only then that she realises that it is Walter at the station and not Victor.

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Is the ending to the novel pure soap-opera — sentimental and slushy? (30)

[Need help?]

Please don't say that it is! It's a truly wonderful story. In any case, Shades is not really a love story, is it? The love part is just a section of the novel. It is also a story of arrogance, deceit, hardship, and a whole host of other things besides. Can you think what these other things are?

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