The Old Wives' Tale

The first three chapters introduce Constance and Sophia in their youth. One of the novel’s major themes is an examination of the changes of life, and these chapters set the baseline for that examination. Constance and Sophia display contrasting character traits: Sophia is more independent, impulsive, and headstrong, while Constance is more even-keeled, subdued, and good-natured toward others. The stories in Chapters 1-3 reveal, however, the shades of variation within that contrast; the girls are complex enough to surprise themselves—and one another. Although Sophia is the more impulsive of the two, she has other traits—such as a firmness of resolve—that foreshadow later developments. Constance, though more levelheaded, can also be swift and resolute in her actions, as when she seizes the stolen tooth and throws it out the window. This view of their characters, defined by both dominant and lesser traits, presents them as realistic and rounded characters.

Their respective traits remain essentially constant throughout the novel: Although future situations call for greater use of some traits than others, the nature of their temperaments remains the same. This contrasts with their outward appearance and physical condition, to which Bennett also draws attention in his preface: “[T]here is an extreme pathos in the mere fact that every stout ageing woman was once a young girl with the unique charm of youth in her form and movements and in her mind” (32). In these early chapters, the sisters are beautiful and full of vigor, but by the novel’s end, these physical traits have radically transformed. This dynamic, of changing physical traits but unchanging temperaments, marks a key feature of Bennett’s theme on life’s changes: The transformations are radical from one perspective, but through it all the characters remain constant.

A second major theme ties into Bennett’s early exploration of the girls’ characters: the mystery of other minds—that is, the way our perceptions of others are always limited and imperfect. Bennett emphasizes the many ways that his characters fail to understand each other. The way that Constance and Sophia shock each other with their actions during Samuel’s toothache incident is particularly striking: “It was a revealing experience for Sophia—and also for Constance. And it frightened them equally” (67). Sophia’s misunderstanding with both her parents about her plan to become a teacher is another example of the failure to understand what’s going on in other people’s minds.

Another theme that appears prominently in these early chapters is the effect of place on one’s life. Bennett offers long expository sequences on the location of St. Luke’s Square in Bursley. He includes a detailed description of the Baines’s house and its rooms, as if the structure of the building shapes the structure of the plot itself, given the dynamic tension between the activity of the shop and the immobility of the father’s bedroom. Bursley’s geography directly connects with the character of the people who live there, an idea that Chapter 1 hints at but that grows stronger throughout the book.

One of the novel’s most significant symbols—that of signs—appears for the first time in this section. Bennett notes changes in the signage on the family business as a way of marking larger changes happening in the lives of his characters. In Chapter 1, Bennett notes that the Baines’s shop doesn’t have a sign, as the old signboard blew down in a gale. John Baines chose not to replace it, a decision that became part of the Baines family’s self-perception in that it was seen as a noble act:

This abstention of Mr. Baines’s from indulgence in signboards was somehow accepted by the more thoughtful members of the community as evidence that the height of Mr. Baines’s principles was greater even than they had imagined (41).

This traditional absence of the signboard will become important when a decision is made in Book 2 to place a new sign on the shop.