Understanding the story

1. Who is the "Commander" at the beginning of the story?

2. What is the "Commander" doing, and how does this compare with Walter Mitty's actual activity? Does the comparison make you smile? Why?

3. Does Mrs Mitty know what her husband is thinking about? How does explain his condition?

4. Who do you think Dr Renshaw is?

5. Who "wears the trousers" in the Mitty household? Give evidence from text.

6. What is the next "role" which Walter Mitty plays? How does he build up his image in his own imagination?

7. What similarities do you notice in the second "daydream" when you compare it with the first?

8. Is Walter Mitty concentrating on his driving? Give evidence from the text.

9. In what way does Mitty think of transferring his fantasies into real life?

10. What sort of person would you say Walter Mitty is? Compare him with the parking-lot attendant, the "young, grinning garageman" and his own wife.

11. Why does he suddenly imagine himself in a court-house?

12. How does his third daydream help him remember what he has to buy?

13. What effect does Walter Mitty have on the passing woman and her companion?

14. The fourth daydream is similar to the first. Where do you think Walter Mitty gets his ideas for his "secret life" from?

15. "Things close in", says Walter Mitty when his wife finally discovers him "hiding" in the big leather armchair. How do you interpret this statement?

16. Why does Mrs Mitty want to take her husband's temperature?

17. What starts off his fifth daydream? Is he angry because his wife has left him standing out in the rain, or how does his daydream reflect his feelings at that moment?

18. Is he really "Walter Mitty the Undefeated"?

Style and language

1. How does Thurber show that Mrs Mitty is the dominant partner in the marriage? Look especially at their dialogues.

2. Look at the words used in the daydreams and pick out examples of cliches that may have been taken from popular novels or film dialogues. These expressions are not Thurber's but Mitty's. What does this tell you about the author's attitude towards his "hero"? Is he laughing at Mitty or does he sympathize with him?

3. What stylistic methods does the author use to link the episodes in Walter Mitty's "secret life" to reality? In what way do they increase the humorous effect of the story?

Further discussion

1. Compare Walter Mitty with Farrington in Joyce's story "Counterparts". In what ways are they in a similar situation and how do they escape from it? Which character do you sympathize with and why?

2. Do you have a "secret world" into which you can escape? What sort of roles would you like to play in your "secret life"?

3. What are the dangers of having a "secret life"? What are the alternatives?

4. Thurber was obsessed with "dominant women" "His female characters seem to be even more domineering than emancipated women today". Do you think that this criticism is fair? How would you treat your husband`s wife if you were married?

5. Does Thurber intend us to see Mitty as a comic or a tragic figure? Find evidence from the text.