Literary analysis of “From: w.S.” by l.P. Hartley

“From: W.S.” is a story by a notorious English short-story writer L.P. Hartley. Judging by his previous works, I expected a story with deep psychological analysis, ideas of guilt, evil and solitude. The author is famous for portraying the exterior of social life as well as the underworld of fears and fantasies. I found it all in the story “From: W.S.”.

The protagonist of the story is a famous novelist, who gets 4 postcards from a stranger, which change his life. The author uses antonomasia creating the main character’s name. Walter Streeter concerns the financial sphere of life and sounds too materialistic rather than suitable for the imaginary world of a writer. The story may be divided into 4 logical parts which rely on 4 postcards with their contents and effect on the protagonist.

The first postcard comes from Forfar and doesn’t surprise Walter Streeter at all, as he is used to getting letters from fans. However, the sender accused him of disability to come to grips with people (metaphor). It made a strong impact on Walter Streeter, as he was well-aware himself, that all his characters were too homogeneous, being either “the Me” or “the Not Me” (antonomasia). So he decided to be more objective next time and create more varied personalities.

The second postcard made Walter Streeter think over his style and self-awareness of what he was writing about. The anonymous sender called him a borderline case (metaphor) that is not able to choose between the reality and the other world. After reading the postcard Walter Streeter decided to keep his feet firm on the ground (metaphor) and try to make his works more fruitful (epithet).

The third postcard from York Minster exposes Walter Streeter’s inner soul: he might have some signs of megalomania and prefers cathedrals to smaller churches. The epigram “Smaller churches are sometimes more rewarding” gives the writer a piece of advice, as he might be too arrogant to poor people or he probably pays too much attention to novels instead of writing short stories. This postcard is a starting point of Walter Streeter’s interior conflict as he comes up with an idea that this mail comes either from a mouse-like woman (simile) who is a lunatic (metaphor) or it’s the result of his split personality. From that moment he stops destroying the postcards and saves them.

The forth postcard generates fear in Walter Streeter as the sender seems a pursuer due to the geography of the incoming mail. The sender accused the writer of sending him to Coventry (metaphor) and being reluctant to answer his postcards. The reader understands that Walter Streeter is unable to literally send an answer to the postcards as there is no return address. Thus, the sender points out the writer’s inability to chance anything in his works and failing to improve his skills. A wave of panic surged up in Walter Streeter (personification) and he chooses to go to the police rather than to an alienist. This proves his fear of imperfection of his writing skills and shows his attempt to leave the border and live in reality. However, the reader has an impression that W.S. will never show up in the flesh (metaphor), as this is Walter Streeter himself.

Throughout the whole story Hartley creates suspense giving the reader small portions of facts about the writer and the postcards. Thus, the last postcard is the climax of the whole correspondence, as this is the moment when the reader makes the decision about the personality of the sender. Third person limited omniscient narrator is not incidental in the story: the author leaves it up to the reader to make conclusions judging by the events and psychological reaction of Walter Streeter to the mail. The story abounds in interrogative (Did he really fail to come to grips with people? But did that matter? What did it matter if she was a little mad?), and exclamatory (Other-worldly, indeed! I could correlate and make their conflict fruitful, as many artists have!) sentences, polysyndeton (And it was also true that he admired mere size and was inclined to undervalue parish churches. But how could W.S. have known that? And was it really a sign of megalomania?) and emotive language which help the author establish dramatic tone, which helps the reader feel the whole atmosphere and Walter Streeter’s emotional experience. The writer lacks self-criticism in his life, that’s probably the reason he has this second personality, who points his drawbacks. The author reveals the theme of difficult interrelation of the material world we live in and the poetic soul of artists. Walter Streeter seems too practical for a novelist. The author sends a message to us: we should be more realistic choosing our path in life and be ready to adequately accept criticism.