In the Days of the Comet · Chapter
II explained
Willie Leadford, reeling from Nettie Stuart's letter ending their engagement and from Rawdon's refusal to raise his wages, visits his friend Parload.
What happens
Willie Leadford, reeling from Nettie Stuart's letter ending their engagement and from Rawdon's refusal to raise his wages, visits his friend Parload. Parload is absorbed in observing a new comet through his opera-glass, but Willie is too consumed by his personal grievances to share his enthusiasm. The chapter recounts the history of Willie and Nettie's romance, from their first kiss to their secret correspondence, and reflects on the darker, more intense world before the Great Change.
Themes in this chapter
Memory and Retrospection
Willie reflects on his past romance with Nettie and contrasts the intensity of old-world emotions with the peace after the Great Change.
Social Class and Inequality
Class distinctions are evident in Willie's mother's lower status as a landlady versus Mrs. Stuart's position, and in Rawdon's refusal to raise wages.
Science vs. Socialism
Parload's scientific obsession with the comet contrasts with Willie's personal and socialist grievances, highlighting a tension between cosmic wonder and earthly concerns.
Characters to notice
- Willie Leadford
Narrator and protagonist, deeply wounded by Nettie's dismissal and Rawdon's refusal, seeking to assert himself.
- Parload
Willie's friend, an enthusiastic amateur astronomer obsessed with the new comet.
- Nettie Stuart
Willie's former sweetheart, who has broken off their engagement via letter.
- Rawdon
Willie's employer, who refused to raise Willie's wages.
- Mrs. Leadford
Willie's widowed mother, who lets lodgings and maintains a friendship with Nettie's mother.
- Mrs. Verrall
Rich widow for whom Nettie's father works as head gardener.
Key passages
“She thought we were not suited to each other, we differed so in tastes and ideas, she had long thought of releasing me from our engagement. In fact, though I really did not apprehend it fully at the first shock, I was dismissed.”
Nettie wrote that they were incompatible and she had been considering ending their engagement; Willie was shocked to realize he had been rejected.
Willie's initial reaction to Nettie's breakup letter.
“I felt I was suddenly repudiated by the universe and threatened with effacement, that in some positive and emphatic way I must at once assert myself.”
Willie felt rejected by everything and compelled to prove his worth through decisive action.
Willie's emotional state after both personal and professional setbacks.
“Parload stood at the open window, opera-glass in hand, and sought and found and was uncertain about and lost again, the new comet.”
Parload was at the window with his opera-glass, trying to locate the comet, repeatedly finding and losing it.
Parload's intense focus on stargazing.
“It was the deeps that had seized him, the immensities, and the mysterious possibilities that might float unlit in that unplumbed abyss.”
Parload was captivated by the vastness of space and the unknown things that might exist in its depths.
Description of Parload's astronomical obsession.
“The great Change has come forever more, happiness and beauty are our atmosphere, there is peace on earth and good will to all men.”
Since the Great Change, the world is filled with happiness, beauty, and universal peace and goodwill.
Willie's retrospective view of the transformed world.
