In the Days of the Comet · Chapter
V explained
Willie Leadford returns home late after parting with Parload, reflecting on his strained relationship with his mother.
What happens
Willie Leadford returns home late after parting with Parload, reflecting on his strained relationship with his mother. He describes their basement home, the curate Mr. Gabbitas, and his own bitter resentment toward the social order. He harshly rebuffs his mother's concern, slams his door, and lies in bed raging at his troubles before falling asleep. The chapter explores the generational conflict and the oppressive conditions that stifled thought and compassion before the Change.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Inequality
Willie's bitterness is rooted in the class system that makes him a 'wages serf' and his mother a broken, submissive figure.
Memory and Retrospection
The narrator looks back from a post-Change perspective, reflecting on the harshness of his former self and the inevitability of generational conflict.
Transformation and Renewal
The chapter foreshadows the 'Change' that will transform human nature, contrasting the narrator's past cruelty with his present understanding.
Characters to notice
- Willie Leadford
Narrator and protagonist; returns home in a bitter mood, reflects on his harsh treatment of his mother and his resentment toward society.
- Mrs. Leadford
Willie's mother; portrayed as worn down by poverty and the existing order, anxious and submissive, yet caring.
- Mr. Gabbitas
The curate who lodges on the ground floor; seen printing photographs, dismissed by Willie as a 'hireling liar.'
- Parload
Mentioned as the friend from whom Willie parted earlier; Willie feels remorse for his arrogance toward him.
- Nettie Stuart
Mentioned in Willie's thoughts as a source of his bitterness, along with her letter and her relationship with Verrall.
- Rawdon
Mentioned as an object of Willie's contempt and resentment.
Key passages
“the sheer brutality of the accepted thing. The existing order dominated her into a worship of abject observances.”
The harshness of the social system forced her into a fearful obedience to its rules.
Willie reflects on how society crushed his mother's spirit.
“I pushed by her harshly. I answered her curtly, left her concerned and perplexed in the passage, and slammed my door upon her.”
I brushed past her rudely, gave her short answers, and shut myself in my room.
Willie describes his callous treatment of his mother upon returning home.
“I do not blame myself for behaving like this to my mother, though my conscience blames me acutely for my arrogance to Parload.”
I don't regret how I treated my mother, but I do feel guilty for being arrogant with Parload.
Willie distinguishes between his remorse toward Parload and his lack of remorse toward his mother.
“We did not think then that minds might grow ripe without growing rigid, or children honor their parents and still think for themselves.”
Back then, we didn't believe people could mature without becoming inflexible, or that children could respect their parents while having independent thoughts.
Willie contrasts the limited thinking of the old era with the possibilities after the Change.
