Kipps · Chapter
II: The Callers explained
Kipps and Ann sit at dinner discussing two postcards—one from young Walshingham, who has snubbed him, and one from Chitterlow, which is nearly illegible.
What happens
Kipps and Ann sit at dinner discussing two postcards—one from young Walshingham, who has snubbed him, and one from Chitterlow, which is nearly illegible. Kipps broods over his social failures, his house-building anxieties, and his strained marriage. A petty quarrel over cards and buttered toast escalates into a silent, bitter standoff. The chapter ends with a narrator's reflection on the 'Beast' of stupidity and social conditioning that traps the Kippses in misery.
Themes in this chapter
Social Class and Mobility
Kipps is tormented by the social penalties of marrying beneath his class, as dramatized by the novel he reads and Coote's coldness; his house-building symbolizes his failed attempt at upward mobility.
Love and Marriage
The chapter depicts the strained marriage of Kipps and Ann, culminating in a petty quarrel and silent misery, contrasting with the idealized 'nice girl' engagement in the novel.
Identity and Authenticity
Kipps feels like an outcast, unable to be himself or live authentically; he is crushed by the expectations of society and the 'proper' identity he cannot attain.
Characters to notice
- Arthur Kipps
Feels remorse and social inadequacy after reading a novel that condemns marrying beneath one's class; broods over his house, his failed engagement to Helen, and his low marriage to Ann; quarrels with Ann over cards and buttered toast.
- Ann Pornick
Wears a loose robe on Sid Pornick's advice; becomes touchy and tearful; quarrels with Kipps over cards and buttered toast; quietly sobs in the night.
- Chester Coote
Mentioned as having cut Kipps; his frozen visage haunts Kipps's remorse; associated with the oppressive social ideals that torment Kipps.
- Helen Walshingham
Referenced in Kipps's thoughts about his bad behavior toward her and his broken engagement.
- Sid Pornick
Mentioned as the source of advice for Ann's loose robe; his wedding gift (Chinese jars) is in the room.
- Harry Chitterlow
Sends an illegible postcard to Kipps, likely about his play; Kipps cannot read it.
Key passages
“He saw himself and Ann living out their shameful lives in this great crazy place—as it would be—with everybody laughing secretly at them and their eleven rooms, and nobody approaching them—nobody nice and right that is, forever.”
Kipps imagines a future where he and Ann are isolated and mocked in their oversized house, shunned by respectable society.
Highlights Kipps's fear of social ostracism and regret over his marriage and house-building.
“The stupid little tragedies of these clipped and limited lives! What is the good of keeping up the idyllic sham and pretending that ill-educated, misdirected people 'get along very well,' and that all this is harmlessly funny and nothing more?”
The narrator rejects the notion that the Kippses' struggles are merely comic, insisting on the real pain and tragedy of their constrained existence.
The narrator's direct commentary breaks the comedic tone to reveal the underlying seriousness of the characters' plight.