Portrait of a Disciplinarian explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Family and Duty

  Frederick is compelled by family obligation to visit his old nurse, despite his strong aversion, highlighting the theme of duty to family.

• Gender Roles and Power

  Nurse Wilks exerts authority over both Frederick and Jane, reversing typical gender power dynamics, while Frederick's masculine superiority clashes with Jane's pride.

• Absurdity of Modern Life

  The absurdity of a grown man being locked in a cupboard by his nurse and forced to kiss a woman he dislikes underscores the comic absurdity of social conventions.

Characters to notice

• Mr. Mulliner

  Narrates the story after returning from a visit to his old nurse in Devonshire.

• Frederick Mulliner

  The nephew who is tricked into visiting Nurse Wilks and confronts his former fiancée Jane Oliphant.

• Jane Oliphant

  Frederick's former fiancée, now engaged to Dillingwater, who meets him at Nurse Wilks's house.

• Wilks

  The old family nurse, a disciplinarian who forces Frederick and Jane to make up and locks Frederick in a cupboard.

• Dr. George Mulliner

  Frederick's brother, a doctor who lures him to Bingley-on-Sea to visit Nurse Wilks.

Key passages

• “It was with something of the relief of fogbound city-dwellers who at last behold the sun that we perceived, on entering the bar-parlour of the Anglers’ Rest, that Mr. Mulliner was seated once more in the familiar chair.”

  The patrons of the Anglers' Rest were as relieved to see Mr. Mulliner back as city people are to see the sun after days of fog.

  Sets the scene for Mr. Mulliner's return and the beginning of his story.

• “I cannot pretend that it was an altogether agreeable experience. I was conscious throughout of a sense of strain. The poor old thing is almost completely deaf, and her memory is not what it was. Moreover, it is a moot point whether a man of sensibility can ever be entirely at his ease in the presence of a woman who has frequently spanked him with the flat side of a hairbrush.”

  Mr. Mulliner admits his visit to his old nurse was uncomfortable because she is deaf and forgetful, and it's awkward to face someone who used to spank him.

  Introduces the theme of the nurse's enduring authority over grown men.

• “He may grow grey or bald and be looked up to by the rest of his world as a warm performer on the Stock Exchange or a devil of a fellow in the sphere of Politics or the Arts, but to his old Nanna he will still be the Master James or Master Percival who had to be hounded by threats to keep his face clean.”

  No matter how successful a man becomes, his old nurse still sees him as the messy child she once cared for.

  Highlights the timeless, infantilizing relationship between a nurse and her former charge.

• “Then the position, as I see it, is this. On the pretext of wishing to discuss urgent business with me, you have dragged me down to this foul spot—seventy miles by rail in a compartment containing three distinct infants sucking sweets—merely to have tea with a nurse whom I have disliked since I was a child.”

  Frederick accuses his brother George of tricking him into a long train journey just to have tea with a nurse he has always hated.

  Frederick's complaint sets up the conflict of the story.

• “She will probably offer you boiled eggs and homemade cake. Eat them.”

  George warns Frederick that he must eat whatever Nurse Wilks serves, even if it's boiled eggs at tea time.

  Illustrates the absurd demands of the visit and the need to humor the nurse.

• “To her you are. She looks on all of us as children still. Last Christmas she gave me a copy of Eric, or Little by Little.”

  George explains that Nurse Wilks still treats them like children, as shown by the childish gift she gave him.

  Reinforces the theme of the nurse's unchanging perception.