The Marry Month of May explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Deception and Appearance vs. Reality

  May is personified as a deceiver, making people act against their usual nature. Mr. Coulson's romantic advances and Miss Coulson's icy plot both involve deception—the former self-deception, the latter a literal cold trick.

• Humor and Irony

  The story is filled with ironic twists: Miss Coulson's attempt to chill her father's romance backfires when she elopes with the iceman, and Mr. Coulson's proposal is repeatedly interrupted by comic circumstances.

• Love and Romance

  The chapter explores romantic impulses stirred by spring, from Mr. Coulson's late-life proposal to Miss Coulson's unexpected elopement, all framed as whimsical and irrational.

Characters to notice

• Unknown Narrator

  The narrator opens with a playful, ironic commentary on May's mischievous spirit, setting the tone for the story.

• Mr. Coulson

  Old Mr. Coulson, a wealthy invalid with gout, is swayed by the spring air to propose to his housekeeper, Mrs. Widdup, but is repeatedly interrupted.

• Mrs. Widdup

  The comely, flustered housekeeper who is the object of Mr. Coulson's affections; she later discovers the ice plot and reveals Miss Coulson's elopement.

• Constantia Coulson

  Mr. Coulson's cold, calculating daughter who schemes to prevent her father's marriage by filling the basement with ice, only to elope with the iceman herself.

Key passages

• “Prithee, smite the poet in the eye when he would sing to you praises of the month of May. It is a month presided over by the spirits of mischief and madness.”

  Don't let poets fool you about May—it's actually a month of chaos and trickery.

  The narrator sets a skeptical, humorous tone, warning against romanticizing spring.

• “In May Cupid shoots blindfolded—millionaires marry stenographers; wise professors woo white-aproned gum-chewers behind quick-lunch counters; schoolma’ams make big bad boys remain after school; lads with ladders steal lightly over lawns where Juliet waits in her trellissed window with her telescope packed; young couples out for a walk come home married; old chaps put on white spats and promenade near the Normal School; even married men, grown unwontedly tender and sentimental, whack their spouses on the back and growl: 'How goes it, old girl?'”

  In May, love makes people act foolishly: rich men marry their secretaries, professors fall for waitresses, and even old married men get unusually affectionate.

  This passage humorously lists the absurd romantic behaviors attributed to spring's influence.

• “Miss Van Meeker Constantia Coulson, bony, durable, tall, high-nosed, frigid, well-bred, thirty-five, in-the-neighbourhood-of-Gramercy-Parkish.”

  Miss Coulson is described as a cold, aristocratic woman in her mid-thirties, living near Gramercy Park.

  The narrator uses a string of adjectives to emphasize her rigid, unromantic nature.

• “With the cool pulses of a virgin of Cologne she withstood the attack of the ethereal mildness. The arrows of the pleasant sunshine fell back, frostbitten, from the cold panoply of her unthrilled bosom.”

  She was completely immune to the romantic effects of spring, as if her heart were made of ice.

  This metaphor underscores Miss Coulson's resistance to May's charms, setting up her ironic fate.

• “Never fear, sir,' said Mrs. Widdup, cheerfully. 'Miss Coulson, she ran away with the iceman last night, sir!'”

  Mrs. Widdup reveals that Miss Coulson has eloped with the iceman, turning the tables on her cold scheme.

  The punchline reveals the ultimate irony: the daughter who tried to stop romance ends up eloping herself.