Sinister Street · Chapter
II: The First Week explained
Michael experiences his first week at Oxford, including a raucous wine party with fellow freshmen, a bonfire celebration, and formal interviews with the Senior Tutor and Dean.
What happens
Michael experiences his first week at Oxford, including a raucous wine party with fellow freshmen, a bonfire celebration, and formal interviews with the Senior Tutor and Dean. He resists pressure to study classics and asserts his desire to read history, while bonding with new friends like Lonsdale and Wedderburn.
Themes in this chapter
Friendship and Betrayal
Michael forms early bonds with fellow freshmen like Lonsdale and Wedderburn, sharing wine, laughter, and a sense of communal belonging.
The Passage of Time and Memory
The chapter marks Michael's transition from schoolboy to Oxford undergraduate, symbolized by the bonfire that burns his boyhood.
Social Class and Identity
Michael's interactions with dons and peers highlight the social hierarchies and expectations of Oxford, as he asserts his academic preferences.
Characters to notice
- Michael Fane
The protagonist, a new freshman at St. Mary's College, Oxford, navigating social rituals and academic bureaucracy.
- Mr. Lonsdale
A fellow freshman who bonds with Michael over wine and later discusses keeping a dog in college.
- Mr. Wedderburn
A serious freshman who invites Michael to view Dürer woodcuts and tries to shepherd the drunken group.
- Tommy Grainger
A boisterous freshman who shouts rowing commands and jokes about the crew being too drunk to row.
- John Venables
The steward of the J.C.R., mentioned as the keeper of Venner's office.
Key passages
“An immense elation caressed his soul, a boundless sense of communal life, a conception of sublime freedom that seemed to be illimitable forever.”
Michael felt a deep joy and a limitless sense of belonging and freedom.
Describes Michael's euphoric state during the wine party.
“The freshmen danced gleefully round the pyre of their boyhood, feeding it with faggots and sometimes daringly and ostentatiously with chairs.”
The freshmen joyfully danced around the bonfire, symbolically burning their childhood.
Highlights the ritualistic bonfire as a rite of passage.
“I think all these dons are very much like schoolmasters.”
Michael feels the Oxford dons are no different from his old schoolmasters.
Michael's resentment toward the academic authority figures.