When one is expecting a certain thing only to discover something absolutely unexpected (like having two children) that is bound to knock one off one’s game. It was too awful.” Confounding ExpectationsĪnother element to the prickly pear that is the romance between Eloise and Phillip has to do with expectations. “His skin was flushed, but his eyes, when he opened them, were glassy and unfocused, and when he wasn’t lying unnaturally still, he was thrashing about”

“This was not, thought through clenched teeth, her natural state.” Compromising the natural state of things is what this story is really about, beginning with the unnatural state of a sunny day on which to commit a tragedy: OF course, there’s another word this belief, but it carries a far less appetizing connotation: uncompromising. And it is a violation of something inherent in a person’s character to go against that natural state. Melancholy terrified him.” Natural StatesĮloise is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are natural states of things. He wanted an explanation, needed one, for this awful tiredness that seemed to be taking over. That probably explained his exceptional melancholy. “He stared out the window at the sun, which was slipping low on the horizon. The result of this inextricable connection is the persistence of irony: sunny days rains melancholy down upon him: That incongruity become inextricably linked to the tragedy itself in the mind of Sir Phillip. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.Ī terribly tragic incident that incongruously occurs on a sunny day opens the story. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

To sir phillip