The+Moving+Finger+Commentary

The Moving Finger Commentary

 The main conflict in the piece //The Moving Finger// is essentially one of youth and age. Mrs. Grancy acts as a medium, merely extending and magnifying each of her lover’s own differing views on the matter, who both hold the excuse of being in love with her in order to justify projecting their own feelings onto her without any real consideration of her own.

 In essence, both loves were selfish loves; Ralph and Claydon justified doing what they wanted by doing what they //thought// she’d wanted—essentially the same thing. Obviously, Mrs. Grancy, a passive amplifying channel to them both, did not disagree. This may partially explain their fascination with her; by looking at her, through her, whenever she gazed back at them, they were essentially looking in a magic mirror which amplified their own best traits and favourite things about the world.

 Besides this, Mrs. Grancy, a faceless character, provided two different sides for both Ralph and Claydon to love. Claydon, a fervent adorer of Mrs. Grancy’s beauty, loved her for it. He was an artist—he painted a portrait of what he held dear. The portrait acted as a simultaneous demonstration of his affections and excuse to own a part of her which Ralph did not. (“You don’t know how much of a woman belongs to you after you’ve painted her!...there was one side of her, though, that was mine alone, and that was her beauty.”[1] ) Considering this, one can understand Claydon’s disgust at Ralph’s request. In fact, he considered it murder. [2] The one thing about the amazing woman which Claydon considered his was to be destroyed too. The one thing worth keeping could no longer be kept preserved in a glass jar, or rather, immortalized as a pretty face on a canvas.

 Conversely, Ralph, a lonely, elderly man[3], wanted the opposite for his own Mrs. Grancy. He dragged her along with him through age and decay, under the pretence of “knowing” that “she would have hated to be left behind!” [4] He did not consider whether she was really being left behind or not, or whether—as Claydon would point out—it was //right// to bring her along. Her presence, however much Ralph felt it, was simply a ghost’s. He did not really consider her at all. Ralph merely clung to an apparition, as many tired old men do.

 Claydon’s own opinion of Ralph’s actions was something along the lines of “as if any man who really loved a woman would ask her to sacrifice her young and beauty for his sake!”[5] Though this biased opinion was in indignation to the ruin of her youth and beauty, it does hold merit as an accusation that it was a selfish decision on Ralph’s part. It must also be considered that part of the sharp contrast is supported by the hypocrisy of this particular allegation. It can be considered that Claydon’s love was also selfish, or at least superficial. He loved Mrs. Grancy on the basis of her youth and beauty. Wasn’t Ralph’s love infinitely deeper, though infinitely more pitiful and selfish? Considering the woman’s role in the story, however, isn’t it fairer to say that each man simply loved himself?

[1] pg. 82 [2] “…it was like asking me to commit murder. He wanted me to make an old woman of her—of her who had been so divinely, unchangeably young!” pg. 83 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[3] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">“the need of a pair of eyes that should see with me, of a pulse that should keep time with mine.” pg. 78 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[4] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">pg. 79 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[5] <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">pg. 83