H o w t o R e a d L i t e r a t u r e1 4 8in a lunatic asylum; and that she is bringing her child or children
with her. Perhaps we also assume that the husband is a patient in
the asylum, which makes the comment ‘You will not find your
father greatly changed’ comic. It may mean, reassuringly, ‘Don’t
worry, he’s his usual self, every bit as normal as he was before he
went in.’ Or it may mean, rather less reassuringly, ‘He’s just as crazy
as he was before they took him away.’ It is the ambiguity which
makes the remark funny, as well as the dry tone in which it is deliv-
ered. The fact that Lady Moping is predicting how her offspring
will react to their father (‘You will not find.. .’) lends the statement
the imperious ring of an instruction. Perhaps we suspect this to be
typical of titled persons.
It is possible, however, Lady Moping’s husband is not an
inmate at all. He might be a nurse, a psychiatrist or a gardener.
This, however, is rendered somewhat unlikely by the ‘Lady’. Lady
Moping is an aristocrat, her husband is probably Lord Moping, and
noble lords do not generally become psychiatrists, let alone nurses
or gardeners. There is, moreover, a general feeling that the English
nobility are a little dotty, which reinforces the suspicion that Lord
Moping is more likely to be a recipient of medical treatment than a
dispenser of it. Besides, his child or children seem not to have seen
him for some time, long enough anyway for him to have time to
change, which might not be the case if he were a gardener or
psychiatrist. The grammatical construction of the phrase ‘as the car
turned into the gates of the County Asylum’ might suggest that
Lady Moping herself is not driving, being rather too grand for such
a menial activity. Perhaps she is sitting beside a chauffeur in the
front of the car.
If readers bring assumptions to literary works, literary works can
also intimate attitudes to their readers. A critic once described