Daphne Du Maurier’s ‘The Old man’ with Alison Ridyard

Daphne Du Maurier – “The Old Man”
Being unfamiliar with Du Maurier’s work, I didn’t know what to expect from this short story, and, having scanned the contents page of The Birds collection, was intrigued to find how its shortest story (11 pages in my edition), could capture and suspend the reader’s imagination in such a way that its climactic ending could provoke the stunned reaction you promise.
I was not disappointed.
It’s worth pointing out that it isn’t simply the mystery of the Old Man and his family that is of interest here, or “the twist with a twist” at its closure. Indeed, Du Maurier’s tale seems to be as much a story of isolation as it is one of unrivalled devotion – not only from the perspective of the hapless “Boy”, but also that of the curious narrator, whose obsessive interest in the insular family seems to be a measure of her/his loneliness.
“Nobody seemed to take any interest in the couple living there but myself, so that it was only what I observed with my own eyes that makes this story”.
Interestingly, the narrator can only provide a visual chronicle of events, as “not knowing a word of his lingo”; verbal communication between them proves intolerably impossible. This begs the question, what kind of life would warrant such concern for the lives of those for whom your existence is merely incidental? Yet, such is the enticing power of the narrative, that we feel ourselves similarly captivated, sharing the narrator’s grief when the couple return from their outing childless:
“Somehow it left a gap. I felt sad. So long now I had been used to seeing them all around, Tiny and the others… I’d more or less watched them grow up, and now for no reason they had gone.”
The narrator’s sense of loss contrasts starkly with the wife’s indifference; arguably, the most disturbing aspect of the narrative is the wife’s unwavering subservience to her husband and apparent collusion in the sinister turn of events. Yet, “with such power and drive behind him … royal blood … inside him” should we really expect anything less?
Du Maurier’s tale had me doubly cringing with horror at both the jealous cruelty it depicts, and the limits of my evidently egotistical imagination!
A must read – TWICE!

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