The Present & the Past

BRIEF PLOT SUMMARY

 

The opening five chapters show five different points of view. C1 shows the children’s world, co-habited by the governess, the gardener, the head-nurse and the nursemaid. The children, while playing in the garden, are upset by the death of one of the hens, pecked to death by the other hens because it is ill. C2 shows the adults POV at the breakfast table, where the pompous and emotionally needy Cassius Clare presides over his second wife Flavia, and his father.

 

The morning post brings a letter from his first wife, Catherine, who left after a bitter divorce 9 years earlier, wherein Cassius ruthlessly retained custody of his two sons, banishing her from their lives. Her letter confides that not seeing her sons has become unendurable and announces her intention of breaking her oath and returning to the vicinity with the hope of visiting them. C3 shows the family together, as the children are trooped into the dining room to see the adults after breakfast.

 

The children, like Flavia, have developed a tendency to ignore Cassius’ need for praise: his habitual reaction is to praise himself and to reproach others for not appreciating him. After they are sent into the garden, the gardener discovers a dead mole. The children bury the mole in a matchbox and write a poetic epitaph to place on its grave. C4 presents the household from the point of view of the servants’ world.

 

Ainger, the butler, feels a deep empathy for his master – a relationship that in his mind transcends the master-servant one and borders on friendship. The other servants are sceptical. In C5, Catherine arrives at the home of her younger brother and sister, Elton and Ursula Scrope, who she also hasn’t seen in 9 years. Their reunion is interrupted by Cassius, who has impulsively taken it upon himself to confront Catherine face-to-face. Cassius still feels an attraction to Catherine.

 

Catherine expresses a preference to meet her sons in their own home, rather than at the Scropes’. Cassius promises to consult Flavia about the meeting. Catherine promises to abide by their decision. Flattered by the idea of commanding two wives and maliciously anticipating the chaos – Cassius grants permission. Much to his horror, however, the two Mrs Clares quickly form a warm, understanding friendship. They bond over their shared experience of his impossible nature, swapping stories and supporting each other while pointedly sidelining the man who once dominated both.

 

Feeling displaced and ignored in his own home, Cassius spirals into petulance. In a dramatic bid for attention, he swallows a handful of his father’s pills in front of the household, staging a suicide attempt. The family saves him, but the incident only exposes his childish neediness and further unites the two women and the children against his tyranny. A few days later, Cassius suffers a genuine heart attack.

 

The household, assuming it is another attention-seeking ploy, delays calling the doctor. By the time they realise the truth, it is too late. Cassius dies. His death does not bring peace. Guilt and recriminations tear the household apart. The friendship between Catherine and Flavia collapses. The two older boys must choose which mother to live with. The once-cohesive family begins to disintegrate, leaving everyone to confront the emotional wreckage left by one self-absorbed man’s lifelong demand for admiration.