The short story “The lady with the Red Shoes” written by Ita Daly is about an Irish man who spends his holidays traditionally every Easter in a hotel called McAndrews. The story takes place in the North of Mayo, which is a typical lonesome landscape next to the cliff line.
In the beginning of the text the lyrical “I” (, whose name is unknown,) describes the environment around the McAndrews and gives the reader some information about the hotels part in the Irish history.
He informs the reader about the reasons for his annual stay which is – except this time – usually with his whole family and explains his emotional connection to this place. It’s obvious, that the McAndrews, although it’s nothing special for the generality, is something like a precious retreat for the old-fashioned lyrical “I” to escape from the modern world. Even though there is a gap between him and most of the others, he feels able to laugh about all the foolishness in the world.
This problem gets more clearly when the lyrical “I” talks about the departures from the McAndrews, which are each time a painful experience because he has to get back into the “world”.
At this point of the story the underlying plot of the short story starts. The lyrical “I” sits down in the dinning-room of the McAndrews. During the waiter called Murphy wants to talk about the wine a woman with a pink dress and red shoes wants to place an order. The lyrical “I” starts to watch her exactly and follows every of her facial expressions. Henceforward the reader can follow again all of his thoughts about this woman.
This woman has an inadequate behaviour and Murphy has to pull himself together to be still polite.
Due to her American accent and her unblemished appearance he is surprised how such a woman finds her way to the old-fashioned McAndrews. After she had eaten up, she asks Murphy for an ashtray. Murphy sends her in an unfriendly way to the blue-sitting room. The lyrical “I” follows her after he has finished his meal, too. He absorbs in his thoughts and makes some theses about her origin as well as her complete life. Suddenly he gets a complete different perception of her behaviour and he even notices that she has an accent which exists only in North Mayo. He extends his theses with the assumption that in the past the woman with the red shoes was poor and escaped to America. And now she comes back to show her change and wants to impress the others with her appearance.
The lyrical “I” thinks about telling her this facts but prefers to go to bed and to think about all again.
(André)
Renarration
The beginning of the short story “The lady with the Red Shoes”, written by Ita Daly, is about the beautiful West of Ireland and the pros of the old-fashioned McAndrews Hotel.
The narrator of this story is and was very impressed of the landscape in West of Ireland. He likes the peace of this area because there is no industry and only a few little cities. But not only he likes that place, his whole family come back from Dublin every Easter since a lot of years and he also comes back with his wife since they are married. But this year she is ill at Easter and her sister comes from London and the narrator is happy that his wife can do something else because maybe she does not like the old atmosphere in the West of Ireland. But he likes to come back to the McAndrews. Although the McAndrews has a very bad place for a hotel. A few years ago there was nothing in the near of the hotel. No city, no church and no beach where anybody can swim. It is build on headland where you can look at the Atlantic, but the sea and the cliff are so dangerous that you can’t swim or boating. Otherwise the people only could come with a train from Westport, which stops on the hotel grounds. Nowadays in the near of the hotel is a little city named Kilgory and the people come with cars but the hotel is still old-fashioned. That’s what the narrator likes. So he thinks that he is maybe a snob, but he does not like the new things like cocktail bars or something like that. But he knows that everyone who comes to McAndrews like the same things that he likes. Because of that he settles in very fast. So he does the same things as every year. He walks, reads novels and watches the Atlantic coast.
(Marco)
The narrator say McAndrews has been a retreat since his youth. He describes it like a very precious hideaway from the new modern world. Another problem is the generation gap between the lyrical “I” and his son, who think that his father is a snob. The time doesn’t match to the narrator’s kind of thinking although in his opinion being able to laugh about all stupid foolishness in the world.
Every time before leaving the McAndrews and getting back in to the “world”, he gets nervous and depressive. He tries to detract from these thoughts while drinking a bottle of wine. The narrator tells about his past and spending some years in West Africa as a young man. At this time, he missed the typical Irish twilight which you can find at the dinner-time. He loves this half-wilful melancholia atmosphere and compares the dinner with a ceremony.
He takes his usual seat and the waiter called Murphy starts to talk with him about the wine. Suddenly another new female person summons him. The narrator describes the place where only this woman is sitting. He criticizes the woman because she sat down without consulting Murphy as well as her unblemished appearance. Both, the narrator and Murphy engross their thoughts about the lady before Murphy takes her order at first. When she orders a double Scotch on the rocks and the menu card with an American accent, the lyrical “I” gets some associations about American TV-thrillers and goes on watching her. While she is studying the card, he notices her face growing apprehensive. Relating to this, he tells us something about Mrs Byrne, who is an artistic cook with only a few of special menus. He explains that she only uses local fixings and has traditional ways to cook. The narrator adds that he understands if somebody of the modern world (like the woman) is overstrained by reading such a card. She orders snootily something which isn’t on the card and Murphy tries to arrange it. She gets really discourteous and the narrator thinks that Murphy really has to pull himself together to be still polite. The narrator asks himself how such a person comes to the McAndrews.
(André)
He is surprised about how this woman finds her way to McAndrews, because she seems like an American woman and so likes a tourist. For those tourists ten miles away there is a hideous motel. But soon he recognized that the woman is actually impressed by McAndrews. However Murphy thinks that this woman is arrogant and rude. It goes so far that Murphy, who is every time courteous, kindly and advertent, looses in a unique event the control and the whole dinning-room is looking and the lady and him. The lady only eats her meal and shortly after that incident the guest looses the interest in her.
After she had eat up, she attempts to fuse the ice between Murphy and her with a joke, but Murphy keeps at being cold and unfriendly and so she is cold and defiant, too.
She asks the waiter about an ashtray, but he tells her in an unfriendly way, that she has to smoke in the blue-sitting room. He exhibits her in front of the whole dinning-room, so the lady has to control herself, because her face and neck are already red.
After the man has eaten up his meal, he walks to the blue-sitting-room and watches the lady while he smokes a cigar. Meanwhile he recognizes that the lady isn’t American, because she has this accent, which is only spoken in North Mayo. Furthermore he notices that the lady is sad, tired and burn out. Her life is spread out in front of him. So he thinks about her past: She had lived in a miserable cottage and was a tattering little girl. McAndrews was for her a symbol, a world of wealth and comfort. Because of that, that McAndrews is a symbol of wealth and that she is so poor, she wanted to escape from Ireland to America. So she worked maybe as a maid in this hotel and financed so her ticket to America.
All this time, when she was happy in America, she waited for the moment to come back to Ireland and to show every one in the McAndrews that she is now the guest in McAndrews and not the maid. She wanted to impress the other guests with her air, her look and her richness. The lady thinks that everything is like in the past, but in that case she is wrong. In former time the hotel stood for rich people, but today is an other time. The wheal has come round full circle.
First the man broods over telling her this facts, but than he decides to go to bed. When he lies in the bed he thinks about her and his past and about McAndrews, which will soon be a member of the past.
For him McAndrews is although a special landscape and the lady with the red shoes is his heroine, who caught and defined McAndrews.
(Julia)
