The Protagonist’s Girlfriend Character Analysis

When the protagonist visits Great Aunt Mary in her final hours of life, he comes directly from studying for A-level exams at his girlfriend’s house. Trying to avoid looking at his aunt’s distorted figure, he covers his face with his hands, only to smell his girlfriend’s hand cream. This detail contrasts Aunt Mary’s old age with the protagonist’s youth: as Mary arrives at the end of her solitary life, the protagonist is on the edge of adulthood, with a new relationship and an array of possible life paths ahead of him. The smell of his girlfriend’s hand cream seems to make the scene of Mary’s death even more intolerable to him, perhaps because he knows Mary’s own youthful romance ended in heartbreak and feels guilty about invading her privacy to learn that secret. In this way, the protagonist’s girlfriend, although a very minor character, demonstrates the protagonist’s youth relative to Mary’s old age and reveals his ongoing guilt about betraying Mary’s trust as a child.