The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Summary & Analysis

The Commander is the only one of Mitty’s alter egos not to share his name. This distances him from the real Mitty and emphasizes his commanding role—the exact opposite of the meek and passive role Mitty plays in his own life. It also allows the story to start off mid-fantasy without tipping its hand that it is mid-fantasy.

The Commander’s power and heroism are shown not only in his daring actions, but also in his ability to overrule others’ objections and inspire their admiration (even if the generic commands he shouts don’t make much sense).

Symbolically, Mrs. Mitty ‘s limit on the speed is a limit on both Mitty’s independence and his masculinity, and immediately contrasts with Mitty’s fantasy of the Commander ordering full speed ahead. Humor comes from the ironic juxtaposition of the fantasy and the reality.

Mitty and his wife understand each other so little that they really could be strangers. Her assumption that whatever is bothering Walter must be physical illness shows her insensitivity to his psychological needs.

Both Mrs. Mitty’s nagging and his own age prevent Mitty from doing what he wants. Racing the car engine is an outlet for his frustration and yet, also, a humorously ineffective attempt to prove his virility, as it doesn’t actually make the car go anywhere.

Hypersensitive to the cop’s criticism, Mitty acts as if taking off the gloves—following his own judgment and in doing so revealing himself literally and figuratively—is the real transgression. He responds to shame by concealing himself, putting the gloves back on.

Elements from Mitty’s real life—including the overshoes, to which the millionaire’s name alludes; Wellington’s are a famous brand of rubber boots—appear in his fantasy. Nonsense medical jargon adds to the humor of the scene and shows just how much of a fantasy Mitty’s fantasy is.

The compliments in the fantasy counteract Mitty’s real-life sense of shame. Mitty regains power over the overshoes and Dr. Renshaw, and by extension his wife, by providing health and strength they do not have. However, his heroic acts are laughably unrealistic.

Mitty is again embarrassed and publicly corrected by a stranger. In contrast to “Dr. Mitty’s” skill with tools and machines, he feels impotent when handling the car and takes the young attendant’s skill as a personal insult.

Mitty assumes the young men are judging him. He resents them as examples of the masculine skills and qualities he thinks he should have but doesn’t—a feeling exacerbated by his wife’s assumption of his inability to handle the task of putting chains on the tire.

Mitty’s sling-wearing plan is a form of shame-based self-concealment. Along with his decision to buy the overshoes a moment later, this solution suggests he has internalized his wife’s beliefs about his physical infirmity.

Mitty’s subordination to his wife and her shopping list suggests the emasculation of the modern suburban man. Humor comes from the irony of Mrs. Mitty’s complaints about his memory when she also can’t remember the same things.

The trial scene makes literal Mitty’s sense of being judged by the garagemen. Here, however, Mitty rejects the sling as an alibi: his manly heroism transcends illness and injury, and he will not conceal the truth about himself (which in the case of the fantasy is that he is so skilled a shot that not even an injury to his good hand can hamper him). The scene also marks the beginning of a trend toward darker fantasies.

The beautiful “damsel in distress” hints at fantasy-Mitty’s sexual prowess and provides an opportunity for heroism, while her sudden appearance out of nowhere pokes fun at heroic conventions and at Mitty himself.

Here Mitty’s fantasy reminds him of reality, meaning his imagination offers only a limited escape from his circumstances—not only do his experiences in reality fuel his fantasies, but events in his fantasies push him back out into reality. He is again embarrassed by a stranger, this time a woman, whose laughter at him directly contrasts the appearance of the beautiful woman in the fantasy.

Mitty’s embarrassment leads him to hide by going to a smaller store, and also to change his language. Buying puppy biscuit is an amusingly benign activity for a daring and dangerous hero, and the overlap of Mitty’s realities again suggests a kind of domestication or neutralization of Mitty’s would-be manhood.

Mitty’s choice to sink down in a chair that faces the window is part of his tendency to conceal himself (his wife will later complain about it). His sense of duty in obeying his wife’s not-always-reasonable commands can be compared to the dutiful behavior of the pilot.

However, when the pilot follows his sense of duty, it’s an example of his strength of character and bravery in ignoring the sergeant’s more cautious advice.

The hyperbolic violence of the war zone is a funny contrast to Mitty’s supremely calm demeanor. In the fantasy, his ability to contain and conceal both his feelings and his liquor is part of what proves him a hero.

Once again, Mrs. Mitty dismisses Walter’s individuality by suggesting that his inner life is only a medical problem—another way he remains concealed from her. Her phrasing “when I get you home” also detracts from his sense of agency and control.

Mitty perceives his whole environment as critical of him, though it is also noteworthy that a revolving door – which you can’t burst through, like you can with a normal door – is a sort of domesticating invention. The rain and sleet add to the gloominess of the setting and link back to the description of the Commander in the opening scene. They also present Mrs. Mitty as inconsiderate, since her concern about Mitty’s health doesn’t prevent her from keeping him waiting in the cold.

Mitty’s refusal to conceal his face shows both his bravery and his lack of shame. However, his true self remains concealed, both in real life and in the fantasy. And note also the trajectory of the fantasies, as fantasy-Mitty has continued to maintain a cool, calm demeanor but has gone from leading his crew to escape death in the first fantasy to, here, facing certain death. While fantasy-Mitty remains a hero, the degree of his control over events has diminished, just as through the course of the day Mitty himself finds himself ever further under the control of his wife.