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Intro
“The Son’s Veto” is the story of a working-class woman’s marriage to a high-ranking Anglican church official, her widowhood, her fraught relationship with her son, and her unfulfilled romantic relationship with a youthful love interest. The story begins with the protagonist, Sophy, at an outdoor concert with her adolescent son Randolph. The author provides some initial hints of Sophy’s backstory, including her use of a wheelchair, and her imperfect grammar, which sparks a stern rebuke from her son.
The story flashes back to the events leading up to Sophy’s marriage to her current husband, Mr. Twycott. Sophy worked as a parlour-maid in Mr. Twycott’s household, in a country village near London called Gaymead, along with a young man, Sam Hobson, who worked as a gardener. Soon after the death of Mr. Twycott’s first wife, Sophy and Sam make plans to marry. Sophy tells Mr. Twycott she is planning to leave so she can marry Sam, but after having an argument with Sam, she changes her mind and stays. As she takes care of Mr. Twycott during an illness, Sophy falls down the stairs and permanently injures her foot. She tells Mr. Twycott that she must leave, but Mr. Twycott recognizes his affection for Sophy and asks her to marry him; she says yes, despite not truly loving him.
Mr. Twycott, aware that he is potentially destroying his social status by marrying Sophy, moves from the countryside to London and invests in Sophy’s education, hoping to offset her working-class background. They have a son, Randolph, who is provided with the best possible schooling. After 14 years of marriage, Mr. Twycott dies of an illness. His will leaves Sophy with only a modest personal income and little control over the estate, and she becomes increasingly isolated and dissatisfied. Her relationship with her son grows more and more strained as he grows up and becomes increasingly contemptuous of her humbler origins.
One day, she encounters Sam as he transports produce to a market in the city, and the two revive their old relationship. They make plans to marry and live together in their home village of Gaymead, but Sophy hesitates, fearing Randolph’s disapproval. When she works up the courage to tell her son, he refuses to accept it, fearful that Sophy’s remarriage to a working-class man will damage his own social status. For four or five years, Sophy tries to persuade her son to let her marry Sam, but he makes her swear not to do so without his consent. Hoping that Randolph might one day change his mind, Sophy spends the next four years pining away, wondering why she shouldn’t marry Sam. The story ends with a scene of Sophy’s funeral procession in Gaymead; Sam, looking on from his grocery store, sobs in grief, while Randolph glares darkly at Sam.
