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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Stoat, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fear, Flight, and Futility
Relationships and Loneliness
Communication and Dishonesty
Summary
Analysis
The narrator is golfing when he hears crying coming from the long grass next to the course. He works his way towards the sound, the crying only rising in pitch. At first, the narrator does not see the source of the sound but he eventually notices a crying rabbit lying in a patch of sand. As he stands over the rabbit, he notices a stoat sliding back into the grass. The rabbit stops crying. The narrator notices that it is bleeding heavily behind its ear, blood falling on the sand. The narrator picks the rabbit up and it does not move, but he can feel the rabbit’s terror—it is shaking with utter fear. With a single stroke, the narrator kills the rabbit.
The rabbit’s fate illustrates the inevitability of death: it was, in a sense, fated to die as soon as the stoat spotted it. By fleeing, then, the rabbit was only putting off the inevitable. Even though the rabbit has technically escaped the stoat, the stoat fatally wounded it, and so death is still the only choice: the narrator can either leave the rabbit to die or put it out of its misery.
Themes
The narrator goes back to the golf course with the rabbit, leaving its body at the edge of the green as he returns to his game. As the narrator heads to the next tee, he sees the stoat following him. After two bad shots, he calls it a day and heads back to the cottage his father rents every August. On his way back, he sees the stoat twice, still following the rabbit even though it is dead.
The stoat continues to pursue both the narrator and the rabbit, hoping to finish the hunt it began. In a sense, the stoat’s hunt appears ritualistic: it finds, chases, kills, and consumes its prey before starting the whole process again. By taking the rabbit, the narrator disrupted the pattern. This interrupted ritual is presented alongside the narrator’s father’s ritual of renting the same cottage every August, which symbolically links the father and the rabbit. It also foreshadows that this pattern may be disrupted too.
Themes
The narrator imagines that the rabbit had been running from the stoat all night. Despite fatter rabbits coming into view, the stoat had “marked down this one rabbit to kill.” Unable to outrun the stoat, the rabbit finally sat in terror, waiting for the stoat to arrive and kill it. The crying the narrator had heard was when the stoat was drinking the rabbit’s blood.
Again, the rabbit’s flight from the stoat was futile, since its death was inescapable the moment the stoat spotted it. By fleeing from what scared it, the rabbit only prolonged its terror and misery for as long as it could continue to run. And yet, the rabbit couldn’t help but flee from what it outside its control. The stoat and the rabbit’s time together is limited and fleeting, yet their brief closeness inspires great pain for the rabbit. Significantly, the rabbit’s flight is entirely imagined by the narrator. Thus, this futility, fear, and fleeting closeness are attributes that the narrator is projecting onto the rabbit, so the reader can infer that these are topics that are relevant in his own life.
Themes
When the narrator gets back to the cottage, his father is reading the newspaper, specifically the death notices which he always reads twice. He reads them first, then the news and the ads, and then turns back to the death notices. His father says one of his colleagues, Bernie, who had been in Drumcondra the same year he had been there, has died. In response, the narrator shows him the dead rabbit. His father asks where he got the rabbit and the narrator explains that a stoat killed it. His father responds that this is what stoats do and questions why the narrator brought it back. The narrator says he just did and that the rabbit’s crying scared him.
The narrator’s father is particularly concerned with death. The death notices seem to be the main reason he reads the newspaper, meticulously seeking out any name he might know. It is as if by reading the death notices, he aims to track death and, more importantly, to have an artificial awareness of the distance between himself and death. This metaphorical race hearkens back to the rabbit’s flight and the stoat’s pursuit. It seems to remind the narrator of this too, since he responds by holding up the rabbit, as if to tell his father that is how that chase ends. The father notes the ritualistic behavior of the stoat and its hunt and questions the narrator for disrupting that pattern. Interestingly, the narrator offers no explanation for why he kept the rabbit’s body. Either he truly doesn’t know, or perhaps he’s just unable to tell his father why. In either case, there is a clear link here between his father’s concern with death and the rabbit’s flight.
Themes
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His father asks what they will have for dinner, reminding him that Miss McCabe is coming over that evening. The narrator says they will not eat the rabbit and explains the dinner menu. Miss McCabe is the reason the narrator is in Strandhill—she and his father have been dating for many months and seem to have agreed that if the August vacation to Strandhill goes well, they will get engaged before both going back to teach at their respective schools in September. The narrator finds the formality of their agreement weird, and it’s even weirder that he has somehow become the chaperone of the courtship.
The story’s setting is revealed to be Strandhill, a coastal town in northwestern Ireland. The narrator’s role as a sort of chaperone for his father and his girlfriend signals a disruption in the usual relationship between a child and their parent. The father and son’s roles seem to be reversed, an inconsistency further emphasized in the fact that the narrator is the one cooking and making dinner rather than his father. The narrator’s completion of parental responsibilities highlights his father’s inability to take care of his son—rather, he needs his son to take care of him. It also emphasizes his father’s need for the narrator’s approval of this new woman who is not the narrator’s mother.
Themes
When his father asked him to come to Strandhill in August, the narrator asked why his father wanted him there. His father replied that his courtship would seem more socially acceptable if the narrator were there and that this is the last summer before the narrator will be busy with a life of his own as a doctor. The narrator is staying in Dublin, doing postgraduate work for his uncle who is a surgeon. The narrator plans to golf and study that August while his father reads the newspaper and sees Miss McCabe.
The narrator’s father is seeking both his son’s approval and society’s approval of his courtship of Miss McCabe. However, in both cases, it seems unlikely that a disapproval from either would have caused him to change course. Thus, his search for approval is a dishonest and self-serving one, looking only where he knows he will find it. Nevertheless, the fact that this is most likely the narrator’s last summer spending August in Strandhill adds the possibility that his father asked him to attend for sentimental reasons—though if this is the case, his father doesn’t communicate it.
Themes
The previous summer, his father had asked him if he would be hurt if he remarried. The narrator replied that he would not. His father was afraid he would be bothered by a new woman taking his mother’s place, but the narrator bluntly said that his mother is dead and that his father should do what he wants. His father asked again if the narrator had any objections, but the narrator didn’t. He asked if his father had anyone in mind, but his father did not.
The narrator’s blunt response regarding his deceased mother indicates either that a substantial amount of time has passed since her death, or that they weren’t very close. His father’s interest in finding a new wife expresses a desire to alleviate loneliness, while the narrator’s lack of concern regarding his father’s interest in a new wife signals a disinterest in forming any new relationships or strengthening old ones. On one hand, it’s compassionate for his father to ask his permission before seeking out a new spouse. On the other hand, because the narrator always consents to his father’s requests, it is unclear if his father would have refrained from pursuing a new wife had the narrator disapproved.
Themes
The narrator forgets about it until his father presents him with the ad he is going to put in the newspaper, describing himself as a 52-year-old teacher looking for companionship and marriage. His father asks for his approval. With a mix of dismay and an urge to laugh, the narrator tells his father the ad seems fine, so his father sends it to the paper. A month later, his father has a mound of letters in response to his ad. The narrator is surprised and wonders at how much “unfulfilled longing” there is in the world. The whole town is curious about these letters.
The narrator’s forgetfulness signals his lack of interest or concern regarding his father’s desire to remarry. It shows that he isn’t overly attached to his deceased mother or particularly concerned about his father’s loneliness. His father’s ad shows that he is looking for long-term connection and companionship in the form of marriage rather than short-lived flings. The amount of responses he gets go to show that the “unfulfilled longing” he feels is pervasive throughout society, giving the sense that everyone is lonely and in search of a true, lasting connection.
Themes
That winter, the narrator sees his father often because he is meeting many of the interested women in Dublin, as well as other places. He always meets them in a hotel lounge, reading a copy of Roscommon Herald. In late March, his father bemoans the failure of his endeavor, that all of the women he has met are a mess or not worthy of his time. The narrator asks if he’s disappointed with their appearances or their character, and his father says both, but that there is one woman who seems to at least be a good person. This is the first time the narrator hears about Miss McCabe.
Just as his father’s request for the narrator to come to Strandhill signals a hidden desire to connect with his son, his pursuit of these women seems to create a possible excuse for seeing his son more. However, if this aim is present, it goes uncommunicated and thus doesn’t bring the father and son any closer. While his father’s goal is to get into a long-term relationship, he meets all of these women in hotels, a setting that is short-term and temporary. This signals his eventual rejection of every woman except Miss McCabe. However, his approval of her is warranted by her being the only good person he met, rather than any defining qualities about her. This begins to hint that the narrator’s father may be settling for Miss McCabe because she’s the most tolerable solution to his loneliness, not because he genuinely cares for her.
Themes
Because he saw his father so much in the winter, the narrator does not have to go home for Easter, and instead he spends it with his uncle, whom he can’t help but tell about his father’s desire to remarry. His uncle can’t believe it and says one would think “boring one poor woman in a lifetime would be enough.” The narrator describes his father’s method of using the newspaper ad to find a new wife, and this makes his uncle laugh really hard. The narrator tells him his father got a lot of replies and that he has found a 40-year-old schoolteacher of interest (Miss McCabe).
This narrator seems to only spend time with his father out of a sense of responsibility, whereas he spends time with his uncle because he wants to. And given how the narrator confides in his uncle, it seems the two of them have more of a father-son relationship than the narrator and his own father do. His uncle’s cruel comment that the narrator’s father bored the narrator’s late mother shows that the narrator’s father and uncle are distant from each other, just as the narrator and his father are. This again suggests that even family members can fail to connect. But the narrator nevertheless defends his father, which indicates that he feels an ingrained sense of loyalty toward him and perhaps wants to connect with him, similar to how his father longs to connect with a new partner.
Themes
His uncle says that eventually you see everything, and the narrator describes his uncle as a man with long greying hair who is distinguished and confident in a way that can be intimidating. His uncle says at least if his father remarries, he will leave the narrator alone. The narrator defends his father, saying he is used to him.
The narrator clearly desires his uncle’s approval. His uncle is a successful, confident surgeon and thus embodies all that the narrator aims to be. He is, in a sense, the narrator’s surrogate father, since the narrator doesn’t have a close relationship with his real father. But despite how badly he wants his uncle’s approval, the narrator defends his father when his uncle describes him as a burden to shake off. He could have said nothing, but instead he insists that he is used to his father’s ways, a declaration that conveys a desire to maintain a relationship with his father even if he remarries.
Themes
The narrator describes how he met Miss McCabe. In a hotel lobby, his father and Miss McCabe sat in front of him in a formal manner, like children seeking an adult’s approval. He describes Miss McCabe as small, frail, and a generally nervous person. She has a “waif-like sense of decency” that the narrator finds attractive as well as bothersome. He says her desire to be in love makes her seem like a girl rather than an older woman. After she leaves, his father asks the narrator what his impression is. The question makes the narrator uncomfortable, and he replies that he thinks she is a decent and good person. His father asks once again if this means he has no objections: the narrator says he has none.
Again, the narrator and his father’s roles are reversed. From a parental point of view, the narrator sees many flaws in Miss McCabe and likens her to a child, despite her actual age. But when his father asks what his opinion of her is, he shares none of this and only repeats his father’s earlier words back to him: she is a good person. He conceals his own judgements in order to allow his father this opportunity to find a woman worthy enough to pursue, but in doing so, he is technically being dishonest. Moreover, his father seems to want to have his decisions validated rather than to hear the narrator’s honest opinion. In this way, the father and son’s relationship is performative rather than genuine, hence their failure to connect meaningfully.
Themes
Prior to the rabbit incident, they had been in Strandhill for a week. The narrator has had three to four casual encounters with Miss McCabe thus far. She is enjoying the vacation, staying at a hotel on the oceanfront and joining his father for lunches and walks along the shore. Tonight will be her first visit to the cottage. Since his father has never learned to cook, the narrator offered to handle dinner.
Miss McCabe is not staying with them at the cottage, the place they return to time and time again. Instead, she’s staying in a hotel, a place that is, again, short-term and temporary by definition. Only after a week is she finally allowed to visit the cottage, as if his father fears their relationship will not last and thus has kept her from engaging with what really matters to him and what he is afraid to lose.
Themes
Miss McCabe dresses up in a blue dress and silver accessories. She compliments dinner but barely eats and only drinks a little wine. His father talks about school, teaching, and the need to go to the sea to “rid oneself of staleness” before each new school year. She hangs on to his every word. When she agrees that the sea is great, his father worries that what she said belongs more to the sea and the sky than to him and what he had said.
In many ways, Miss McCabe does everything right at this first dinner: she is dressed beautifully and says all the right things. But this isn’t enough for the narrator’s father, and when she agrees with him, he fears that she’s approving of the things he described rather than of his understanding of them. He wants her to be interested in him specifically rather than in the topics they discuss. Her lack of an appetite also signals a possible symptom of an unseen issue, whether it be her nervousness about her visit to the cottage or a more serious health problem.
Themes
Once Miss McCabe has returned to her hotel, his father asks the narrator what he thinks of her, asking if the narrator thinks “she has her feet on the ground.” The narrator tells him he is lucky to have found Miss McCabe, but his father does not seem to agree with him. The next morning, a girl arrives to tell them that Miss McCabe had had a health scare in the night and that she is now recovering and wants to see his father. His father is now convinced that “she was not near rooted enough.” He asks the narrator to go to visit her with him, but the narrator reminds his father that she is asking for him, not the narrator.
His father once again seeks the narrator’s approval, this time specifically concerning whether Miss McCabe is grounded or not. This concern is less about whether she is humble and “down to Earth,” and more so quite literally if she is firmly rooted in the Earth, that she is a lot of life left to live. His father has already lost one wife, and in seeking a long-term relationship, he seems particularly concerned about the possibility that Miss McCabe won’t last long. The narrator tries once again to encourage his father’s pursuit of Miss McCabe, but that is no longer what his father wants to hear. When the narrator refuses to go with his father to see Miss McCabe, the reader witnesses the first time the narrator has denied his father what he wants. This is a significant change in behavior and signals a shift occurring in their relationship.
Themes
His father visits Miss McCabe and comes back in a bad mood, reporting she had a mild heart attack and that she still thinks they are getting engaged at the end of August. He complains that she only thinks of plans for the future and decides the only solution is for him to “clear out.” The narrator realizes that his father is like the rabbit. The narrator asks where he will go and his father says home, of course. The narrator plans to stay. His father leaves as soon as the car can be packed, and the narrator helps him move all of the stuff to the car because he is ashamed of him.
Before her heart attack, Miss McCabe’s interest in the future would have perfectly aligned with the narrator’s father’s thoughts and intentions for a long-term relationship, earning his approval. But now that he has written her off in his mind because of her poor health, her long-term thinking becomes a flaw in his eyes. Instead of discussing this with her, he decides to run. In this moment, the narrator identifies his father as the rabbit fleeing from the stoat. Just as the rabbit tried to escape its imminent death, he is attempting to outrun the possibility of loss, grief, and death—but avoiding these things won’t get him any further away from the inevitable. Despite only being in Strandhill to see his father and Miss McCabe, the narrator chooses to stay rather than go with his father. This defines him as being unlike the rabbit; as he watches his father flee, he refuses to go with him. His father’s inability to face what scares him and to stay for the sake of Miss McCabe or his son makes the narrator admit he is ashamed of him. Their relationship seems to be firmly and definitively splitting in this moment.
Themes
His father says he hopes it doesn’t bother him that he is leaving. The narrator says it doesn’t. The narrator watches the car drive off. Once it is out of sight, the description of the rabbit’s flight is repeated: the rabbit ran all night from the stoat until it gave up and sat down in terror to wait for the stoat to kill it. The rabbit cries as the stoat consumes its blood.
The narrator’s father wants to confirm that the narrator is okay with him leaving, but had the narrator told him to stay, it seems highly unlikely he would have unpacked the car and faced Miss McCabe. In this sense, his father is going through the motions of asking for approval, but he does not really need it. At this point, the narrator and his father’s interests align: the narrator wants him to go because he’s ashamed of him, so he tells his father that his departure does not bother him. In repeating his vision of the rabbit’s flight and death as he watches his father drive off, the narrator firmly defines his father as the rabbit. He, like the rabbit, is a creature running from what he fears but unable to escape the inevitable, and so he is only prolonging his suffering.
Themes
