The story follows Mabel and her brothers as they discuss her living situation. Mabel seems depressed and apathetic. Dr. Jack Ferguson enters and takes an interest in Mabel. Later, Mabel nearly drowns at a pond but is saved by Dr. Ferguson. He cares for her at home and they share a kiss, though Mabel seems frightened by his affection. The story explores themes of the role of women in society, ideas of love, and psychological issues of depression.

3. The short story begins with three
brothers and one sister around a table, they
seem to be in a kind of bad mood; Mabel,
the sister, is always apathetic about her
brothers are saying to her.
While we experience a brief
description of the characters Mabel and Joe
who is the eldest brother, the narrator tells
about a cavalcade that is passing by their
house. Later, we have a description of Fred,
the second brother, and Malcolm, the
youngest one, is just announced in the
story. Then, they start asking Mabel about
what she is going to do, apparently about a
job and a place to live. She keeps the same
behavior as before, she did not answer to
the questions. Jack Ferguson, a doctor,
enters in the story and they talk about his
cold and about the moving of the brothers.

4. Then, we have a description of the Later, he meets Mabel
family’s history. Their father was a again, she is going to a pond
horse-dealer and they were rich, but and suddenly she drowns in the
now their father was dead and they all pond. He save her and takes her to
are poor. At this point, the reader her house. There, he undresses her,
knows about her mother, who is puts dry cloths and give her whisky.
already dead, and her sister who went She opens her eyes and says that he
away, giving an idea of how lonely she loves her. At this moment, the
is. narrator describes a strange
In that afternoon, she takes a fascination that Jack has about
bag, with some objects in there, goes Mabel; he is completely enchanted by
to a graveyard next to a church and her as she continues to say that he
arranges some chrysanthemums in a loves her.
cross. She fells “connected” with her After a kiss, he confesses
mother doing that. Then, the doctor that he loves her. But, in the very end
sees Mabel at the graveyard but he of the story Mabel is frightened by
only stares at her, he feels attracted to Jack’s intonation when he says that
her in some way. he wanted her, she is not sure if he
really loves her.

5. •Mabel •role of women in
•Joe society is constantly an
•Fred issue.
•The true idea of love
•Malcom
•Psychological issue
•Dr. Jack Ferguson
•depressed and
desperate

7. born Jan. 6, 1931, New York, N.Y.,
U.S.) U.S. novelist. Doctorow worked
as an editor and has since taught at
colleges and universities. His best-
selling novels have often focused on
the working class and the
dispossessed of earlier decades in the
U.S. The Book of Daniel (1971)
concerned the Rosenberg spy case.
Ragtime (1975; film, 1981)
incorporates actual early 20th-
century American figures. Loon Lake
(1980), World's Fair (1985), and Billy
Bathgate (1989; film, 1991) examine
the Great Depression and its
aftermath. City of God (2000),
concerns the efforts of a New York
City Episcopal minister to renew his
faith.

8. "Willi" by E.L. Doctorow,
from American Short Story
Masterpieces

9. •Willi •Psychological
•Mother •Loss of innocence
•Father •- the story strikes the
•Ledig(The Tutor) familiar Oedipal note