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Michal Golis (330988)

prof. Mgr. Milada Franková, Csc., M.A.

AJ54013: Britské spisovatelky na přelomu tisíciletí

29th April 2014

Have the Men Had Enough – A Commentary

Have the men had enough? When it first appears in Forster’s book the question simply

expresses g randma’s concern for the men she has always taken care of. Have they eaten

enough or are they still hungry? However, when the completely innocuous question from the

book’s title is placed in a different context it assumes radically different connotations. Have

the women had enough? Enough running the household while trying to take care of their old

parents, enough sleepless nights of having to attend to them, enough hopelessness, exhaustion

and desperation.

While Forster does not really get involved in the Feminist debate by overtly

advocating the issues of emancipation of women or accusing the British society of being

patriarchal or discriminatory, the very fact that she is posing such a question can be

interpreted as a way of female empowerment, questioning pre-conceived Western beliefs

about gender roles and family structure. The core of the book’s attention, however , is not

centered around the questions of gender roles. What Have the Men Had Enough primarily

focuses on is the place of the elderly, senile and dying in the British society and family. It is

both an intimate and moving portrayal of an ordinary family’s desperate efforts to deal with

the situation of a grandmother’s increasing physical and mental deterioration as well as an

unflinching critical look on the failure of the British social system to take care of its old

people.

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What makes the questions posed by the book so poignant and provocative is the fact

that they are not presented by an impersonal 3 rd person narrator nor through the cold and

rational lens of the book’s male characters but by young Hannah who, in spite of her doubts

and second thoughts, takes care of her grandmother and shows strong feelings towards her.

Hannah is furthermore speaking in the present tense, reflecting her active concern for the

present moment and future unlike her aunt Jenny , the book’s second n arrator, whose chapters

are narrated strictly in the past – quite passively and unquestioningly accepting everything as

it comes. By choosing Hannah as the book’s narrator Forster does not position herself in the

role of a moralist who has all the answers but, conversely, shows the ambivalence and

complexity of the questions she poses, which makes their asking all that more imperative.

“Why don’t more people kill themselves when they get old? Why do relatives not kill old

people more? What is the point of k eeping old people alive anyway? Haven’t the women had

enough as well as the men?” (13 -14)

Even though these questions have probably crossed the minds of all of the book’s

characters, Forster portrays a number of different attitudes towards and ways of coping with

the situation which the family members assume. As her sons Stuart and Charlie are not

willing to deal with their mother’s condition, preferring instead to pay for professional care,

the bulk of responsibility lies on the women in the family – Bridget, Jenny and Hannah. While

Bridget is probably the only member of the family who truly loves grandma, both Jenny and

Hannah show genuine care about her wellbeing. In the end, in spite of their profound personal

differences and disagreements the family is united by the tragedy they all have to face in one

way or another.