The Way Up To Heaven

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions and references to abuse and coercive control, accident, and death.

“Mind you, it is by no means certain that this is what he did, yet whenever they were to go somewhere, his timing was so accurate—just a minute or two late, you understand—and his manner so bland that it was hard to believe he wasn’t purposely inflicting a nasty private little torture of his own on the unhappy lady.”

This early passage outlines the central conflict of the story—Mr. Foster is purposely triggering Mrs. Foster’s anxiety about being late. This passage is an example of the narrator’s tone. It is formal and maintains a sense of distance while also giving a clear personal opinion on Mr. Foster and his behaviour. This means that the narrator can point to the difficulty of knowing things about characters while indicating that a reasonable person would deduce that Mr. Foster is deliberately cruel. The language describing Mr. Foster’s behavior is markedly pejorative: “a nasty private little torture.” In this way, the story both makes ethical judgments and asks questions about the nature of ethical judgments, setting up the ethical conundrum to follow.

“And one thing he must have known—that she would never dare to call out and tell him to hurry. He had disciplined her too well for that.”

This exemplifies the Fosters’ unbalanced power dynamic. That Mr. Foster has “disciplined” Mrs. Foster suggests physical or emotional control and abuse, and a misogynistic attitude that allows for her training or correction, like a child or a pet. The narrator here reveals that Mr. Foster “knows” this, and so his behavior has been deliberate. This passage also shows the reader that Mrs. Foster’s suffering is longstanding and contextualizes her reaction to it as the victim of abuse, helping to prevent victim-blaming by the reader.