JCO Discussion Blog

Woman in Black

The woman in black intrigues me. When I read The Falls, I thought she was Nina Olshaker, recognizing Dirk in Royall, making love to Royall as she had not been able to do with his father. On the other hand, the scene in the cemetery is eerie and unreal enough to make a case for her being a phantom. Her diction reminded me of Claudine, but Claudine would have been much older and never would have worn those clothes, and her hair was blond, not black, and she was always impeccably coiffed and never barefoot.

Nina is described as the Woman in Black in the "Before" chapter in part two. "She was the Woman in Black. She was observing him, she was waiting to waylay him. She was patient, relentless. Waiting for him...." Dirk forgot her name and "imagined Death." Maybe the woman in black in the cemetery scene is Death, maybe Royall makes love with Death, but I prefer to think it is Nina twenty years later. On page 286 JCO writes "And there was the woman in black waiting for him...." On the next page she writes "Royall realized that the woman must have been waiting for him." The Woman in Black in Part 2 too closely parallels the woman in black in Part 3 for it to be a coincidence.

I really wanted Ms. Oates to confirm this when I met her at the book signing after her reading at the CHF. However, she did not. Her concern was elsewhere, and I am left to speculate, as I frequently am in the aftermath of her novels.

posted by Jane @ 5:01 PM