illiam Trevor Cox, born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1928, has been a full time writer since 1970, although he initially worked as a sculptor. He… [604273]

WILLIAM TREVOR

illiam Trevor Cox, born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1928, has been a full time
writer since 1970, although he initially worked as a sculptor. He graduated
from Trinity College, Dublin, with a degree in history. He worked in wood, clay and metal
and exhibited in Dublin and in several places in England. He started writing prose in 1958
and two years later he abandoned sculpture as his work had become too abstract. Both
themes and the form of his literary works echo his education and experience in sculpting. He
was awarded Hawthornden Prize for Literature (1964) for The Old Boys ; Royal Society of
Literature for Angels at the Ritz and Other Stories (1975); Whitebread Award for The
Children of Dynmouth (1976), Fools of Fortune (1983) and Felicia’s Journey (1994); Allied
Irish Banks Prize for fiction (1976); Post Book of the Year Award for The Silence in the
Garden (1988). His last novel is The Story of Lucy Gault (2002).
William Trevor’s writings are inspired by or placed in Ireland and have Irish
characters, although he has lived in London and is a Protestant. Like James Joyce he has
found a way to write about Ireland despite his being far from it, like Yeats he has chosen his
birth country as his main source of inspiration although he is a Protestant, unlike both of
them he has focused more on Anglo-Irish families, is more concrete in the description of
border-crossing situations and his characters are often “victims of large-scale traged[ies]”
(Mahony 203).
Fools of Fortune covers a period of almost eighty years and follows the evolution, or
rather involution, of an Anglo-Irish family involved in the fight for Ireland’s independence.
In Lucy Gault William Trevor creates another mixed family whose less tragic evolution
reminds of Fools of Fortune . The heroine fails to live her life waiting for her parents to
return. She remains stuck in the past, innocent and dressed in her mother’s clothes, paying
for the mistake of not leaving Ireland with her parents. Different and much appreciated,
Felicia’s Journey is an unhappy quest for love which escapes the Irish space without
abandoning the conflict between the Irish and the English.
W

Cultural elements in Fools of Fortune

People seen as “fools of fortune” seem to have become a must in Trevor’s novels
which thus raise the problem of whether the characters’ evolution is environmentally
determined or a result of their choices. (Anghel, 2008) Implicitly the choice-effect
concatenation is tackled and later rearrangements of events depending on more factors make
the initially right decisions return like a boomerang against the actors. Trevor’s novel feeds
the idea that Ireland is a much more unpredictable space than imagined, that effects cannot
be anticipated due to the ever changing context which eventually means instability or that the
characters’ decisions do not show full awareness of the environment and its possible reply.
Fools of Fortune makes us also wonder how much the national, cultural and social context
affects one’s decisions and why the Irish sometimes choose to escape their country and
themselves. As D. Morley and K. Robins state in Space of Identity the foreigners, the
strangers are “not only among us, but also inside us”, which leads to a “sense of existential
unease” (Morley 25) and alienation: “What has been alienated in the construction of our
identities comes back to haunt our imagination and disturb our peace of mind” (Morley 25).
The Irish’s split identity is the result of a continuous process of rejection − assimilation of
the intruder (the British).
The first chapter takes the reader about one hundred years back, to a moment when
there were intensive fights for Ireland’s independence. Willie is a descendant of a mixed
family (Anna Woodcombe who was English and her Irish husband William Quinton −
Willie’s great-grandparents) who lived in Co.Cork. Two generations later the daughter of an
English colonel, “a poor relation of the Woodcombes” (Trevor 1), married a Quinton and had
three children. The boy made history repeat by marrying his cousin, an Englishman related to
the Woodcombes. Such a complicated genealogy, meaning the interrelation of different
cultures, intermingled with the Irish − British conflict and eventually led to a symbolic
descendant: a daughter, Imelda, with a mental illness that isolated her from the community, a
daughter who is the repository of all the misfortunes that had attended her family.
The evolution of such a family as presented by William Trevor represents the essence
of the marriage between Ireland and Britain by pointing out how it affected the characters’
social and cultural identity. The smallest social unit that marked Willie’s identity was his
family: his parents (the English mother and the Irish father) made him different; the persons

living with them (aunt Pansy, aunt Fitzeustace, Father Kilgarriff, Josephine, Mr. Derenzy)
created a community where tolerance was established. Thus, Kilneagh becomes the Edenic
space that could be shared by people belonging to different cultures, nations, professions, and
an oasis of peacefulness. Yet, Willie can remember “slips” revealing his relatives’ hidden or
repressed identity.
In order to adapt to the place where he lived Willie had to be taught Irish history. His
first contact with Irish history was a result of the lessons Father Kilgarriff gave him. Being
informed about historical events from an Irish perspective, Willie’s personality was moulded
so as to embrace the idea of Irish freedom and sympathize with the Irish people. An event
that Father Kilgarriff considered very important was the battle that took place on 15 August,
1598, in which the Irish were victorious. Yet, Father Kilgarriff describes it as “the Irish
victory which the clever English had later turned into defeat.” (Trevor 20) According to
Hayes McCoy the above mentioned battle, one of the most important in Ulster, was begun by
some of the Ulster lords in 1593 and joined by Hugh O’Neil, earl of Tyrone: “Until 1597, the
English merely marched into the Irish territories and left garrisons in castles or roughly
constructed forts. O’Neil’s great victory at the Yellow Ford, north of Armagh, in 1598 made
them more cautious” (Hayes-McCoy 149). O’Neil submitted in 1603, the Battle of Kinsale,
which meant “the end of the old Irish world” (Hayes-McCoy 151).
Father Kilgarriff’s lessons were continued by Evie Quinton who spoke about the
English occupation and about how the Irish helped the English to do now what they were
done during the Ulster war (Trevor 21), by fighting in a war which was not theirs. Willie’s
mother, Evie Quinton, spoke less about her English origin, but whenever she did she showed
dignity. In a very short conversation she had with Michael Collins, the revolutionary head,
the latter asked her if she was English and she confirmed:

My mother’s voice conveyed no note of apology. I could not see her from where I stood
in the shadows of the hall, but I guessed that as she returned his stare the eyes that in calmer
moments reminded me of chestnuts had gleamed fierily, as they always did when she was
challenged or angry. There was injustice in Ireland was what my mother maintained: you didn’t
have to be Irish to wish to expunge it. She told Michael Collins that she was the daughter of an
army colonel and did not add that her marriage had taken place in an atmosphere of disapproval
and distrust, just before her father’s regiment had been recalled to England. (Trevor 28-29)

Hidden tensions are intuitively grasped, although Willie is of a very fragile age. He is
not informed about the reality around him, the people who love him try to shelter him from

the problems raised by the Irish − British conflict, from “the shadows” he steals glimpses of
the reality outside the harmonious family life he is made to believe in. He is a “creature of
the shadows”: rootless, with a fragmentary (“truncated”) life, unable to adjust to what
Kilneagh offered him after his parents’ death.
Collins’s revolutionary status placed him in conflict with Evie, despite her isolation
and her choice to share her life with an Irishman. His question was indeed a challenge, as he
knew the answer beforehand, which means that he was interested in her attitude. The way in
which she continued to talk showed her understanding of the Irish problem and that she did
not consider herself the enemy, but implied that she shared the Irish faith and would like to
expunge the injustice. She showed the same understanding and wished the Irish to get their
independence when she referred to the Easter Rising (1916), which might make her one of
them: “I wish the rising had succeeded that Easter” she said, “The whole thing would be over
by now.” (Trevor 21)
Later, after her husband and her daughters died killed by sergeant Rudkin, she could
not find power to continue to soberly live her live and eventually committed suicide. She was
not angry because of the war itself, as she could not understand the reasons for it. However,
she could not understand why an Englishman destroyed their family, how could such a
person continue to talk to people and have his own business, how could the others buy his
products. She would have probably liked the same Irish for whom her husband was killed to
punish him by isolating him. As the novel reveals, the Quintons were to continue to suffer,
not because of how they were, but merely because they had English origins and sympathized
with the Irish people.
Willie’s father did not forget his Irish origin and tried to keep himself informed about
the Irish problem and even to help the Irish revolutionary movement. Therefore, he received
back to his mill a former employee, Doyle, who had returned from the World War I and who,
despite his Irish nationality, turned out to be an informer. This demonstrates Doyle’s
alienation, a result of the displacement of his national framework (Morley 34). Mr Quinton
also used to read the Irish Times, which shows his interest in and sympathy with the Irish
cause. Later, he got involved in the Irish movement by inviting the revolutionary head,
Michael Collins, to his home and by helping him with money, exposing his family to
violence and death.
The episode refers to the Civil War which lasted until May 1923 and which was the
effect of the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed on 6 December 1921. Referring to both Griffith and
Collins, P. Lynch stated in The Course of Irish History : “If the treaty failed to offer the full

independence for which so many had fought, it did offer, Griffith suggested, a large measure
of Irish control over Ireland’s destinies. It offered what Michael Collins called the ‘freedom
to achieve freedom.’”( Treaty Debates , 19 Dec. 1921: 32 in Lynch 272)
When Doyle was murdered because of being an informer, his tongue was cut. This
news brought agitation at Kilneagh, the adults worried because of the unexpected violent turn
of the revolution and because it was brought too close to their home. The idea of revolution
stirred the children’s imagination. They were not really aware of what a civil war might
mean and were terrified at the cruelty of the images: Deidre, one of Willie’s sisters,
wondered what the murderers had done with Doyle’s tongue; Willie had a dream in which he
killed a Black and Tan (a British soldier). (Trevor 37)
It didn’t take long to the Black and Tans to arrive at Kilneagh and destroy both the
family and the house. Father and daughters were shot, Willie experienced everything as if it
were a nightmare in which strong sensations intermingled with elements of the family history
and images of the dead. Two of their employees helped Willie to escape:

There were further gunshots and one by one the dogs stopped barking (…). Something
touched my leg, the edge of a boot, I thought. It grazed the pain, but I knew that I must not call
out. I knew what Josephine had implied when she’d whispered to be still. The men who were
walking away must not be seen […]. My eyes were closed, and what I saw in the darkness was
Geraldine’s drawing of Doyle hanging from the tree, the flames of the drawing-room fire making
a harmless black crinkle of it. (Trevor 44)

The way in which events unrolled for the Quintons emphasizes the fact that
“Everything in Ireland was unsettled and on the edge.” Although the Quintons were
Protestants and had more English “roots”, they had helped the Irish since 1797 (Trevor 28)
and eventually were punished by the English as they were considered “traitors to our class
and to the Anglo-Irish tradition.” (Trevor 28) On the other hand, Irishmen like Doyle, who
was among the few returned from the war, betrayed their own nation and people, informing
the British about the revolutionary movement. Both situations suggest an alienation of
identities either determined by the social and economical context or by more intimate scopes,
as the love story in this novel wants to reveal. The Quintons chose to share the Irish fate,
neglecting the fact that their mixed origin made them more vulnerable. Their way should
have always been equidistant to what the British and the Irish people represented: “We
[father and son] made our way then, slowly, through the village, between the tow rows of
colour-washed cottages, past Driscoll’s shop and the Church of Our Lady Queen of Heaven.”

(Trevor 42) This way between the British economy and the Irish tradition symbolizes
father’s decision not to challenge the British with his attitude and deeds. When he chose to
help Michael Collins with money, following the example of his ancestors (Willie’s great –
grandfather who refused to host Major Atkinson of the militia in Fermoy and his “band of
soldiers”, Anna Quinton of the famine who was rejected by her British family because she
helped the Irish), he was also reluctant to taking revolutionary soldiers to his house. Because
of being fewer and less attached to the place, the British reply to Doyle’s murder was much
crueler. The survivors remained traumatized for the rest of their lives, as the story continued
to tell us referring less to historical circumstances and more to the pain caused by the above
mentioned deaths.
Willie’s life changed radically: he was brought up by Josephine as his mother chose
to drink and refused to overcome the tragedy, not even for the sake of her child. He had to
attend a Protestant school, which made him share the social life of the British minority. As
evidence of the reiteration of history, he fell in love with his British cousin. Marriages
between cousins within the Protestant community was a local habit which helped them
preserve their tradition but also affected their psyche and the capacity of integration into the
larger Anglo-Irish community. The continuity of the misfortunes was stimulated by Evie’s
suicide.
Another element that influenced the characters’ evolution was love which transcends
national and cultural borderlines. Willie loved his cousin very much and he would have liked
to marry her. Unhappily, his mother could not provide him with the warmth, tenderness and
support that he needed. He also felt guilty of her suicide because he left her alone in Cork
and went to Kilneagh that afternoon. The impact of his mother’s death was much greater than
his love for Marianne and he left Ireland.
At this point, William Trevor changes the narrator with Marianne who decided to go
to Ireland and live her life at Kilneagh. Marianne means a new perspective upon things since
her problems are more personal and domestic than those concerning Ireland’s fight for
independence. Evie shows interest in her son’s education and in preparing him for his life in
Ireland. As women and mothers, both Evie and Marianne choose their families first and
repress their cultural identity. Marianne’s choice was disapproved by her British parents who
refused to visit her in Ireland. Therefore, she had to redefine herself in the middle of the ruins
of an Anglo-Irish family and create a sane environment for her daughter in the absence of
Imelda’s father. On the other hand, she tried to transmit the Irish tradition and culture to
Imelda, with the help of Willie’s friends and aunts: “And Imelda’s mother replied by

speaking of Irish martyrs and Irish battles, and of the Easter Rising that years ago had taken
place.”(Trevor 164)
Marianne’s bitterness and anger flew over Imelda’s fragile soul and mind and instead
of helping her to integrate in the community that her mother considered right for her, the
experience made her isolate herself in her own world with her father as an Irish hero or as the
boy in the photograph “in one town after another”. Marianne wanted her daughter to be
brought up as an Anglo-Irish girl in Ireland, with her parents around, which made her refuse
her parents’ offer to give the child for adoption: “To have my child brought up as someone
else’s? To have forgotten her existence?” (Trevor 165)
Because of Willie’s unexpected departure, he and Marianne did not have the chance
to get married, which hardened the position of the child in the Irish community. She was
accepted at a Catholic church, although she was a Protestant, people loved her. Only one
colleague kept on addressing her by ugly words and rejected her. The Irish people did not
forget what the Quintons had done for them for centuries. In spite of the tolerant environment
Imelda could enjoy at Kilneagh and in the community, she was very much affected by
everything she had heard about her birth and life, uncertain information about an absent
father who could have justified their life at Kilneagh. Imelda has the most shattered identity
and apparently the most acute sense of not belonging to the place indulged in her mother’s
bitterness and a series of secrets that she happened to find out.
Imelda becomes a symbol of Ireland itself, repeatedly “invaded” by the British and
abandoned by the Irish, a country whose lost bearings lead to a “cultural psychosis”, to
identity disorder. The girl’s curative power so useful for the others and useless for herself
implies a complete surrender of identity and thus of the rejection of the others (Kristeva in
Morley 25). Her complete alienation and uprootedness or displacement suggest a “non-
referential” (placeless and timeless) sense of identity (Morley 39) and an oasis of
peacefulness for both the Irish and the British who visit her and try to help her.
Willie, Marianne and Imelda, the last standing for Ireland, are “creatures of the
shadows”, alienated as they have lost their sense of belongingness, of identity and open as
borderlessness mutilated their ability to respond to both internal (Irish) and external (British)
stimuli and made them accept everybody, irrespective of nation, culture, religion, social
group or class.