Theater Motif

Throughout Mrs. Osmond, Banville returns to a theater motif in which he compares life to a play. On page 108, he writes of Isabel:

“She had always set a great store by the concept of personal independence: each life is given once, with no possibility of repetition or revision, and the individual actor on whom the vivifying gift is bestowed must play his hour upon the stage with unflagging conviction and in the full realisation that there will be only an opening night, with no “run” to follow.”

Isabel considers this as she remembers Ralph’s great contribution to her financially, although he realized not long before his death that the money that he helped her acquire might have been for the worse rather than the better. Here, Isabel wonders if he had any right to bestow upon her such a gift and consequent change of...