Waiting for Dilly

Maurice and Charlie’s act of waiting for Dilly symbolizes the persistent struggle towards personal and interpersonal fulfillment. This storyline appears to be inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, which centers on two men waiting for some type of personal or spiritual salvation. However, while the characters of that play are denied closure, Maurice and Charlie accept their alienation from Dilly and take solace in their friendship as a source of fulfillment.

The Seven Distractions

Maurice’s ideas about the seven ‘distractions’ of life symbolize how personal outlook affects one’s relationship to personal fulfillment. In his early fifties, Maurice expresses the idea that only seven things can distract a person from the horrors of existence: love, grief, pain sentimentality, avarice, lust, and a desire for death. At first, this view is presented as cynical, but Maurice later readjusts his outlook and...