Walter Morel Timeline and Summary

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Walter Morel Timeline and Summary

  • Meet Walter Morel, a man of simple pleasures who lives for the moment and loves to laugh really loudly.
  • His zest for life quickly wins the heart of a pretty young woman named Gertrude.
  • But Walter fibs about his personal finances to get her to marry him. Strike one.
  • And oh yeah, he decides six months into his marriage that he loves to drink. Strike two, three, and four billion.
  • As time passes, Walter drinks more and starts to fight with Gertrude when she accuses him of coming home drunk.
  • One night, Walter drops a kitchen drawer against his shin and boots it with rage right into Gertrude's face. It strikes her in the head and opens a gash.
  • Walter tries to help stop the bleeding, but Mrs. Morel tells him to get away.
  • Right when we don't have one iota of pity left for the guy, Walter takes ill, and his wife nurses him back to health.
  • After this, he starts faking illness for the sake of getting sympathy. But it's clear that his wife doesn't really love him anymore.
  • More time passes, and Mr. Morel starts to fade into the background of his family life. He isn't welcome in his own home.
  • Understandably so.
  • Then he gets into an accident while mining, and has to be brought to a hospital away from his home. Mrs. Morel gets on a train and brings him some clothes and toiletries. How nice.
  • He's off his feet for quite a while after that, having smashed his leg up really badly.
  • From this point on, Morel only exists as a sort of ghost in his own home. He shows up every now and then in a drunken rage, uniting his wife and his son Paul against him.
  • When Walter's son William dies, he is unable to conjure up any emotion. He avoids the graveyard where William is buried.
  • The only thing he seems to feel is anger. Once, he nearly punches his son Paul in the face, but stops when his wife starts complaining of health problems.
  • After his wife, Gertrude, gets sick and dies, Walter is at a complete loss. He seems almost embarrassed to be in his own home.
  • Now that William, Annie, and Arthur are all gone, he decides that he can't live with Paul anymore. He and his son go their separate ways.
  • The last we hear of Mr. Morel the Elder, he's gone to live with a nice family somewhere.
  • Fine.