Before Elizabeth knows that Walter has died in the mines—believing, instead, that he has not come home because he’s out drinking—she complains to her daughter about his inevitable drunken return, using a simile in the process:
“They’ll bring him when he does come—like a log.” She meant there would be no scene. “And he may sleep on the floor till he wakes himself. I know he’ll not go to work tomorrow after this!”
Elizabeth’s statement that Walter’s friends will bring him home “like a log” helps readers understand that he has been brought home drunk many times before. Not only drunk, but so drunk that he has lost consciousness (and is therefore log-like). This context is important, as it clarifies why Elizabeth has become so resentful toward her husband over the years, coming to feel emotionally isolated from him in the process.
This moment is also an example of foreshadowing because, as readers later witness, Walter’s body is brought home “like a log” but only because he is dead. Elizabeth’s vision of Walter “sleep[ing] on the floor” and “not go[ing] to work tomorrow after this” also proves to be true but, again, only because he is dead, not because he is hungover. In this way, Lawrence subtly foreshadows the reveal to come.
