The Bear Came Over the Mountain

by

Alice Munro

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Bear Came Over the Mountain makes teaching easy.

Aubrey Character Analysis

Aubrey is temporarily a resident at Meadowlake while his wife and primary caregiver, Marian, goes to Florida for the winter; he becomes Fiona’s beloved companion at the facility. Grant describes Aubrey as maybe his age or older, with white hair and a melancholy but dignified face. Aubrey does not have dementia, but has neurological issues as the result of an illness. He used to be the local representative of a company that sold pesticides to farmers, but he was fired and accused of owing the company money; after a holiday taken during this time, he contracted an illness that resulted in a high fever, a coma, and Aubrey’s present state, in which he cannot walk and struggles somewhat with talking. Aubrey has difficulty with handling cards but loves to play bridge, an activity that Fiona helps him with. Aubrey gets upset when Fiona spends time with Grant, and creates a distraction so that Fiona will return to his side. Aubrey does not have visitors, a fact later explained by his and Marian’s son living in British Columbia. He calls Fiona “my love,” while Fiona calls him “dear heart,” and cries when he is taken out of Meadowlake and back to his home with his wife. At home, he mainly watches the sports channel, as Marian does not want to upset him with too much change or activity.

Aubrey Quotes in The Bear Came Over the Mountain

The The Bear Came Over the Mountain quotes below are all either spoken by Aubrey or refer to Aubrey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Love, Fidelity, and Marriage Theme Icon
).
The Bear Came Over the Mountain Quotes

She was wearing a silly wool hat and a jacket with swirls of blue and purple, the sort of thing he had seen on local women at the supermarket.

The fact must be that they didn’t bother to sort out the wardrobes of the women who were roughly the same size. And counted on the women not to recognize their own clothes anyway.

They had cut her hair, too. They had cut away her angelic halo. On a Wednesday, when everything was more normal [...] and when Aubrey and Fiona were again in evidence, so that it was possible for Grant to have one of his brief and friendly and maddening conversations with his wife, he said to her, “Why did they chop off your hair?”

Fiona put her hands up to her head, to check.

“Why—I never missed it,” she said.

Related Characters: Grant (speaker), Fiona (speaker), Aubrey
Related Symbols: Fiona’s Hair
Page Number: 287-288
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Bear Came Over the Mountain LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Bear Came Over the Mountain PDF

Aubrey Quotes in The Bear Came Over the Mountain

The The Bear Came Over the Mountain quotes below are all either spoken by Aubrey or refer to Aubrey. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Love, Fidelity, and Marriage Theme Icon
).
The Bear Came Over the Mountain Quotes

She was wearing a silly wool hat and a jacket with swirls of blue and purple, the sort of thing he had seen on local women at the supermarket.

The fact must be that they didn’t bother to sort out the wardrobes of the women who were roughly the same size. And counted on the women not to recognize their own clothes anyway.

They had cut her hair, too. They had cut away her angelic halo. On a Wednesday, when everything was more normal [...] and when Aubrey and Fiona were again in evidence, so that it was possible for Grant to have one of his brief and friendly and maddening conversations with his wife, he said to her, “Why did they chop off your hair?”

Fiona put her hands up to her head, to check.

“Why—I never missed it,” she said.

Related Characters: Grant (speaker), Fiona (speaker), Aubrey
Related Symbols: Fiona’s Hair
Page Number: 287-288
Explanation and Analysis: