Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Moving Finger, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love, Obsession, and Control
Beauty and Objectification
Grief and Loneliness
Summary
Analysis
Three years later, the narrator hears the news of Mrs. Grancy’s death while he’s living in Rome. A few months later, Mr. Grancy passes through Rome on his way to begin a new job as Constantinople’s secretary of legation. The narrator recognizes that Grancy is using his work as distraction, a means of overcoming his grief—yet it’s this resolute exterior that betrays his inner suffering. The narrator and Grancy only discuss superficial topics and part ways after a few days. Sometimes, the narrator thinks, friendship fails to fulfill its traditional purpose.
The narrator recognizes that Mr. Grancy is throwing himself into his work as a way of running from his grief—yet the brave front he’s putting on is obviously contrived. This speaks to how grieving people feel pressured (whether by others or by themselves) to act like they’re okay, which only causes further emotional damage. The narrator also thinks that friendship, for all its promises of love and support during difficult times, fails to provide Mr. Grancy with what he needs. Even the narrator, his close friend of many years, feels like Mr. Grancy’s suffering drives a wedge between them—and in this way, Mr. Grancy’s grief affects him interpersonally as well as emotionally.
Themes
Literary Devices
Soon after this, the narrator returns to the United States for his own work. Mr. Grancy remains in Europe for several years, working tirelessly in international diplomacy. Eventually, Grancy is removed from the office due to a political redistribution, and the narrator hears that he’s returned to his house in the countryside. The narrator writes to Grancy, who responds the next day asking the narrator to visit that Sunday, along with any other old friends the narrator wants to invite. The prospect of a reunion disappoints the narrator a little—perhaps because people like to keep their friends’ troubles at a distance.
Again, Mr. Grancy’s focus on his work indicates that he’s trying to district himself from his grief rather than face it head-on. The narrator’s admission that he’s disappointed about seeing Mr. Grancy again is further evidence of how a grieving person’s relationships can suffer, since most people find it uncomfortable to witness a friend in such a vulnerable state.
Themes
On the same evening that the narrator hears back from Mr. Grancy, he runs into Claydon at their social club and invites him to the gathering on Sunday. Claydon, however, claims that he has a prior engagement. The narrator tries to adjust their plans around Claydon’s schedule, but Claydon flatly says that he doesn’t want to go to Grancy’s. This surprises the narrator, since he and Claydon were closer with Grancy than their other friends were.
Claydon’s reaction is surprising, since he was so close to the Grancys before Mrs. Grancy died. It’s unclear why Claydon is so averse to visiting Mr. Grancy—but given the narrator’s own discomfort at the idea, it may be because Claydon, too, finds it uncomfortable to witness their friend’s suffering.
Themes
Literary Devices
Claydon then reveals that he’s already been to visit Mr. Grancy since he’s been back. When the narrator asks whether Claydon doesn’t want to visit because Grancy changed beyond recognition during his time abroad, Claydon cryptically replies, “Oh, you’ll recognize him.” The narrator then asks whether Claydon and Grancy’s friendship has dissolved, and Grancy exclaims that he wishes it had. He’d do anything for Grancy, he says—except go back to Grancy’s house.
The narrator doesn’t know what to make of Claydon’s comment, but Claydon’s emphasis on the word “him” implies that there’s someone else the narrator won’t recognize at Mr. Grancy’s house. Given Claydon’s obsession with Mrs. Grancy’s portrait earlier in the story, this could mean that something about the painting has changed, to the point that the narrator won’t recognize it. Regardless, whatever happened at Mr. Grancy’s house was so traumatic for Claydon that he wishes he’d ended his friendship with Mr. Grancy altogether.
Themes
Literary Devices
Get the entire The Moving Finger LitChart as a printable PDF.
The narrator doesn’t know how to interpret what Claydon said, but he decides to go to Mr. Grancy’s house alone that Sunday. When the narrator meets Grancy at the train station, he immediately notices that Grancy is in high spirits; he no longer seems plagued by grief. Yet Grancy’s physical appearance has changed drastically since they last met: though only 45, grief has turned him into a tired, gray-haired old man. Nevertheless, Grancy seems sharp and lively as he and the narrator lightheartedly discuss their old interests.
Although Mr. Grancy doesn’t seem as miserable as he did when the narrator saw him in Europe, his dramatically aged appearance is a sign that he’s suffered greatly over the past five years. The physical changes in Mr. Grancy seem to be an outward manifestation of the emotional changes he’s gone through as he’s mourned Mrs. Grancy.
Themes
At Grancy’s house, the narrator still senses Mrs. Grancy reflected in every room and every object. He wonders if Mr. Grancy, beneath his cheerful exterior, perceives this as well—if he’s haunted by Mrs. Grancy’s ghost. Mrs. Grancy’s name seems to linger in the air whenever Mr. Grancy mentions her in passing, and it seems as though he’s still enveloped in her presence. The narrator marvels at how the dead can live on in this way.
Although Mrs. Grancy died several years ago, the narrator still feels her presence everywhere. His observation that Mrs. Grancy still seems alive, or like a ghost haunting Mr. Grancy, suggests that she’s still central to Mr. Grancy’s life. In this way, Mr. Grancy’s possessiveness over his wife seems to have lingered even after her death—he refuses to let her go.
Themes
The narrator and Mr. Grancy eat lunch and then take a long walk before returning to the house at dusk. Back inside, Grancy leads the narrator to the library, where Mrs. Grancy always used to welcome them with tea and a warm fire. The narrator remembers how young Mrs. Grancy looked when the evening light would pour into this room and illuminate her girlish features. By all accounts, the library looks the same as it always did, yet the narrator feels a strange resistance at the threshold of the room as he enters.
Even after Mrs. Grancy’s death, the narrator’s memories of her are focused solely on how beautiful she was—her appearance, it seems, is what made her valuable and memorable to the men in her life. Meanwhile, the “resistance” that the narrator feels at the threshold of the library ties back to Claydon’s refusal to return to Mr. Grancy’s house. This foreshadows the narrator encountering something disturbing in the library.
Themes
Literary Devices
When the narrator spots Mrs. Grancy’s portrait on the wall, he feels that something about her face has changed. As if reading the narrator’s mind, Mr. Grancy asks if he notices a difference and tells the narrator that five years have passed over Mrs. Grancy, just as they’ve passed over himself. Happiness is what kept Mrs. Grancy young in life, but now they can grow old together—this, Mr. Grancy says, is what his wife would have wanted.
It seems that Mr. Grancy had the portrait of Mrs. Grancy altered to look older, to ensure that she won’t be left behind as he ages. However, the reader can infer that this is just an excuse—Mr. Grancy likely had the portrait changed because he doesn’t want to feel alone as he gets older. This gives further insight into Mr. Grancy’s possessiveness over Mrs. Grancy, as he refuses to leave his wife behind even after she’s passed away. It’s also a testament to how much he's grieving beneath his cheerful exterior: he’s resorted to denying reality and acting as if Mrs. Grancy is still alive.
Themes
The narrator is horrified when he sees that Mrs. Grancy’s portrait does indeed look older: her face and hair seem duller, much like Mr. Grancy’s own aged, grief-stricken features. Mr. Grancy asks the narrator if he likes it, but the narrator exclaims that he’s “lost her.” Mr. Grancy retorts that he’s “found her”—the old portrait had become a lie, whereas this new version is how Mrs. Grancy would look now if she’d lived. Mr. Grancy explains that as soon as he arrived home, he’d sent for Claydon to alter the portrait. Suddenly, Mr. Grancy turns away and gestures for the narrator to come sit next to him by the fireplace.
The narrator seems to view the alteration of Mrs. Grancy’s portrait as a kind of betrayal, as Mr. Grancy essentially defaced Mrs. Grancy’s beauty—the very quality that everyone cherished about her. Mr. Grancy reveals that he had Claydon do this to the portrait, which explains why Claydon was so adamant about never visiting Grancy again. Claydon was obsessed with Mrs. Grancy’s beauty when she was alive (particularly the way he portrayed it in his painting of her), so changing the portrait likely felt like a betrayal to him as well.
Themes
