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Stephen Connolly
Richard is husband to Sheba and father to Polly and Ben. A moderately successful communications professor, Sheba once worshipped Richard, though Barbara finds him pretentious (and Mrs. Taylor sees Richard’s academic work as far inferior to that of her own late husband, the economist Ronald Taylor). Richard is much older than Sheba, and the two met when Richard was Sheba’s college professor, a fact that sometimes makes Sheba feel as if she missed out on crucial episodes of her young adult life. At the same time, however, Richard is often attentive and caring, as when he renovates their family’s basement to provide Sheba with a pottery studio. Though Richard is oblivious to early signs of Sheba’s affair with Connolly, once the affair fills the tabloids, Richard asks for a divorce. The narrative implies that after this split, Richard begins a relationship with one of his 25-year-old graduate students, which he feels no shame about—even as it signals, to Sheba, the unfair double standards by which society judges men and women.
Richard Hart Quotes in What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal
The What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal quotes below are all either spoken by Richard Hart or refer to Richard Hart. 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:
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Chapter 6 Quotes
But then, I always wonder, what must it be to have a beautiful body? A body that you don’t want to escape? Several years ago, when Jennifer and I went to Paris together for a weekend break, we saw a woman dancing on the bar at a little bistro in Montmartre. She was very pretty and very, very young. All the men in the place were dribbling slightly. It was a silly thing really, but just for a moment, as I watched them watch her, I remember feeling that I would give anything—be stupid, be poor, be fatally ill—to have a little of her sort of power.
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The man in front of me at the checkout laid his purchases on the conveyor belt with a terrible, shy precision: a jar of instant coffee; a single kaiser roll with a smudge of dirt on its hard crust; a tin of tuna; a large jar of mayonnaise; two boxes of Kleenex. I thought of the casually extravagant meal that I had just eaten at the Harts’. They surely never shopped at overpriced, unhygienic little supermarkets like this one. No, they would take advantage of their economies of scale and make jolly family expeditions to the flagship Sainsbury’s.
[…] For a second, I had an impulse to shout at the man in LoPrice—to tell him that I was not like him at all, that I had friends. […] How deluded I was! But how happy!
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Chapter 8 Quotes
That was how I felt about Sheba’s household. When I walked to my car at the end of an evening spent there, I would have to fight the childish instinct to whirl around and check that the house was still standing—that it hadn’t disappeared into the ether, like some fairy illusion. Later, as I lay in bed, I would try to imagine the Harts settling down for the night: each family member journeying to and from the bathroom—the swoosh of toothbrushes, the shouts up and down the staircase, the yelps of laughter, and then the noise slowly dying out until the only sounds in the house were the murmur of bedsheets and the flup flup of book pages being turned. Sooner or later, I always grew incredulous. This was all make-believe, wasn’t it? Surely the family ceased to exist when I wasn’t there?
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Chapter 11 Quotes
It wasn’t just the dreadful folly of Sheba’s actions—the squalor of what she was now involved in—that upset me; it was the immense duplicity that she had so casually revealed. We had spoken of the deceit that she had been practising on Richard, on her children, on the school, even. But nothing had been said by either of us about her deceit of me.
[…] Slowly, however, as the cigarettes and the Swiss roll dwindled, my rage began to evaporate. […] She hadn’t meant to hurt me. Evidently she had wanted to tell me from the start. […]
Sheba is my friend, I told my reflection. She needs me now. Portia sat on the side of the tub, observing my teeth-brushing with her usual hauteur. I spat and rinsed, and put on my cold cream. Who else will help her, if I don’t?
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Chapter 16 Quotes
“There are no lies in there, Sheba. There’s nothing in there that you didn’t tell me yourself.”
She made a strange, guttural noise of exasperation. “You’re mad! How did I never see it before? You’re mad! You really believe this stuff is the truth. You write about things you never saw, people you don’t know.”
“Well, that’s what a writer does, Sheba.”
“Ohhh, you’re a writer now?” She began to laugh. I lunged forward to get at the manuscript, but she danced away again, holding it high above her head.
[…] :All this time, you’ve been pretending to be my friend and what you’ve really wanted is, is material […]. Those awful things you write about my family,” she went on. “About Richard. How much you must hate us! I suppose that’s the spinster’s consolation, isn’t it? Examining the machineries of other people’s marriages and pointing up the flaws.”
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When [Sheba] spoke again, her voice was low and menacing. “You have such delusions of grandeur, don’t you? It’s fascinating. You actually think you’re somebody. Listen. Let me tell you something. You’re nothing. A bitter old virgin from Eastbourne. You aren’t fit to shine Richard’s shoes.”
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Richard Hart Character Timeline in What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal
The timeline below shows where the character Richard Hart appears in What Was She Thinking?: Notes on a Scandal. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Foreword
...do once Eddie returns, since she has given up her own lease and Sheba’s husband Richard won’t take them in.
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After weeks of crude newspaper headlines, Richard asked Sheba to move out, claiming it was for their children’s sake. Sheba stayed at...
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Chapter 4
Christmas comes, and Sheba celebrates it with her husband Richard, her children and stepchildren, and Richard’s ex-wife. Barbara spends Christmas with her sister and brother-in-law,...
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Chapter 5
...Barbara reflects, Ben is doing okay with his parents’ separation. It helps that Sheba and Richard are fairly honest with him, explaining that “mummy is in trouble for being friends with...
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...it is a mistake to meet him there, but that night, she finds herself telling Richard that she has to meet an old friend.
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Sheba returns home, expecting Richard to immediately sense her transgression. But instead, he merely watches TV, absentmindedly asking Sheba how...
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Chapter 6
...Barbara, who cleaned obsessively before the last time Jennifer came to her apartment, Sheba and Richard are messily relaxed about their home. Though Barbara scoffs at the underwhelming bookshelves, she has...
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Richard comes in, and Barbara is struck by the fact that he is much older than...
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At dinner, Barbara impresses Richard with her offhand reference to a Turgenev novel, and he spends the rest of the...
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...of dating boys and having fun. Sheba reflects on her youthful fantasies, before she met Richard (he was one of her professors). Sheba married Richard shortly after meeting him—she was only...
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Chapter 7
...Connolly was so admiring of Sheba’s beauty. And rather than making her feel distant from Richard, this newfound confidence made their marriage seem (at least in Sheba’s mind) warmer and more...
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Chapter 8
...Barbara used to wonder if it was all make-believe, too perfect to be real. Even Richard’s pedantic lectures had seemed endearing, at least when viewed through Sheba’s eyes. After all, as...
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Before learning about Connolly, Barbara was sure that Sheba was faithful to Richard. Indeed, though Sheba sometimes expressed misgivings about getting married at 20, she never blamed Richard...
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In the present, Sheba calls Barbara in a panic, explaining that Richard has asked one of his graduate students to serve as Sheba’s chaperone when she is...
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Sheba asks if Polly might be the chaperone, but Richard informs Sheba, “she doesn’t want to see you.” So Sheba relents, agreeing to let the...
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Chapter 9
...to an evening at the beginning of June. On that night, Barbara is eating with Richard and Sheba when they get a call from Polly’s school, informing them that Polly has...
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Sheba goes to pick Polly up from her boarding school. On the way back, Richard runs to grab take-out while Polly and Sheba sit in the car, silently stewing. This...
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When Richard returns to the car, Polly refuses to eat the food he brings with him. Sheba...
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Chapter 11
...out tremendously. Sheba begs Barbara to come over and act as a buffer, especially because Richard’s ex-wife and stepdaughter will be joining the Hart family to watch the yearly fireworks.
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...Sheba scrambles to whip up some pasta, she complains to Barbara about Polly’s terrible behavior. Richard’s ex-wife arrives, and she is quick to comment (a little snidely) on how “simple and...
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...Connolly (whom she always calls “Stephen”) are actually “more powerful” than what she feels for Richard and her children. Sheba insists that the entire point of the experience is “there have...
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Chapter 12
...be with Polly and Ben, doing a big easter egg hunt in their garden. But Richard will not allow Sheba to spend holidays with their children, so instead she is here,...
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...whether he might be having sex with other women. Things are also going badly with Richard—they are always ostensibly fighting about Polly, but Sheba knows that part of her resentment stems...
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Chapter 14
...so. Instead, she listens as Sheba confesses sneaking Connolly into the basement when Ben and Richard were just upstairs.
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...her relationship with her mom has always been fraught, as Mrs. Taylor looks down on Richard as a second-rate scholar, especially when compared to her own husband Ronald.
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When they get back to the Harts’ home the next morning, Sheba tells Richard about hitting Polly, acting as if it was not a big deal. Barbara offers to...
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...out the door, not wanting to listen to Polly tearfully recount the previous night to Richard. Though it is cold outside, Sheba gets on her bike, riding aimlessly around London for...
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...if he kisses her on the mouth or on the cheek. When she returns home, Richard is angry that she hasn’t called (“I already have one teenager to deal with,” he...
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On New Year’s, Richard and Sheba decide to stay in. Barbara, too, spends the night by herself—her New Year’s...
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Chapter 15
...it doesn’t matter—just half an hour later, Connolly’s mother arrives at the Harts’ door. Though Richard tries to shoo Connolly’s mother away, Sheba stops him, knowing that she can no longer...
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Chapter 16
...Barbara, but “you’re nothing. A bitter old virgin from Eastbourne. You aren’t fit to shine Richard’s shoes.”
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