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Who Was Morley Callaghan

Photo Author Morley Callaghan was born in Toronto in 1903. Although Callagan completed the Law program the University of Toronto, he never practiced law. Instead, Callaghan found his way into Journalism by working for the Daily Star, a Toronto newspaper. Callaghan was aided in his lierary journey by Ernest Hemingway, whom he met while working for the Daily Star. Hemingway aided Callaghan in getting some of Callaghan's short stories published in Paris. During a summer in Paris Callaghan and Hemingway faced each other in a boxing match. Callaghan won. A short documentary video based on this incident can be watched at the following link. It includes a reading from Callaghan's book That Summer in Paris (1963). Boxing

Literary Output

Writing Callaghan's literary production reached its height in the 1930s when he published five novels, one novella, and sixty-five short stories. However, from about 1937-1950 Callaghan wrote little fiction and focused on journalism instead. In the 1950s he began publishing fiction again. His first full length novel to be published since the 1930s was the 1951 work The Loved and the Lost. Recognition in Canada was hard-earned for the author, who was criticized for downplaying his Canadian background. But his dedication to writing was rewarded in 1951 when he received the Governor General's award for literature.

Introduction: Watching and Waiting

The short story Watching and Waiting was published in 1959 and is a prime example of Morley Callaghan's tendency to generalize his characters and environments in order to demonstrate the complexities of the human condition through the journey of one central character. In Watching and Waiting that character, Thomas Hilliard, makes decisions that, unbeknownst to him, will have a permanent impact on his live. In Watching and Waiting Hilliard’s journey, complimented by the story’s location, serves to show the complexity of human will and how man struggles against himself. It is suggested that religion is a basis for Callaghan’s focus on morality. There are no obvious religious overtones to this story; however, the story is built around the immorality of jealousy, one of the cardinal sins according to the Catholic Church, and its consequences. In order to achieve this universal study on the classical theme of unfounded jealousy Callaghan removes almost all obvious signs of Canadiana and creates a story that could be unfolding in various places around the world. Despite this, there are some “Canadian” themes in the story involving survival in nature and the rural versus the urban.

Characters

Thomas Hilliard - He is described only as "Thomas Hilliard, the lawyer". He is given a profession, but is not associated with any nationality and has no political or religious affiliations. The focus is instead on the range of emotions he feels towards his marital situation and the actions he takes based on these feelings. The first paragraph of the story describes briefly how Thomas began to spy on his wife. Thomas is a conflicted man. He wants to be happy and he wants his wife to be happy. He knows it is wrong for him to spy on his wife, but at the same time he cannot stop spying on her and being suspicious of her acquaintances, which strains their relationship and destroys his trust in her. Thomas struggles against his own tendency toward suspicion and in the end he is “filled with a profound sadness, as if he knew instinctively that no matter how hard he struggled, he would not be able to stop himself from sneaking up to the house like a spy” (375). Thomas cannot win the battle over himself. When he tries to engage in spying one last time it ultimately leads his wife to believe he’s a burglar. The moral of Thomas’ story is that jealousy does not pay off. It damaged the relationship between Marion and Thomas and Thomas’ desire to satisfy the curiosity of his jealousy one last time brings about his untimely death. For Thomas, jealousy had deadly consequences.

Marion Hilliard – Marion Hilliard is referred to only as Mrs Hilliard, wife, or simply “she” until the end of the story. Apart from a little text on pages 374-5 little is known about Mrs Hilliard. Most of the information about her is written from Thomas’ perspective. It isn’t until Thomas is shot that he finally calls her by her first name and acknowledges her individuality instead of in relation to him (“wife”)

Joe Whaley – Little is known about Joe Whaley, but in a Canadian sense he is like the settler who has mastered the land. He is a successful fisherman and seems happy to be out in the wilderness. His character, whose last name conjures images of nature, contrasts the lonely Mr and Mrs Hilliard who seem to experience only desolation in nature. Joe Whaley seems able to get by in nature, while Mr. Hilliard has to travel to the city to earn a living. Whaley’s character is important because he provides a face and a name to Mr. Hilliard’s suspicion.

Setting

The setting is perhaps the most Canadian part of the story, not so much in its description (though the farmhouse and lightning evoke images of Ontario cottage country, at least to this reader) but in the feeling it evokes in the story's characters. The story is set at an isolated farmhouse next to a lake where neighbour Joe goes fishing. Thomas Hilliard commutes from the farmhouse to an unnamed city a few days a week while Marion is stuck alone at the farmhouse. She describes the place as "dreadfully lonely" (374), with a pervasive feeling of desolation. Like some of the early Canadian immigrants, Marion finds nature lonely and is unable to live in harmony with the natural environment.

The weather prefigures the development of the story. The first two paragraphs of the story are a lead up to Thomas’ present situation. The third paragraph takes the reader to the evening in which the story takes place. That evening “the sky was darkening; the wind had broken the surface of the lake into choppy little waves with whitecaps, and soon it would rain.” (373) Thomas’ suspicion was building like the waves on the lake and, like rain, conflict was imminent. When Thomas leaves Marion a storm breaks out. The rain predicted at the beginning of the story is both natural weather and a manifestation of Thomas’ situation. Thomas finds himself alone, driving “through the desolation of the wooded valleys and the rain-swept fields of this country of his boyhood” (375). The stormy weather compliments his stormy internal state as he debates whether or not to go back to Marion.

Callaghan uses location cyclically in the same way the opening paragraph that talks about spying foreshadows the end of the story. The farmhouse where Callaghan lives is the place where he grows up. It is also the place where he dies. A circle of life is completed at the farmhouse. The farmhouse should be a symbol of family unity and man’s relationship with nature, as it was in early Canadian literature. Instead, it shows Thomas and Marion’s alienation from their rural environment and their dependency on the city for income and social activity.

Discussion Questions

Callaghan was criticized because his works were not obviously Canadian. Does Callaghan’s story seem un-Canadian in any way and does the Canadian author have an obligation to write something that is obviously Canadian?