Housekeeping

“That is to say that she conceived of life as a road down which one traveled, an easy enough road through a broad country, and that one’s destination was there from the very beginning, a measured distance away, standing in the ordinary light like some plain house where one went in and was greeted by respectable people and was shown to a room where everything one had ever lost or put aside was gathered together, waiting. She accepted the idea that at some time she and my grandfather would meet and take up their lives again, without the worry of money, in a milder climate. She hoped that he would somehow have acquired a little more stability and common sense.”

These words demonstrate Sylvia’s religious beliefs and describe how she feels about her husband’s death, which she considers to be a defection. These words provide her with some stability as she believes the outcome of her life is already determined. Robinson’s novels frequently deal with issues central to Calvinist Christianity, and these beliefs reflect a Calvinistic view of predestination, in which a person is destined to salvation or damnation from the beginning of their lives.

“When she had been married a little while, she concluded that love was half a longing of a kind that possession did nothing to mitigate.”

The theme of possession and longing are explored in numerous parts throughout the novel. These words describe Sylvia’s view of her husband and her marriage, and it precedes a discussion of a pendant with seahorses that Edmund once gave her that she could barely take her eyes from. In the novel, longing and loss keep love at the center of a person’s mind.

“The years between her husband’s death and her eldest daughter’s leaving home were, in fact, years of almost perfect serenity.”

Unlike her husband, Sylvia is a person of stability. She has no desire to leave her home, and it is said that part of her happiness during these years comes from the fact that she never needs to chase success now that Edmund is gone. She can remain content caring for her home and caring for her children through that housekeeping.