Setting

Time and physical setting

The short story “An Act of Vengeance” by Rosemund J. Handler is not explicit about the time and physical setting, but there are hints that suggest the events take place sometimes in the 1990s, after the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa. For example, the references to mobile phones and intercom put the story in a modern setting. Also, Miss C. Bester mentions that “ ‘…it's different now in this country. We're all the same now’ ” (p. 86, l. 18). The main events of the plot span from morning until lunch on a particular day.

The place of the events is Miss C. Bester’s home, a “house with too many rooms and a useless, spotless dishwasher” (p. 86, l. 34). The house is described after a party, using Pauline’s perspective while she cleans it. At first, the setting focuses on the dirty dishes(p. 86, ll. 26-28). The description contrasts the dirty dishes with the spotless dishwasher and becomes symbolic of discrimination in South Africa. Miss C. Bester does not allow her black maid to use it because she thinks Pauline is inferior and does not know how to operate the machine. Also, the dishwasher is representative of the white’s people wealth and privileges in relation to the poor black population. 

Another description helps to suggest that Pauline disapproves of her employer’s lifestyle and that the work she does is exhausting and humiliating:

Pauline gets down on her hands and knees and scrubs the carpets free...