Edwin

Outer characterization

Edwin is another important character of the short story “How I Learnt to be a Real Countrywoman” by Deborah Moggach. Edwin is married to Ruthie, with whom he has three children. While in the countryside, Edwin works as a carpenter:

He became a carpenter – sorry, Master Joiner – and he worked with two men, all of them bearded (…) They toiled in a barn, looking like an illustration in my old Golden Book of Bible Stories, while Fats Waller played on their cassette recorder. They made very expensive and uncomfortable wooden furniture. (ll. 69-76)

Before moving to Somerset, Edwin used to teach graphics in an art school (l. 62). He was born in “Dorset, where his father was a vicar and he a pale, only child” (l. 193). His only other physical trait is his beard: “Since we had moved to the country he had grown a beard; it made him look like Thomas Carlyle.” (ll. 8-9)

Inner characterization

Everything readers get to know about Edwin is told from Ruthie’s perspective. Ruthie describes him as a “romantic puritan” ...