Structure

Title

The title of the short story “Solo Dance” by Jayne Anne Phillips does not directly indicate what the story is about. Upon reading the story, readers might associate the title, which refers to a dance, with the main character’s memory of her first ballet lesson:

When she was very young, she had started ballet lessons. At the first class her teacher raised her leg until her foot was flat against the wall beside her head. He held it there and looked at her. She looked back at him, thinking to herself it didn’t hurt and willing her eyes dry. (ll. 19-22)

However, it is difficult to interpret the title based on this backstory alone. The full meaning of the title is symbolic and revealed by various other details in the story.

The story presents a woman who visits her father, who is ill, in the hospital. She cares for her father, reading him his get-well cards (ll. 7-8), and helping him with small tasks such as shaving and combing his hair (ll. 11-13). The story does not include any reference to how the woman feels about her father’s illness, about their relationship, or about her mother. The woman goes through the motions, being there for her father but not communicating with him beyond reading his get-well cards. Her lack of emotion also suggests that she is emotionally closed-off to herself. The story does suggest, however, that she has a distant relationship with her parents: “She hadn’t been home in a long time.” (l. 1)

Meanwhile, her father seems preoccupied with two matters: his illness and his divorce from the woman’s mother, which he mentions several times: “Well, he said, I don’t think they had anything to do with it. He was speaking of his divorce two years before.” (ll. 8-10); “I can’t wait till I get some weight on me, he said, so I can knock down that son-of-a-bitch lawyer” (ll. 15-17). The woman...

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