Structure

The short story “That Same Sea” by Adrian Markle begins in medias res, with the man and woman having breakfast. The story has a circular structure, beginning and ending with the man and woman on the balcony of their holiday let. At the beginning, the man looks “south, to the sea, and sometimes back east, towards home” (l. 2), while the woman looks towards the village. At the end, it is the man who looks towards the village (l. 131-134), while the woman heads back inside the room. Between these two points, the events in the story take place chronologically. 

The conflict in the story, between the man and the woman, is not stated directly, but it can be seen from several clues, such as the woman repeatedly teasing the man about being an “incom...