The Bath by Janet Frame
In The Bath by Janet Frame we have the theme of loneliness, control, reliance, loss, struggle, mortality and connection. Narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator the reader realises after reading the story that Frame may be exploring the theme of loneliness. The old woman throughout the story is alone. When she gets stuck in the bath despite calling out for help nobody comes to assist her. When she is placing the flowers on her husband’s grave she is again alone. In fact that old woman is so alone in life that she appears to long for a time when she herself is dead. It is as though life has become one long difficulty for the old woman. She no longer has control over her body. The tasks she would like to perform. Something as simple as getting out of the bath or taking down a pot of jam from a shelf. Are no longer something that the old woman can do with ease. She has to rely on others to assist her. This may be significant as it suggests that time has caught up with the old woman. Yet she is very much alive when it comes to feeling loss. Something that is noticeable by the fact that the old woman tends to her husband’s grave on each anniversary of his death. The past is very much alive for the old woman. Whether she might like it to be or not.
Frame also appears to be exploring the theme of struggle. The old woman struggles with every task she performs. She also may struggle with the loss of her husband. Not only emotionally is she still attached to her husband as one would expect a widow to be. But she also relies on him physically. If he was still alive he would be able to help the old woman out of the bath. No longer would she have to struggle. The sense of struggle that the old woman feels would also lead the reader to believe that Frame is suggesting that life may be getting to be too much for the old woman. It is as though she wishes for her life to be over. Which would play on the theme of mortality. If anything the old woman longs to be dead such is the difficulty she incurs in life. Not only is the longing for death driven by loneliness but it is also the fact that the old woman’s body is wearing out. As mentioned she is no longer able to do the things she once was and is reliant on others to assist her. If anything there is no joy in the old woman’s life. Everything is a struggle that is tinged with sadness.
It may also be possible that the loss of her husband is just too much for the old woman. Though she attends his grave for his anniversary it is most likely that she is a frequent visitor to the grave. Even though Frame doesn’t give any details as to the type of relationship the old woman had with her husband there is still nonetheless a sense that the old woman loved and continues to love her husband. It may also be significant that the old woman can no longer enjoy the simple things in life (looking at the sky) as this suggests that the old woman may have given up on life. It is as though she has been defeated by her body and the fact that she is alone. Simple things are no longer simple for the old woman. Everything is an effort which may not be worth it to the old woman. She appears to be comfortable with the idea of death. Something that is symbolically noticeable by the fact that the old woman wishes she could fall asleep in the graveyard. It is as though the graveyard is the only place where the old woman is able to find peace. Also she would be near her husband.
The end of the story is also interesting as Frame through her description of the world around the old woman may be suggesting that life goes on regardless. The traffic still moves and people or strangers still have places to go. These observations may be important as it is through them that the reader senses that the old woman is no longer connected with the world. She is a stranger among strangers. It might be true that her nephew will come and stay with her but the old woman still longs to be dead. She sees no positivity in the world and if she does (nephew coming) it is soon beaten down by the negativity that the old woman feels about life. Whether it is the loneliness the old woman feels or the loss of her husband or even a combination of both the old woman does not appear to be enjoying the life she is living. Not only has her body let her down but her mind too lacks any sense of optimism. While many would like to live on forever in life this is not the case for the old woman. Any comfort that the old woman has felt in life is gone. She is alone, beaten and unable to live her life as she would like to.
This blog really helped me during my exams and test. So from now onwards I will be using this site for my English … Thx for helping
Hi, can you explain how the bath is aging with the old woman?
I would need to read the story again. Though perhaps the bath is the same bath that the old woman had when she first moved into the house. It is as old as the woman herself. Also the characteristics of the bath might be worth looking at. How Frame describes the bath.
As an IGCSE English student, I believe the bath is meant to represent death or a fear of it, despite the old woman’s determination to present herself, the bath is like a cliff edge. To most people, this is no worry, yet for this woman, it is a struggle, with the years, comes more struggle etc….
This could be completely wrong but this is just my take on it 🙂
I think this is not a short story, this is theme of that story.
Why is there theme of control if I may ask?
I got lots of information now, I will explain the story tomorrow and I am going to remind my students about the theme of this story thanks a lot.
I’m studying for my exam and i need help with the old lady’s character sketch could u plz help
Thanks what a great website. Really helped me with my homework.
Wow! You covered all the points in the essay approximately…Great job looking forward to that but I have a question (I’m a teacher in Sabis International School). Why does the narrator plan to visit her husband’s grave on Saturday?
Hello I heard you teach at a SABIS school I study at one and we are currently reading and studying this story. Its my first year and I’m struggling a lot is there any tips you could give me?
I think another theme is of nostalgia. The old woman deeply feels the loss of many things in her life and wishes for them to be restored. When she is in the bath, she wishes for her husband to have been alive, so that they could have helped each other. She remembers the time when she could do things on her own but now has to rely on others to do them for her. For instance, she herself had made the jam and put it on the top most shelf. Now, she needs help to take it down.
Again, while she is comparing the graves of her parents with that of her husband there is a yearning for the time when there were wide open spaces, that are taken up by people due to over population.
The comparison of the graves may also allude to her own narrowing world. Whereas before, she had freedom of movement, now the space in which she can operate is getting narrower and narrower with time.
Hello could you explain the grave part…i couldn’t understand
But as I’m reading the story I’ve noticed that the old woman didn’t rely on others for help. For instance, when her relatives tried to help her she refuses. Also, she refuses to live with them and preferred to live alone.
Can you also include text quotations if you write analyses of other stories. That really might help me as I would know which quotations might be actually related to the themes.
A large part of the story consists of the women’s struggle to get out the bath. How does this help the author get her message across and what might this message be?
Thank you.
What is the significance of the title “The Bath”
The woman is struggling through out the story and a bath is usually a place where an individual would refresh themselves (or wash themselves). Symbolically there is no sense that this is happening for the woman. Her life has become painful since the death of her husband and her body is letting her down.
The Bath is a litmus test of what the old lady can and cannot do for herself. She has to reconcile with the fact that she might not be able to take a bath by herself anymore and would need the help of a nurse to do it. She finds this to be a humiliating thought.
She feels content when she is at the cemetery but on her way back, as she comes to the world of the living, she is reminded once more of the bath and dreads the thought of the bath tub, that is like a predator, ‘waiting, waiting for a moment of inattention,’ to claim her body. It might ultimately be her grave as she would not be able to get out of it some day.
The title of The Bath is significant as taking a bath is symbolic of her struggle with life. Each aspect of taking a bath is explained laboriously, to give an idea of how difficult it is for her. Not only does she realize that it is beyond her fast dwindling strength but she finds it quite humiliating to rely on somebody else, like the community nurse for help.
She is quite content when she is in the graveyard and yearns to go to sleep on the soft grassy bed. In contrast, when she returns to the living world, she is reminded once again of the dreaded bath tub, ‘waiting, waiting,’ like a predator, ‘for a moment of inattention, weakness, pain, to claim her forever.’
Why did you include the theme of connection?
What narrative persepctive is used to tell the story
How is the setting in the first paragraph?
What’s one example that conveys the difficulties the woman experienced because of her old age?
Why is the similie that compares the bath tub to the edge with a deep drop below into the sea of the cliff so effective?
Thanks this really helped a lot
This is great. Is there any chance that you analyze drama, like “Macbeth” or “A View From the Bridge”?
This is very helpful and it helped me with my exams….thanks
Very helpful. Thank you.
How does frame make the story so sad. Vocab etc.
how was the theme of death portrayed? And also how does the author portrays suffering and despair? (this has really helped ME!)
Nice and interesting to read thank you so much.
What are the difficulties that she faced while taking a bath?
What is the conflict the short story?
This really helped me with my tests and exams. Thank you
Thx so much for this!! have an exam tmrw, btw how long does this story take place? like whats the time period? is it 4 days or like 2 wks? had a question like this on my previous exam and was so confused
As far as I know it happens over days rather than weeks. Good luck with your exam.
Does the old woman ever sleep outside? Unless at the graveyards
What are the themes in this story?
This really helped me in my tests and understanding of the story.
what is the setting of the first background in the story??
Just had a quick read of the story. As far as I an work out the first setting is the woman’s home. After she buys flowers for the graveyard.
How far does the writer make the moment of the story so sad.From “She leaned forward”.. to “I can never look at the clouds!”
What’s the bath in itself a symbol of? And why?
Why does she compare her parents grave to that of her husband? What can we assume or infer from it?
Why does she revolve around the notion of death?
What is the role of the old lady in the story?
Hey! Just wanted to know about the language she uses to covey the central idea of the story.
What does the bath symbolize ??
How long has the woman been a widow ?
what are the techniques used ?
do you think that love could also be a theme in the story?
so what do you think is the theme portrayed in the text ?
Hiii, great analysis may i please know the techniques used in the short story i only came up with four.
Comment on the symbolic significance of the setting in the first paragraph(the graveyard).
Graveyards are associated with death (husband’s death) and decay (the woman is old and frail).
Thanks a lot! That really helped!
Identify the central crises, key turning points, and the climax of the story. What else do you notice about the way the story is structured?
Don’t you also think the bath could symbolize a grave? She describes how it is yellow and the old woman feels as if she has been ‘buried’, the yellow part only suggests weathering, or in this case, aging of the woman.
can you discuss the theme of entrapment please?
Could you analyise one of this quotes: “loneliness welled in her” or “the slow progression of difficulties was a kind of torture”. What do we get to know about the characters, what is the context, vocabulary and language, what is the effect these words create us as a reader and what can we infer? Please I need it for a test.
How does Janet Frame portray the theme of old age in the story?
They asked me this:
You are the old woman in “the bath”. It is the end of the day and you are lying in the bed after you took the bath. Write your thoughts (short text).
How does Frame make the story so sad
Could you give me an example of metaphor in this story please?
Why does the old lady compare her parents grave to that of her husbands. What can we assume or infer from it
Can you give me some points for this question, How does Frame powerfully convey the woman’s thoughts and feelings at this moment in the story? When she was in the bath.
Hello, could you briefly tell me what the end of the story is like, and what context is it in, finally what does the old lady do?
How does the writer vividly depict the loneliness and aging
You say that the old woman ‘longs to be dead’ by the end of the story. Reading it, I was wondering whether perhaps what she wants is only the peace of death. Throughout, she consistently idealizes death, with long, highly sensory imagery – when she’s at the graveyard, she describes it as a place of ‘peace’, with ‘gold’ seagrass, ‘daffodils, and ‘warm soft wind’. However, I think it’s interesting to note that when she’s actually confronted with death – namely, the bath – she’s horrified. I don’t think she actually wants to die because she experiences great ‘panic’ and anxiety. I think what she wants is an end; as you to say, to no longer have to face her own growing limitations and – given that she’s a very prideful woman – to not have to submit to what she sees as the ‘humiliation’ of help. I don’t think she wants death, I think she wants peace.
I’d love to know whether you agree or not!
what are characteristics of the lady pls