Critical Comments
The little willow is a story about the world war. It has the atmosphere of sorrow and suffering which went with the war. The young men on leave from armed services wanted to have fun, and love, and they found it at the house of Charlotte, and Brenda. These girls were looking for husbands for themselves. They made love to the young men in the hope that one of them would come back after the war and could marry them. But there were so many deaths and losses during the war, that most of the young men they liked were killed, and they made other choices in place of them. This made the girls heartless. They did not feel strongly when they lost their friends. It was one of the things which they used to expect. On the death of Byrne, Brenda said about Lisby.
‘She has not had any personal loss in this war. Not like you and me. I mean, when someone’s killed who’s been in love with one , it makes it all so terribly poignant. I sometimes think I’ve felt so much. I can’t feel any more. Those poor lambs!’
So their attitude about death of those whom they knew had become quite objective. It was just like any other news for them. They did not feel that the loss was personal in any way.
Lisby is presented as the opposite of her sisters. It is this contrast in the personalities which makes for the interest of the story.She was a serious type. She was not talktive, but she felt, whereas the other two only thought. When she met Byrne and found that there was something common between her and him, she felt attracted by him. He liked the company of Brenda because she could talk brilliantly, but he loved the quiet little woman Lisby.
Lisby could not express her feelings for him at the last moment even. She wished that Brenda was there to do so, but she gave him the best thing which she had. This the other girl would not have done. She would have treated Byrne as one of the other men, and beings not sure about his return , would have forgotten him as soon as he was gone . Lisby on the other hand loved only one man, and kept quiet about.
No one knew that she loved him and the other sisters never even thought that she would be shocked by the death of Byrne. For them his death was no more than a topic for conversation. Whereas it was a question of life and death for Lisby. She felt amply compensated and contented when she learnt that he also loved her. His message made her radiant after the first shock. She was not one to look for another to take his place as her sisters would have done as soon as he was gone. The charm and beauty of the story lay in its pathos and its contrast of personalities. The war is used as a background for the creation of a melancholy atmosphere though it cannot by any means be called one of the war stories in the real sense of the word.
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