The Reconciliation of the Hazard Family in 'Wise Children' by Carter

The Reconciliation of the Hazard Family in 'Wise Children' by Carter

In this extract, reconciliation of the disjointed Hazard family is

attempted as Lady Atlanta has invited Dora and Nora to Saskia and

Imogen’s twenty first birthday party. Carter uses the two sets of

daughters to contrast with each other and the party conveys the

difference in social upbringing, class and character between them.

Dora intimates that they [Nora and Dora] are born on the ‘wrong side

of the tracks’ in Brixton which is on ‘the bastard side of the River

Thames,’ thus illustrating the social stigma associated with being

illegitimate. On the contrary, Saskia and Imogen live in Lynde Court

in East Sussex; a suburban, wealthy area reflecting their status as

they are legitimate

The ‘blood’ imagery highlights that they are blood relations, and is

used perhaps to epitomise the generation gap between the two sets of

daughters as Saskia and Imogen were born on the day when Nora and Dora

had their first period. The duck was ‘certainly well-cooked on the

outside’, the duck could symbolise Saskia as her beautiful appearance

conceals a venomous interior. Dora intimates’ Saskia gave me a dirty

look, as if she’d know I’d show my true colours at some point during

her elegant repast’ which connotes that Saskia is belittling her and

considers her as socially inferior, incapable of behaving just

because Dora is illegitimate.

Earlier in the novel, Carter uses intertextuality from King Lear when

Peregrine articulated that ‘It’s a wise child who knows its own

father, but wiser yet, the father that knows its own child.’ He is

referring to Melchior, who is ‘finishing off that duck’, ‘engaging in

a battle’ with Peregrine ‘as to who could eat most and praise’ Saskia

the best. They are both desperate to acquire her affection but

Melchior is completely oblivious to the fact that Saskia and Imogen

are in fact Peregrine’s daughters, yet he is unwilling to acknowledge

Nora and Dora as his own.

Dora and Nora’s envy is evident when Dora states ‘if we only we’d