The short story, “Unlighted Lamps,” by author Sherwood Anderson is about a relationship between a father and his daughter. Their relationship is a stressful one because neither of them talk to each other, nor show their emotions. Throughout the story, you find out why their relationship is the way that it is, and why it is hard for her father to talk to her. The unlighted lamps in the story represent flashbacks of memories wherever light dances across something.
The father is the town’s doctor, his name is Doctor Lester Cochran. He sees to the ill and dying, as well as pregnant woman to help with bringing new life into this world. He is seen as a cold hearted man to his daughter who hardly knows him. He is quite and emotionless with a bunch of hidden secrets (English).
His daughter is named Mary Cochran. She is a young girl of eighteen years of age. She has a lot going on in her life, and with no mother to help her along her way, and a father who is distant, she is having trouble getting by in life. Mary likes to go on walks around their town of Huntersberg to do a lot of thinking and to try and clear her mind (English).
The story “Unlighted Lamps,” opens up with Mary out on one of her walks around town.
She has a lot to think about with the conversation that he father just had with her the night before. On that night before, her father told her that he had heart disease and could pass away at any time. He found this out when he took a trip out to Chicago and had a doctor out there give him a checkup. Dr. Cochran told Mary that he was going to die and that it could happen at any time. He informed her that when he does pass, he has little money to leave to her and that she needs to start thinking about her future. (Anderson 2).
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...the two characters having flashbacks about their life together, now that Dr. Cochran is dying. The unlighted lamps are what triggered each other’s memories of one another and parts of their life. The dancing light from the mirror and the match, the moonlight and the swinging lantern, and to the very end with the forgotten lighted cigarette. The ending that the author made with the cigarette, will be another triggered memory for Mary, with the light and her father’s death. That makes the whole story come together with a new memory with dancing lights
Works Cited
Anderson, Sherwood. Unlighted Lamps. Print. 1-12.
Fonseka, Gamini. Light Too Late to Flash: A Critical Reading of UNLIGHTED LAMPS by
Sherwood Anderson. Academia.edu Web.
Unlighted Lamps – Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941). A/L English Literature Made Easy – Short
Stories. Sunday Observer. Oct 30, 2005. Print.
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