It Was an Epiphany
It was an Epiphany! The Young Narrator in Faye Weldon’s short story “Ind Aff, or Out of Love in Sarajevo,” had a sudden intuitive leap of understanding or insight in her relationship to Professor Peter Picker. A sudden intuitive leap of understanding is also known as an Epiphany; can happen over a period of time, instantly, or a combination of both. Peter’s pessimistic attitude, disrespectful behavior, and borderline mental abuse towards the young narrator is what started the end of their relationship. In this story, it took the young narrator a period of time with something or someone which sparked her epiphany, and to have it come to the surface for her to realize the true nature of their relationship. The story starts with a rainy holiday in Sarajevo for the happy couple, who are in love. The are out and about doing the tourist thing of sightseeing. Peter states, “come all this way, and you can’t even see the footprints properly, just two undistinguished puddles. (203)” She tells us she loves him, even when he disappointed. She states a negative about Peter and she doesn’t want us to dislike him right off, so she added the bit about how she loves him. She also is dependent upon him for her academic future. “He said I had a good mind but not a first-class mind and somehow I didn’t take it as an insult. I had a feeling first-class minds weren’t all that good in bed. (203)” This is another put down by Peter and she counters it with a positive about herself. Their reason for taking the holiday to Sarajevo was so that Peter could decide between the young narrator or his wife, which by the way he has been going on for the last year. That right there should have been having alarm bells going off for her. The young narrator even had doubts, “Were we really, truly suited? We had to be sure, you see, that this was more than just any old professor-student romance, that it was the Real Thing. (203)” After a relationship that has been
Cited: Weldon, Fay. “IND AFF, or Out of Love in Sarajevo.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 202-08. Print.