DAHL - way up to heaven

“The Way up to Heaven” by Roald Dahl

It seemed that language is important, well, we’d better get going to read these sentences. Comment on them.

                   seemed

1. She couldn’t be sure, but it seemed to her that there was suddenly a new note in his voice, and she turned to look at him.
2. On one or two special occasions in the later years of their married life, it seemed almost as though he had wanted to miss the train simply in order to intensify the poor woman’s suffering.
3. She looked at him, and at that moment he seemed to be standing a long way off from her, beyond some borderline. He was suddenly so small and far away that she couldn’t be sure what he was doing, or what he was thinking, or even what he was. 
4. They were standing in the hall - they always seemed to be meeting in the hall nowadays 

                 

              we’d better get going

1. she would flutter and fidget about from room to room until her husband, who must have been well aware of her state, finally emerged from his privacy and suggested in a cool dry voice that perhaps they had better be going now, had they not?

1. “Well,” he said, “I suppose perhaps we’d better get going fairly soon if you want to catch that plane.”

1. “Ah yes,” he said. “Of course. And if you’re going to take me to the club first, I suppose we’d better get going fairly soon, hadn’t we?” 

2. Sharing this analysis: 

Setting

Originally published in 1954, the short story  is probably meant to be set as contemporary to the time of publishing, and it takes place in New York and Paris.

Physical setting.  

The action spans over the course of six weeks, yet the main events take place in the course of two days in the beginning, when Mrs Foster gets ready to leave for Paris.
Consequently, we can say that the main events take place in New York where elements of the physical setting are the Foster house, the cabs, and the airport terminal.

Social setting. 62nd street # 6th Avenue

The social setting illustrates two important aspects; family relationship and the status of the upper class. The Foster couple is part of the upper class in New York, owning a “six-floor house” and having “four servants”.
The way they treat the working class, represented by their servants and the cab drivers, indicates superiority and suspicion. Both spouses order the servants and the cab drivers around.
Furthermore, even though they are rich, they seem to be cheap, as they would rather leave the house empty than pay servants to check on it while the woman is in Paris and the man at the club. What is more, they are also suspicious of the servants, as they say that “you never know what people do when they’re left alone in the house”. Finally, they are also accustomed to comfort and being served; the night Mrs Foster sleeps in the house without servants she is worried that she has nothing to eat, indicating that she would never cook for herself.

family relationships. 
The two spouses form an old couple who seems to tolerate each other but are in fact bothered by each other’s habits. The husband is bothered by the woman’s anxiousness and fear of being late, while the wife is...
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