Memoirs of a Midget · Concepts
Concepts
Ideas that structure Memoirs of a Midget by Walter de la Mare — linked to characters, chapters, and questions.
Otherness and Identity
The protagonist's dwarfism makes her a perpetual outsider, forcing her to grapple with how she is perceived as a 'curio' or 'marionette' while asserting her inner self, mind, and soul against a world that fixates on her physical difference.
Love and Obsession
The narrative explores intense, often destructive attachments—particularly the narrator's consuming, jealous love for Fanny and the tragic jealousy at Wanderslore—showing how love can become a fever that parches and blinds.
Performance and Being on Show
The narrator is repeatedly put on display, from Mrs. Monnerie's salon to the circus, and reflects on how all people are 'on show' in society, questioning the line between authentic self and public spectacle.
Class and Social Hierarchy
The book contrasts the rural simplicity of Lyndsey with the aristocratic world of Mrs. Monnerie, examining snobbery, servitude, and the precariousness of status through characters like Mrs. Bowater, Fanny, and the titled guests.
Solitude and Self-Discovery
The narrator frequently finds herself alone—in her room, during storms, or in reflection—using these moments to ponder existence, memory, and her own soul, finding both terror and sweetness in isolation.
Nature and the Sublime
Vivid descriptions of the Kentish landscape, storms, moonlight, and stars (like Orion and Sirius) serve as a source of rapture and comfort, contrasting with the artificiality of high society and reflecting the narrator's inner life.
Deception and Self-Deception
The narrator engages in elaborate deceptions (e.g., the circus plot, hiding her feelings) while also confronting Fanny's hypocrisy and her own vanity, highlighting the gap between appearance and reality in human relations.
Mortality and Memory
The memoir is framed by the death of the narrator's mother and father, and she repeatedly contemplates ghosts, graves, and the persistence of memory, seeking to be remembered 'as if we had shared the world on equal terms.'
