Character Analysis of Mrs Foster

The short story “The Way up to Heaven” is written by Roald Dahl, who is a British novelist and a short story author. He was born in Wales in 1916. “The Way up to Heaven” is a story about Mr. and Mrs. Foster “sad” life. The story takes place on a January of 1950’ in New York City, on East Sixty- second Street. It also takes place on the New York Airport and in Paris. Mrs Foster herself, is an old-fashioned woman who has a fear of missing a train, a plane, a boat etc.

If she is in the situation, her eyes will begin to twitch. She likes to wear a fur coat with a black hat on the top of her head. Mrs Foster wants everything to be fast. Her man, Mr Foster, doesn’t likes to be early, but she would never dare to tell him to hurry. The story became complicated when Mrs. Foster’s flight was delayed until eleven o’clock on the next day due to the fog.

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Mrs. Foster had to go back home again and come back to the airport the next day. In the second conflict Mr. Foster tried to slow her journey to the airport again.

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It started when Mr. Foster asked Mrs. Foster to wait in the taxi while he went inside the house again to find the present that he wanted to give to his daughter in Paris. He claimed that he left the present inside the house, whilst he actually had wedged the present down under the seat, which Mrs.

Foster had noticed at last when Mr. Foster went looking for it in the house. Mrs. and Mr. Foster have a frigid relationship. It does not look like they love each other. At some point in the story, she changes. Mrs.Foster stopped to listen for the repetition of some sound at the house door. This happened when Mr.Foster pretended to look for the gift and yet left it in the car on purpose. She left the place without waiting for Mr.Foster. As the reader of the story, I sympathize with her.

Mr. Foster knew that his wife couldn’t bare the imagination to miss the flight she was going to take to Paris. In one way, he tortures Mrs. Foster. The climax, or the main turning point, of the story is the moment when Mrs Foster freezes at the front door to listen to a sound. She is a completely changed person after that. When she was in Paris she knew her husband is in danger but pretended not to know. Towards the ending of the story, Mrs.Foster will go to check out the elevator and when she returns, she’ll have a glimmer of satisfaction on her face. This shows that she’s happy that her torturous husband, Mr.Foster is no more and she can return to Paris with her daughter. Even after what she has done, I sympathize with her because she devoted all her life on him but he couldn’t keep her happy.