Ever been ghosted? I have a few times. It hurts.
Continuing our November series, What our Characters Want, the short story, “A Telephone Call,” by Dorothy Parker, has us follow the monologue from an unnamed protagonist as she tries to convince herself she’s not been ghosted.
What does she desire the most? It hits us immediately in the opening line: “Please, God, let him telephone me now.”
This defly shows her desperation and desire. Some man had promised to call her at five p.m., but the story starts at 7:10 p.m. She wants him to like her and throughout the short story, she’s convincing herself, he does. He’s not ghosting her, right?
The rest of the story is a one-way dialogue with God and herself. She plays a game of volleyball with her desire for him to like her and with self-preservation as she tries to convince herself that she’s worthy.
Her desire continues to hope, telling her to be patient, and offering evidence that he cares.
- She counts slowly to occupy her mind and force herself to be patient. “Maybe if I counted to five hundred by fives, it might ring by that time.”
- She works hard to convince herself. She reminds herself at least five times that he had called her “darling.” “Good-by, darling.” He must care for her, right? She uses this term of affection to justify her hope that he’ll call.
- Pleads to God. She recruits Jesus, upping her desperation. “Won’t You help me? For Your Son’s sake, help me. You said You would do whatever was asked of You in His name. Oh God, in the name of Thine only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, let him telephone me now.”
- He’s late. Even considers that he’s stuck at work and unable to call, so he’s coming to visit her now. “Maybe he is coming on here without calling me up. Maybe he’s on his way now. Something might have happened to him.”
- She misunderstood him. He thought she was calling, so he’s waiting on her. She should telephone him.
As she attempts to convince herself that he cares for her, self-preservation volleys back. Now, she’s embroiled in a mental game, because almost immediately, after self-preservation attempts to convince her that he’s disinterested, she argues that he will call. He cares.
- She blames the telephone, God, him, and herself. Anything to avoid feeling unworthy. Ashamed he doesn’t care about her as though she doesn’t matter in life. She’s deflecting pain.
- She gets violent. She lashes at the telephone, wishing to smash it in bits. Wishes briefly that he’s dead. “I wish he were dead, dead, dead. This is silly. It’s silly to go wishing people were dead just because they don’t call you up the very minute they said they would.”
- Self-preservation prayer. Asks God to take the desire away. “Don’t let me go on hoping. Don’t let me say comforting things to myself. Please don’t let me hope, dear God. Please don’t.”
Finally, the story concludes with her talking herself into calling him. She tries to be patient, wanting to prove that he cares for her and will call if only she’d wait. “I’ll count five hundred by fives. I’ll do it so slowly and so fairly. If he hasn’t telephoned then, I’ll call him. I will. Oh God please dear God, dear kind God, my blessed Father in Heaven, let him call before then. Please, God. Please. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five…”
As the reader, we follow along, knowing he won’t call. Chances are, he’s disinterested and moved on. Yet, the story isn’t about knowing he’s moved on, it’s about how the character handles this unstated but understood fact.
Dorothy Parker does an excellent job of moving this monologue by providing a battle between the character standing by her desire and protecting herself from inevitable disappointment. By adding God to the dialogue, we feel her desperation and see ourselves through the character. How many times have we prayed or pleaded over a certain request?
And the story is a great example of showing internal conflict the character endures. And we can apply these tools to our writing as well. Show how the character battles with maintaining hope when all hope seems lost or waning. The character can employ blame, avoidance, anger, self-preservation, prayer for example. Through this short story, we have a variety of internal conflict tools to choose from.
EXERCISE:
- Go through your novel or short story and add one of these tools to show internal conflict. Maybe write a scene with the character having a monologue or praying? Or writing a letter?
- Write how this adds another layer to your story especially the character.
- Share your entry below. Thank you.
Of you want to read the short story, here’s the PDF: The telephone
Featured Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash