Harriet and David have just acquired the Victorian house they had been dreaming of. The passage describes how they take possession of their new home.

H&D use their own key to enter the house and go from room to room imagining their future life in this house. When they reach their bedroom, they take possession of it by making love several times. They lay in bed for a while and then get up and dressed and they leave the house to walk into the garden which they haven't taken possession of yet.

Not much seems to happen in terms of action but this passage is extremely important in the story because it develops H & D's personalities by focusing on their emotions.
Your presentation should focus on the following issues :
- H & D's dream come true
(their perfect love, their perfect house, their perfect ideals... springtime as a perfect time symbolically to start a new life... )
- Only one element missing : a child
(All H & D have always dreamt of is becoming their reality but their principal aim in life is to have children.)
- Making the dream fully true
(By making love repeatedly without taking any precautions, H & D make this final dream come true. By the end of the passage, H knows she is pregnant with her first child./ the room itself seems to bear some responsibility in the process and it will later be called a "baby maker". Outside the room grows a lilac tree whose buds are ready to explode into full bloom. Symbolically, this refers to H's pregnancy.)
- Reality sinks in
(By focusing on H & D's emotions, we realize there is an evolution between the beginning of the passage - when they are overwhelmed by their love for each other, their tenderness, their happiness being almost complete - and the end of the passage where they become awed by what lies ahead : paying for "all this" : the house, the baby's bringing up and later education. All of a sudden, H & D have grown up and become adults who will have to provide for a family. It is no longer a teenage dream. It is reality. And reality isn't quite so marvelous !)

A Victorian House

page 9 "On the afternoon the house became theirs..." to page 11 "And how are we going to pay for it all if I am pregnant?"
For a virtual tour of a Victorian house, go to
http://www.geffrye-museum.org.uk/learning/walk-through-a-victorian-house/

Done in class on November 18th Passage 2 : Situation in the novel : After the party, they decide to settle in a big house, because they intend to have a big family. Facts : In this passage, they take possession of the house, they have tears in their eyes. They have their home keys which means that the house is theirs : they are the owners. They move around their house, discovering it anew, now that it belongs to them. They imagine their life with their children and the furniture. Because for the moment the house is empty except for the bed in the master room. Important elements : They make love for the first time, they do it 3 times although they had wanted to have children later on. Harriet thinks she's pregnant. It's a problem, because they have to pay for the house and if she can't work, she can't earn money and so David will have to pay for everything and he will have to borrow money from his father. We understand they really get carried away.