Miss Umple Has a 'Do'

-> All of Ethel Wilson’s characters in “The Innocent Traveller” are extraordinary. They have peculiar traits or exceptional personalities, all-in-all not people one would meet while walking down the street. However, there is one who seems the most “ordinary” of all: Miss Umplethwaite. Her extraordinary name hides the most normal person in Wilson’s book and her experience therein is a situation like one an average person would have.
-> Readers meet Miss Umplethwaite near the end of the main character, Topaz’s, life. She takes over as Topaz’s care-taker for an afternoon and meets with more difficulty than expected. Personally, being asked to take care of an old, seemingly bed-ridden, woman invokes thoughts of long, boring, and one-sided stories. Since Miss Umplethwaite has experience looking after elderly women, she is probably expecting this. Perhaps stories of the infamous Topaz Edgeworth reached her and Miss Umplethwaite is expecting a little more, maybe mildly interesting stories even if they’re repeated several timesr. However, what Miss Umplethwaite gets is quite different.
-> The visit begins as expected: “[Topaz] and Miss Umplethwaite are dewy with the happiness of shared memories of loved places and names.” (Wilson 229) Miss Umplethwaite then offers Topaz tea and the mischief begins. Instead of tea, Topaz, who “stops short and ... has thought of something.” (Wilson 229), declares she wants ice cream and that they shall walk to the drug store to get some. Topaz, the bed-ridden old woman, has turned into the mischievous child that no babysitter wants. Miss Umplethwaite, being unsure of what to do, allows it in the face of Topaz’s indomitable personality. Wilson even says that “innocent Miss Umplethwaite is at [Topaz]’s mercy” (Wilson 231). The walk to the drug store goes surprisingly well. Ice cream is enjoyed and the two women turn toward home. However, the heat and the exercise have taken their toll on Topaz. In fact, she declares that there’s something wrong with her legs and, as any babysitter would, Miss Umplethwaite immediately begins to regret allowing the expedition. Topaz begins to complain: “‘It’s paralysis ... I can’t feel me legs ... I can’t even use me feet! Miss Umple, Miss Umple!’” (Wilson 229) When Miss Umplethwaite looks down at Topaz’s legs, she finds Topaz’s drawers wrapped around her feet. This is the source of Topaz’s “paralysis”. Once the drawers are removed, yet another ordeal, Topaz finds that not only do her legs work again but being drawer-less is “‘a deal more comfortable’” (Wilson 232) She declares she’ll never wear drawers again and that she, of course, knew it wasn’t a stroke or anything serious.
-> Once returned, Topaz begins telling her great-niece Rose all about the “‘Do’” they just had. Miss Umplethwaite is not quite so exuberant. She feels “a little offended” (Wilson 233) Like any babysitter who experienced such an incident, she feels foolish and upset over the whole situation. A simple little thing like a fallen set of drawers caused all that trouble. What makes her feel even more foolish is how Topaz is not even fazed by the incident. However, also like a normal babysitter, Miss Umplethwaite cannot stay angry in the face of her charge’s enthusiasm. By the end of the story, Miss Umplethwaite too begins to “regard the whole thing as simply a bit of a Do.” (Wilson 233)

- by Brianne Coffey

A Treatise on the Character of John Edgeworh in Relation to his Vivacious Sister Topaz Edgeworth

John Edgeworth is portrayed in Ethel Wilson’s novel “The Innocent Traveller” as a character with many facets to his personality. The most interesting, and most frequently seen, facet is the side of his character which surfaces in his dealings with Topaz Edgeworth, his sister.
John and Topaz’s relationship is first seen in-depth when John takes Topaz on his trip to the Continent. As is seen throughout the novel, Topaz has a very childish view of life and a childish way of acting, thus prompting John, who is always very correct in his actions, to take on a guardian-like role while Topaz is his responsibility. By the time of their arrival in Paris, “[John] often wished that he had left [Topaz] at home to deteriorate.” (Wilson 61) Throughout their time together on the Continent, John has small fits over Topaz’s inappropriate behavior, such as when John wanted to descend the Eiffel Tower and Topaz wanted to stay at the top. The climax of the trip is when, once in Italy, Topaz lies down on the floor of St. Peter’s Basilica to get a better view of the ceiling. John becomes so angry that he “nearly started back home in a fury.” (Wilson 63) Topaz had to console him “until at last John spoke to her again and there was peace between them.” (Wilson 63) John and Topaz’s relationship is a difficult one. John enjoyed being thought of as the “lordly and distinguished Englishman” (Wilson 61) when he went abroad and was always very conscious of his behavior. Topaz is the exact opposite, doing whatever she pleases whether it’s appropriate or not. This was embarrassing to John and put him “in many uncomfortable situations in which he felt that he was conspicuous .... as the brother of an irreverent and carefree youthfully middle-aged sister” (Wilson 61). To make matters worse, Topaz could not be chastised when her behavior did surpass acceptability. Many times, John tried to correct her, sometimes angrily, and Topaz merely did not listen or did not care. Wilson even mentions that “John ... tried to sneap Topaz whenever he thought it good for her, which was often” (Wilson 139).
The relationship between the siblings only becomes close once Topaz moves to Vancouver with Annie and Rachel. Now that Topaz can no longer impede his appearance or ruin his reputation through association, John frequently writes to her: “[his] letters flew with a lover’s frequency,” (Wilson 139) Topaz is not John’s responsibility anymore and he can now savor their relationship as siblings without obstruction.
John and Topaz’s relationship is, at first, a difficult one that is trying for John. Only once Topaz was six thousand miles could the relationship blossom into one between two happy and close siblings.

- by Brianne Coffey

Yow: The Displaced Person

-> Behind the scenes of the unusual Edgeworth family of Ethel Wilson’s “The Innocent Traveller”, readers find an equally unusual character: the family cook, Yow. Yow is a Chinese man, whose history is unknown and, until Chapter 16, is rarely mentioned.
-> In the story, Yow is portrayed as a distempered and ill-mannered man whose ego is bigger than it should be. He is rude with all of the Edgeworth women, except for Grandmother Annie, and acts in a manner he knows is unacceptable to his paying employees. However, all of this merely masks an unhappy and displaced person. Yow is a man far from home, in an alien country with alien customs. He does not fit in and his rudeness is a product of this feeling of being an outsider. At one point, when Topaz is speaking to Yow, Yow proceeds to vent his frustration of loneliness: “China people more different. Last February China New Year my family have large party seven hundred people. All my kah-san. All my generation. You no care.” (Wilson 145) Yow feels like a foreigner in what is supposed to be his new home. He blames this on those who make him feel this way, people such as the Edgeworths who fit into Canadian society. Thus, he is rude to them because of how they make him feel. Wilson even mentions that he chooses, and even likes, being rude: “Yow did not stand up, because he enjoyed being ill-mannered.” (Wilson 145)
-> On the surface, Yow is a rude man whose only contribution to the story seems to be as a foil to the kindness of the Edgeworth women. However, when looked at as a human being and not as just a minor character, readers can see that Yow is merely an unhappy man lashing out at the world who made him an outsider.

- by Brianne Coffey