Nora Webster

Nora Webster opens with Nora visiting the family’s holiday home: a place that once represented the warm glow of family life with Maurice. Although she has many happy memories of visiting the house with her young family, the aftermath of Maurice’s death has rendered this place a repository  memories that now bring her nothing but pain and sadness. Even her happiest memories have metamorphosed and become a burden of grief. Because the house now symbolizes all that Nora has lost, her change in perspective shows that grief has the power to transform the physical world.

By deciding to sell the holiday house, Nora rids herself of a source of painful recollections, putting sentimentality aside. On a more practical note, the house also symbolizes Nora’s precarious situation  She is not a wealthy woman, and she must put aside her emotions and sell the house before she has time to grieve properly. By finalizing the sale quickly, she avoids dwelling on the matter. 

However, the family home cannot be sold like the holiday house in Cush. While so much of main house is infused with memories of Maurice, it remains a safe haven for the family, even when they are living apart.