“Revenant” by Margaret Atwood was interesting as a stand-alone short story but even more interesting in the context of the previous story. As soon as we get to “Gavin,” we have a bias against him from Constance. He was the elitist poet who cheated on her. Not someone we like. He’s not someone I particularly liked by the end of his story either. Perhaps this is because he doesn’t seem to entirely like himself. Gavin might have some redeeming points in the story — “during more lenient moments he feels sorry for her” (42) — but even this seeming kindness is condescending. The one moment I can find that I think seems to be truly kind from him is on page 48 when he says he doesn’t have the heart to tell Reynolds that her constructed “creative time” isn’t working for him. But even here, he seems like he’d be too prideful to tell her anyway.

The examples of when he is almost unbearable are plentiful throughout the story. He tells his wife that he should have married someone else; he thinks Naveena is no match for his intelligence; he wants to be a lecherous old man; he says Constance is the only person who has ever purely loved him yet he thinks of her as a bubblehead. All in all, Atwood has created a very unsympathetic character in Gavin, which we knew going into this story because of the previous story. However, I did think that having the story told from the point of view of Gavin would give another side to him. Something I was confused about was why he referred to Reynolds as “Rey” on the first page of the story and then she was Reynolds for the rest of it.

Reynolds was mentioned briefly in the previous story as well, and Constance’s assessment of her seems to be very similar to Gavin’s assessment of her. Both of them seem to question her intelligence and her motive in being with Gavin. Constance makes her out to be a cheerful, airheaded sort, and the actual account of her seems very similar to that. I don’t think she’s an airhead, but to me it was interesting that she was so similar in the two stories, sort of like Gavin. My feelings about both of them didn’t necessarily change.

The structure of the story was interesting to me as well. It started out strangely, and it ended strangely. Both the beginning and the end were very much in Gavin’s head while the middle was a very real scene, and in between on both ends of the story was the play about Richard III.

It’s also interesting that this interview is going on at the same time as the snow storm in the previous story. These stories’ examinations of these two people’s lives are intertwined since their events are happening at the exact same time. It’s interesting that he’s very focused on her and seeing her as his angel figure at the end, right about the same time she’s dreaming of him.

1. Do you like Gavin? Does it matter if the reader likes Gavin or not? Even if you don’t like him, do you feel sympathy for him? Can a story be engaging with an unlikable protagonist? What about an unsympathetic protagonist?
2. Does this story build upon themes and ideas from the first story? What new themes and ideas are presented in this story?
3. What is Atwood doing with the play about Richard III?
4. What is the story saying about age and aging?
5. Do you think this is a critique of the elitist aspect of poetry and literature?
6. What do you think of Reynolds? How do you think she contrasts with Constance? Why is Gavin so concerned with Constance after all of these years? How does his memories and interactions with his memories of her compare with hers of him?
7. Should we be comparing Ewan and Reynolds?
8. Should we be comparing the stories at all? How does the order of these stories impact our experience as readers?
9. What do you think of the beginning and the end of the story? How do they relate to the story as a whole?
10. What do you think about the title?