As I began Atwood’s “Alphinland” I started to picture the narrator as a child, or at least much younger than is revealed. There’s something whimsical about the first few lines with “fairy silver” and “handfuls of shining rice.” This kind of childlike sense of wonder continues throughout the story but is complicated by Constance’s painful past. Towards the end, it seems her wonder and happiness are confined to Alphinland and its imaginary rooms.
We quickly learn that Constance is anything but a small old woman who’s stuck at home with the ghost of her husband. Atwood creates her as a witty, sarcastic, funny, and generally likable character. Early on she writes “Condo is a euphemism for retirement home.” Constance is not a tragic character when she could have easily become one we pitied. She has more interaction with her dead husband than with anyone in the real world, spends more time in Alphinland than outside of her home, and has had two relationships that seemed almost loveless. She could be the weak, helpless woman the store clerk sees but her sense of humor leaves us laughing and somewhat hopeful.
Atwood is careful to reveal the source of Constance’s thick skin and sarcasm, slowly exposing the details of her unfortunate relationship with Gavin, the man who was more interested in her ass than her brain. We begin to learn more about Alphinland when we’re introduced to Gavin. This magical place became her refuge and needed her in ways Gavin didn’t, cared for her in ways Gavin wouldn’t. I’m interested in the way Alphinland continued to serve the same purpose, becoming so much of an escape that it interfered with her relationship with Ewan and became a source of resentment. We’re never told of Ewan’s affair but because we know of Constance’s past with Gavin, we’re given enough information to assume.
Another thing that caught my eye: Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan” and the sacred river “Alph.” It’s a small detail, maybe what Constance had in mind for Alphinland, but the poem involves a dream, one Coleridge tries to remember and almost seems confused with reality. Constance is lost in her dreams and her “Aural hallucinations” of Ewan much like Coleridge was lost in the “measureless caverns” of Xanadu.
