32 pages • 1 hour read
Roald DahlThe Way Up To Heaven
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1954A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Philosophical Context: Ethics and the Law of Omission
Content Warning: This section of the guide contain descriptions and references to abuse and coercive control, accident, and death.
The narrative interest of “The Way Up to Heaven” rests heavily on the ambiguous choice and behavior of Mrs. Foster, and the ethics of these. This ethical question focuses on the morality of omission of action. In the United States, criminal law states that everyone has a moral and legal duty to assist someone in danger if they are able to do so safely. A deliberate lack of action is an “omission” and may make the person culpable. The United States is unusual in having this law, and this may contextualize Roald Dahl’s choice of New York for the story’s setting and readership. A British writer, Dahl lived in New York in the 1950s, but few of his stories are set in America. It is possible that America’s law of omission was of particular interest to Dahl as an ethical question, because in Britain, the law does not compel a bystander to aid another person in danger. The presence of the law adds real jeopardy to Mrs. Foster’s decision beside the story’s broader testing of ethical boundaries.
It is also important to note that until 1966, New York law only enabled divorce on the grounds of adultery, although cruelty was a ground in most other states. Again, this particularity of the law provides an ethical context and a potential gap between the law and prevailing social attitudes. This gap is enacted in the story, as Mrs. Foster cannot divorce her husband and is trapped in her unhappy marriage, away from the family whom she loves. Only death can end this situation.
The story’s focus on ethical judgment is evident from the beginning, as Mr. Foster’s behavior is overtly presented as morally reprehensible by the narrator and certainly tests the boundaries of what was considered acceptable spousal behaviour at the time. The story thus asks the reader to ethically evaluate the behavior of both Mr. Foster and Mrs. Foster as characters, both individually and in relation to one another. Their behavior gives context to Mrs. Foster’s decision and asks the reader to consider what they might have done in her position. Although the story doesn’t particularly suggest that Mrs. Foster will be caught for her crime of omission, “The Way Up to Heaven” explores the moral nature of “mitigating circumstances” (i.e., factors that lessen the severity of a crime) at a time before these were applied by the legal justice system to women experiencing abuse, or widely recognized by society.
These 1950s legal, judiciary, and social codes are embedded in Dahl’s ethical questioning, and will have influenced the original audience’s reading. They also ask questions integral to social ethics, probing whether laws and social norms are the same as what people (i.e., the reader) consider to be good behavior or fair judgment in practice.
Historical Context: Social Expectations of Women
This story was first published in 1954. During the 1950s, women had more personal autonomy than previous generations, but social expectations for women still focused around getting married, staying at home, and having children. The period of America’s involvement in World War II (1940-41) had driven social change with, for instance, many more women entering the workforce. But post-war American society also heroized the ideal of a happy “nuclear family” unit, the achievement of which relied on a wife to stay at home, focus on caring for her husband and any children, and maintain traditional values (“The 1950s.” History, 2022).
Mr. and Mrs. Foster are “elderly” in the story, and so their marriage reflects norms from a previous generation. If Mrs. Foster married Mr. Foster at 25 years old, they would have been married in about 1915. The importance of this context to the story’s meaning is highlighted by Dahl’s deliberate descriptions of the couple’s outdated “Edwardian” clothing. This is not from financial necessity: It expresses their outdated attitudes. The story makes clear that Mrs. Foster has been “trained” to be obedient by her husband, which, while repellently selfish, would have been considered quite normal in the early 20th century. Dahl’s attention to detail here creates a generational gap between the story’s characters and New Yorker readers. In 1954, these readers will have had a more liberal view of women’s personal rights and the importance of mutual respect and kindness in marriage than the Fosters’ marriage reflects.
The age and attitude of Mrs. Foster creates pathos, as she has spent her adult life being abused and manipulated by Mr. Foster, but, most crucially, it gives the reader context about her docility and her belief that “it is wrong and disloyal” (48) of her to wish herself elsewhere. The story suggests that it is natural for her to feel this, as a woman whose experience of marriage reflects the 1910s. Her (in)ability to stand up for herself must be viewed in its proper historical context and not imbued with modern assumptions. As her hesitant, secret wish for autonomy is expressed only as a sad longing to be with her daughter’s family, whom she loves and who evidently treat her kindly, the story upholds the 1950s expectation that Mrs. Foster’s personal happiness lies in her role as a mother and grandmother. Part of the way the story creates sympathy for her is that she is divided between the fulfilment of her role as wife on one hand and her role as mother on the other, exacerbated by Mr. Foster’s deliberate control over her ability to see her family in Paris.
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