Chapter 6 Summary

"An Empty Vessel"

In "An Empty Vessel," Crick returns to his present day and describes the state of his marriage to the former Mary Metcalfe. Each is 52 years old. Crick sets out some of the emptiness that he feels with his teaching position terminated and their marriage childless. Tom Crick expresses his surprise that Mary has entered into a love affair, or perhaps returned to a love affair, with God at this stage of her life. This fact leaves Tom Crick feeling both astounded and forsaken, and he provides the imagined audience (his history class) with the view that a woman is "an avid and receptive vessel."

Chapter 6 Analysis

"An Empty Vessel" is the metaphor used by Swift in this chapter to describe the present state of the marriage of Tom Crick and Mary Metcalfe - it is a compelling one. By 1980, Crick...