L.P. Hartley’s “The Go – Between” is a diverse novel enveloping the many aspects that run through a young boy’s mind at the age of thirteen. Focusing primarily upon the wondrous facets of ‘magic’, ‘myth’, intimacy and coming of age, Hartley takes the reader back in time to a very hot summer that changed the life of Leo Colston forever.
It was the summer of 1900 when Leo went to stay at a country estate of a rich class fellow. And it is there where he became smitten with his friend’s elder sister, Marian. At first, we see how Marian seemed to be caring an awful lot about Leo; …show more content…
Marian however, begins telling him off and threatens to “never speak to [Leo] again” which is worse than what he could possibly imagine. It is then that poor Leo realizes the entirety of the situation and everything hits him like a wave: “everything she had done for me had been done with an ulterior motive. She hadn’t been fond of me at all…she really wanted to have me free for the message business.” And as Leo dwells on each aspect of his relationship with Marian, “every kindness she had done [him],” pricked him with a “separate sting.”
Immediately after Leo runs away from Marian to deliver her letter, he finds himself blaming Ted for everything that was going wrong, seeing as “nothing is ever a lady’s fault.” But upon arrival at the farm, Leo tests Ted’s patience and soon Ted “[towers]” above him, “straight and dangerous as his gun,” making sure he leaves that instance, otherwise he’ll “be sorry.” And in that moment, Leo is absolutely terrified of Ted. His outburst had “obliterated” Marian’s and had finished off the wreckage of his “emotional structure.” Ted’s anger had touched him in a “hardier nerve” than Marian’s had, because “he was a