Theme of Loneliness in A Lamp in a Window by Truman Capote Essay Example

Truman Capote uses contrasting motifs of life and death repeatedly in "A Lamp in a Window" to further the theme of loneliness. While traveling home from a wedding, the couple traveling with the narrator got into a heated disagreement on the way home. Due to the couple's argument, the narrator wanted to get out of the car. The car briefly stopped after swiping into the tree's side (Capote 2). Taking advantage of the chance, the narrator hurriedly exited the car and entered the woods. After he exited the car, he was left standing alone in the "icy blackness" after the car had left (Capote 2). The narrator expressed his discomfort with being "stranded out there on a windy cold night" (Capote 3). In an effort to find signs of habitation, the narrator wandered alone in the woods for thirty minutes. He later discovered a “small frame cottage” just off the road while exploring the area (Capote 3). After explaining his car accident the narrator asked the elderly women for a phone. The elderly women revealed that she doesn't have a phone in her house but welcomed the narrator in anyhow because it was frigid outside. The old woman welcomed the narrator into her home and offered her some of the whiskey her late husband had left behind when he passed away six years before. Capote establishes a connection between the two characters by showing how both the narrator and the woman in the cabin are alone and without a significant other—the narrator is unmarried, and the old woman's husband has passed away. The narrator later discovered Mrs. Kelly's name while warming up his body in the elderly women's home. When Mrs. Kelly comments of having little interaction with other people while residing in the cottage, Capote further explores the theme of loneliness. In the cottage, Mrs. Kelly had a room for which she had "been waiting such a long time for a guest" (Capote 4). Capote shows to the reader how drinking and driving contributed to the isolation of Mrs. Kelly and the narrator. The intoxicated couple he attended the wedding with got into a furious dispute, leaving the narrator all by himself in the woods. Later, it was implied that Mrs. Kelly's late husband had died as a result of drunken driving. Before his death, Mrs. Kelly and her late husband were wed for forty years. The narrator had a long talk with Mrs. Kelly about herself and then was led to the guest room. He spent the night at her cottage thinking about how he would react if their roles were reversed. The narrator looked around the room while eating breakfast with Mrs. Kelly one morning and noticed a "somewhat modern object" of a deep freeze machine in the corner. Capote reminded the reader that the narrator once owned a Siamese cat, but it tragically died when it turned twelve. The deep freeze machine holding the lifeless corpses of Mrs. Kelly's late cats pushes the topic of life and death that has been present throughout the entire narrative. The cats' bodies were said to be "perfectly preserved" in the deep-freeze machine (Capote 8). Because all of Mrs. Kelly's old friends have "gone to rest," she suffers with losing her husband and consequently can't "stand to lose" her cats (Capote 8). The fact that the narrator and Mrs. Kelly are both abandoned in the woods demonstrates how prevalent the theme of isolation is throughout the entire story. The narrator was abandoned there after a heated argument between the couple he was with, and Mrs. Kelly is alone as a result of a drunk driver running down her husband.