Forgiveness is all.

“Forgiveness is all.” is a recurring phrase that connects Richard’s admission that he has not forgiven Joanne with Eric’s tearful apology to his father. Its force lies in the contrast between the principle it declares and the family’s inability to put it into practice: forgiveness becomes at once a plea, an accusation, and the narrator’s explanation of Richard’s suffering.

Richard’s Unforgiven Grievance

Richard attributes Joanne’s hatred of him to his failure to forgive her. When asked what she did, he refuses to disclose more, asking instead to be allowed to get through the ordeal without having his skin stripped away and pleading for help for his children. The exchange presents his unforgiveness not as an abstract position but as a wound he will not discuss. The phrase’s later insistence that forgiveness is everything is set against this refusal to revisit the injury.

Eric’s Apology

The words recur when Eric, sobbing, apologizes to Richard: “Sorry, Daddy,” followed by “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” Richard starts to comfort him, then thinks better of it and sits back down. Eric answers his father’s question with “Forgiveness,” and then, “Forgiveness is all.” Around them lies the broken pottery; Richard picks up a fragment bearing part of a horse’s face. The fragment gives the exchange a concrete setting: the appeal comes amid damage, while the attempted gesture of comfort falters before it can become reconciliation.

The Phrase as Interpretation

The narrator takes up Eric’s words and applies them to Richard: “Forgiveness is all. And Richard hadn't forgiven, so now he was paying for it.” This is the phrase’s sharpest turn. Spoken first by Eric, it becomes the narrator’s reading of Richard’s predicament, joining the father’s refusal to forgive Joanne with the strained encounter between father and son. The narrator also regards Richard and Eric as volatile and keeps attention on Stacy, whose welfare remains a concern. The expression therefore does not resolve the family’s conflict; it names what is missing, while the scene leaves its consequences—and the possibility of repair—open.