August 17

August 17 marks Esther Greenwood’s departure from home during her mental crisis, a private act that becomes public news when her mother reports her missing. The date links the moment she leaves in a green skirt and white blouse to the newspaper’s account of her disappearance and the note she left behind, making a calendar detail the hinge between her own concealed intentions and the story told about her by others.

The Departure

After the car tires crunched away and the motor faded, Esther got out of bed and dressed in a white blouse, green figured skirt, and black raincoat. She took a pale blue envelope from the dining-room table and wrote on its back, in large, painstaking letters, that she was going for a long walk. She propped the message where her mother would see it on returning. The careful, legible note offered a simple explanation while concealing the gravity of the crisis behind her departure.

The Date in the News

A newspaper clipping later reported that Esther Greenwood had disappeared from home on August 17 wearing a green skirt and white blouse, and had left a note saying she was taking a long walk. The article added that when she had not returned by midnight, her mother called the town police. Its headline, “SCHOLARSHIP GIRL MISSING. MOTHER WORRIED,” recast Esther as the subject of a public search: her educational distinction and her mother’s concern became the terms through which strangers encountered her absence.

Private Act and Public Account

The date’s significance lies in the contrast between Esther’s own brief message and the accumulating public account. Her note names an ordinary walk; the newspaper supplies the date, clothing, elapsed hours, and police call that make the disappearance legible to readers. The same white blouse and green skirt connect the scene of departure to the clipping, but the meanings differ: at home they are what Esther wears as she leaves, while in print they become identifying details in a search. August 17 thus records not only when she went away, but the point at which her hidden crisis entered the hands of her family, the police, and the press.