Diana

Diana is Henry Maitland’s deceased wife, whose absence remains palpable in the photographs he keeps and in the anniversary that returns each year. Henry remembers her death in an accident he survived, but the novel leaves much of their marriage—and Janice’s sharp assessment of it—unexplained.

Identity and Marriage

Diana appears in David Hunter’s account through the traces of a shared life. Most of the photographs in Henry’s study are of Henry and Diana, and their wedding portrait occupies pride of place atop the drug cabinet. In it, they look young and happy, unaware of the future awaiting them. The image makes their marriage visible within a room otherwise marked by Henry’s medical work and the accumulated objects of his past.

Death and Henry’s Grief

Speaking with David beside the lake, Henry says that he could not understand why he had survived when Diana had not. He begins to recall the long period after the accident, then breaks off and declines to continue. His grief is not confined to that conversation: Janice tells David that Henry becomes subdued around the week of his wedding anniversary, even though he does not speak about it. The approaching anniversary would have marked thirty years of marriage. For Henry, the date keeps the loss present without making it something he can readily discuss.

Reputation and Narrative Significance

Janice offers a markedly different glimpse of Diana, saying that she did not deserve Henry and that Henry deserved better. Her words come out in a rush, and she seems close to tears, but the exchange gives no explanation for her judgment. The contrast between the happy wedding portrait and Janice’s condemnation leaves Diana’s character unresolved: the reader sees her through Henry’s loving remembrance and another person’s hurt or anger, without enough information to settle the difference. Her limited presence thus shapes the story through what remains unsaid, as well as through Henry’s enduring bereavement.