The Righteous Deceit of Helen Turrell
Helen Turrell is portrayed at first glance as an independent caretaker of her nephew, Michael Turell in the short story, “The Gardener” by Rudyard Kipling. However, upon reading between the lines of this character’s story, her facade of honesty is peeled away. In it’s place is a of lies exposed by the story’s namesake, the Gardener. Her experience with the public is through a veil of her lie. Instead of going to France to cure her lung trouble as the public thought, Helen was actually there bearing Michael into the world. Besides this secret, Helen’s honesty is a well-known trait to the general public.
To her son, however, her honesty and lies are a strain on their relationship. By ten years old he discovers that he is an illegitimate child. When Michael unexpectedly dies fighting in World War I, Helen meets Mrs. Scarsworth. They meet while traveling to visit Michael’s grave, and Mrs. Scarsworth prompts the first introspection of Helen’s lie. The Gardener at the graveyard confirms the illegitimate son to the reader. The story seems to be told from Helen’s version of the happenings, and the public’s gossip about it. Outwardly, the public’s gossip defines Helen’s appearance outside of her deceit.
Rudyard Kipling builds on his theme of the effects of deceit buy developing the character Helen Turrell into an innocent, selfless, yet deceitful person through her twisted interactions with the public in general; her unfulfilled relationship with Michael Turrell; and her short, strained relationship with Mrs. Scarsworth. Helen’s relationship with the public was a deceitful one, but both parties gained from the relationship. The beginning paragraphs of the story aren’t quite from the authors omniscient narrative. The sentences are short and information is sparse and sometimes absent, as though it was gathered through gossip.
From this it can be concluded that the public gossip is writing this part of the story. The opening paragraph explains that Helen Turrell is sister to recently deceased George Turrell; when he died he left a scandal in his wake of an illegitimate baby in India. Helen was suffering health issues and recovering in France, but she returns back to her home in Hampshire with her nephew Michael. As far as her relationship with the public, “All these details were public property, for Helen was as open as the day,” and “scandals are only increased by hushing them up” (Kipling).
Her honest reputation shows how well the Helen kept her secret from the public. The gossip on Helen seemed to sometimes focus on how much of an honest person she was, and this can be interpreted in two ways. Her honesty made the public respect her relationship with her nephew, even though she reveals that she lets him call her “mummy” at bedtime. No foul play was suspected. However, focusing on how honest someone is begs for attention to the fallacious human condition, and this is a subtle hint to the other side of Helen’s facade. This may have eaten away at her, causing some of the distress in her relationship with her son.
Helen Turrell has a unique relationship with her son that significantly defines her character into one of innocence and goodwill despite her facade. When her son, Michael, is around 10 years old, he realizes that his “civil status [is] not quite regular,” and then he proceeds to “[break] down her stammered defences” (Kipling). The question of Michael’s legitimacy will obviously be a sore point for Helen that she isn’t interested in talking about much. She has been hiding it her entire life, and that is not a small feat, for it is her own son!
This, combined with allowing Michael to call her “Mummy” at bedtime shows that she still considers him her son, with all the attachment and emotion that comes with it. After hiding it for so long, Helen doesn’t have anything other than a tentative response to Michael’s attacks. Her tentative response reflects that Helen does not dwell on her deceit. She understands that deceit is morally incorrect, and she is embarrassed by its evil nature. Because Helen is somewhat foreign to her lie, her innocence is preserved through the amoral facade. Her lie is so her son can have a better life; it is selfless, and therefore Helen is arguably moral.
This isn’t to say that Helen regrets her predicament as Helen’s meetings with the flustered Mrs. Scarsworth reveal. Helen’s relationship with Mrs. Scarsworth shows that Helen almost doesn’t realize the extent of her deception, and her deception is further shown as good compared to Mrs. Scarsworth’s pathological lying. Helen meets Mrs. Scarsworth through her journey to visit the grave of the now deceased Michael.Mrs. Scarsworth is visiting the graveyards under the premise of seeing commissions for friends who would be comforted knowing someone made the trip. She ends up staying in the same hotel as Helen.
In the middle of he night, Mrs. Scarsworth disturbs Helen to confess that one of her commissions was her love. Helen “desperately” asks, “But why do you tell me? ”(Kipling) Helen’s desperation is an obvious response to being disturbed so late at night. It is obviously annoying to be awoken in order to tend to someone’s moral dilemma, but Helen is paying more than flustered attention to the problem of Mrs. Scarsworth. Helen’s lie is close to revealing herself at the question of why Mrs. Scarsworth would reveal to her. Helen fears that Mrs. Scarsworth feels an inherent kinship with Helen and the night time intruder might guess at Helen’s deception.
That is why Helen truly feels desperation towards Mrs. Scarsworth. Helen shouldn’t be worried though, for Mrs. Scarsworth confesses of “always lying” for about “six years”(Kipling) of deception total. This pathological lying is a circumstance of evil that serves as an antithesis of Helen’s situation. Mrs. Scarsworth is visibly and audibly troubled by her lying, whereas Helen was only troubled by the necessary strain it put on her relationship with her son. Helen has lived with the deception for so long without worrying as much about it that it doesn’t matter so much to become the crippling and defining trait that it is in Mrs.Scarsworth’s life.
Through Helen’s emotions in her relationship with Mrs. Scarsworth, it is really revealed that Michael is her son and not her nephew. Here there is no mention of public gossip, but perhaps Helen can now embrace her innocence and confess now that Michael has passed away. Helen’s character is developed as such through her relationships with the other characters in this short story. Her development is especially shown in her unique interactions with each different character because of her deception. But in the end, her deception is an act of selflessness and love, and cleans Helen’s moral slate.
As a character, Helen’s selfless innocence is finally proved by the appearance of the gardener. The gardener’s “endless compassion” “Unending love” in his eyes when his omniscience shows Helen where her “son”(Kipling) was redeems her. The Gardener’s traits match Christian Christ himself, and in showing Helen where her son is, forgives her. The story ends here, but if it was told in reference to what public gossip knows, Helen must have confessed after her trip to the graveyard. Thus, Helen finally opens up and moves on with her life past her righteous deceit.
