Short Story Analysis – Queenie by Alice Munro

I. Context
a. Background of the Author

Alice Munro, was born on July 10, 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, Canada. She
attended the University of Western Ontario but left after two years of studying English
and journalism. She had begun writing stories as a teenager, and she persevered in her
attempt to establish herself as a writer despite years of rejection from publishers and
the limitations imposed on her career by the responsibilities of marriage and
motherhood.

Despite the limitations and rejections she experienced, Munro gained

international recognition with her exquisitely drawn narratives. Munro’s work was
noted for its precise imagery and narrative style, which is at once lyrical, compelling,
economical, and intense, revealing the depth and complexities in the emotional lives of
everyday people. With that, she was recognized as the first Canadian—as well as the
13th woman—to be named the Nobel literature laureate.

Serafin, S. R. (2020, July 6). Alice Munro. Britannica Encyclopedia.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alice-Munro.

b. Background of the Text

Written in 1999, nearly 50 years after the Canadian born writer published her
first short story, Queenie looks into the why and wherefore of the protagonist’s puzzling
and surprising behaviour. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013, Munro’s
character complexity is artfully created in this seemingly simple but tragic story. The
Queenie of the title is half-sister to the narrator, Chrissy, and whilst this tale gives us a
little of their background, it is mostly concerned with their relationships.

Tamsing, A. (2018, October 20). Queenie – short story by Alice Munro. Tamsin Writing.
https://tamsinwriting.wordpress.com/2018/09/17/queenie-short-story-by-alice-munro/.

II. Plot Summary

The story begins with a bit of a warning. Queenie is telling Chrissy, our narrator, to
“maybe” not call her Queenie anymore because, well, “Stan doesn’t like it.” Chrissy is taken
aback, and not necessarily because her stepsister is no longer going by the name, she went
by for the her first eighteen years, but because Queenie is now calling Mr. Vorguilla, Stan. It
doesn’t make sense, even though it of course makes sense: Queenie, or Lena, as she now
wants to be called, is married to Mr. Vorguilla now and has been for the past year and a half.
The remainder of the story takes us back in the past, so we know how it came to this,
and into the future. Stan, was a neighbor, the piano teacher, and so Queenie and Chrissy of
course got to know him as they grew up as Mr. Vorguilla. When Mrs. Vorguilla dies, it’s less
than a week before he and Queenie elope and settle in Toronto. Of course Their father and
Bet is not happy with it. In fact, Bet wishes not to see Mr. Vorguilla anymore.
Reuniting for the first time since, Chrissy is still understandably shocked by the way that
world shifted, and not for the better. Both Queenie and Mr Vorguilla had to go out to work
in the evenings. Mr Vorguilla played the piano in a restaurant. And Queenie had a job selling
tickets in a movie theatre. Working in a movie theatre, Queenie is able to buy ingredients
for her Christmas cake.
She threw a Christmas party together with Greek people, Stan and a couple of his
friends, and his students. The Greeks brought wine they had made and some of the students
brought eggnog mix and rum and sherry. And some brought records you could dance to.
They had thought that Stan wouldn’t have any records of that kind of music and they were
right. Queenie made sausage-rolls and gingerbread and the Greek woman brought her own
kind of cookies. Everything was good. The party was a success. Queenie danced with Stan’s
student, Andrew, who had brought a record she loved. One of them is the song ‘Turn, turn,
turn,’ by the Byrds.’
After A day or so, Stan asked if they could have a piece of cake that she made. There
was left over from the christmas party. But as she went to cupboard and then to the
refrigerator, she realized that it was not there. She looked for it but she cant find it. And so
Stan thought that she gave it to someone. He thought that he gave it to Andrew. But
Queenie insists. He knew that he didn't give it to anyone. Then Stan thought that probably
she was drunk. She does not remember very well but she denied saying that she was not
drunk but he is the one who was drunk. With what she said, He got up and came at her with
his hand raised, saying not to tell him that he'd been drunk, never to tell him that.
There argument goes on. She cried and begged him to believe her, the more cool and
sarcastic he became. Then he came close to her again in such a calm half-smilig way that she
thought for a moment he was going to kiss her. Instead he closed his hands around her
throat and just for a second cut off her breath. He didn't leave any marks. Then he went to
get dressed to go and play at the restaurant. When he came back, he ignored Queenie as if
she is not existing. Queenie ask for forgiveness. He did not say that he forgave her but he
got a warm washcloth and wiped her face and lay down beside her and cuddled her and
pretty soon he wanted to do everything else. ‘No more music lessons for Mr. Moonlight
Sonata,’(Andrew) he finally said. What a relief. And then to top it all off, later she found the
cake. But she didn’t want that subject brought up again and so throwing out the cake was
the final, ridiculous point of it.
The next day Chrissy got a job in the drugstore. She was hired to work behind the lunch
counter. But later on got fired on the same day. All the time she was working she thought
what a relief it would be to go back and tell Mr. Vorguilla that yes, she had a job. Now, she
could go and look for a room of my own to live in. She thought Queenie would have some
place to run away to if Mr. Vorguilla got mad at her again. If ever Queenie decided to leave
Mr. Vorguilla, then with the pay from both jobs they have, maybe they could get a little
apartment. It would be like when they lived at home with their parents except the part that
their parents would be away.
 As she walk back in their place, she remembered the Post Office. She got a letter out of
the box and went home. Queenie was in the kitchen while Mr. Vorguilla and his friend Lesie
were listening to records. Then she saw the letter Chrissy was holding. She took it from her.
Then later on told that the letter was from Andrew. Later, Queenie went of to work. She
gave a kiss to Mr. Vorguilla and Leslie on their foreheads and wave goodbye to Chrissy. Mr.
Vorguilla later on introduced Chrissy to his friend Leslie. Then after some talks, Mr. Vorguilla
soon said that it was his time for him to go to work. He went to change his clothes. Then
Leslie asked Chrissy if she would like to have a supper with him. She agreed. After they
dropped off Mr. Vorguilla at the restaurant they went on and had supper. They talked about
their lives.
The story moves to the present time where Chrissy is the one narrating all happenings.
She was at Teachers’ College when Queenie ran away again. For years, even after Chrissy
was married, she never found out if it was Andrew Queenie went away with or somebody
else. Now in the years when Chrissy’s Children are grown up and her husband has retired,
and they are traveling a lot, she has an idea that sometimes she see Queenie. It’s not
through any particular with or effort that she sees her, and it’s not as if she believed it was
really her, either. Maybe we went passed my each other just missing each other.
III. Character List
a. Queenie/Lena – Main character from the story eloped with Mr. Stan Vorguilla.
b. Chrissy/The Narrator – Chrissy is Queenie’s stepsister who comes to Toronto to find a
job and stays temporarily in her house.
c. Mr. Stan Vorguilla – Stan Vorguilla, known as Mr. Vorguilla in the story, is Queenie’s
older husband that used to be her family’s neighbor. Mr. Vorguilla is a short tempered
and a suspicious person.
d. Andrew – Andrew is one of Mr. Vorguilla’s piano students who wants to learn Moonlight
Sonata. Queenie and Andrew seem close since she is happily dancing with him in a party
she throws.
IV. Themes
a. The Journey to find true Happiness – Considering the plot of “Queenie”, the writer can
assume that the general idea that the author tries to tell the readers is that the search
of happiness. Since Queenie herself has been married before yet finds no happiness, she
leaves her marriage behind to find another way of being happy from another source,
whether it is a person or a place.
b. The Longing of What is Lost – A part in a story where Chrissy’s father make her promise
to never tease Queenie or say anything mean to her because she has no father. We can
assume that Queenie is longing for a fatherly love or maybe a man’s love. She maybe
thought that she could find it in Mr. Vorguilla as Queenie and Chrissy saw how loving he
was when Mrs. Vorguilla was still alive. On part of Chrissy was the loss of her sister
queenie not just for one time but two times in her life.
c. Broken Marriage – The story revolves around the marriage of Chrissy’s father and Bet
(Queenie’s mother) Mr. Vorguilla and Mrs. Vorguilla, Mr. Vorguilla and Queenie, and
probably Andrew and queenie. As Chrissy narrates,
 My father and Bet. Mr and Mrs Vorguilla. Queenie and Mr Vorguilla. Even
Queenie and Andrew. These were couples and each of them, however disjointed, had
now or in memory a private burrow with its own heat and confusion, from which I was
cut off. And I had to be, I wished to be, cut off, for there was nothing I could see in their
lives to instruct me or encourage me.
V. Symbolism, Motifs, etc.
a. Queenie - The representative is unwilling to be controlled by men and wants to end the
restraint of women by men through resistance. Even if they lack love and are addicted
to love, they will resist when they finally realize it.
The rest of the story exposes the real reason why Stan insists on using Queenie’s birth name
— he is a coercively controlling individual who is taking charge of Queenie in her entirety,
replacing her with someone who would like to mould for himself, like a regular Pygmalion.
b. Stan - It represents men who control women and abuse women. Chrissy’s feeling
towards ‘Stan’ (rather than Mr. Vorguilla) indicates how different he seems to her now
that she sees a new side. He might as well be a different person entirely.
c. Kitchen - Represents a warm and safe place for queenie. As narrated by Chrissy, It was
the nicest room in their place.
d. Turn turn turn – It is Queenie’s favorite song record by Byrd’s. The lyrics of this song are
excerpted from the Ecclesiastes. It is the wish of people who resisted the war and
wanted peace. Here is also Queenie's yearning for a better marriage and a better life.
e. Christmas cake – It symbolizes love from queenie as she worked hard to buy ingredients
for it.
f.
VI. Criticism/Analysis of the Piece Grounded Upon a Literary Approach or Theory

Feminism - Feminist criticism is concerned with "...the ways in which literature (and other
cultural productions) reinforce or undermine the economic, political, social, and/or
psychological oppression of women"

We will be applying Feminist Lens by closely examining the portrayal of the characters, both
female and male, the language of the text, the attitude of the author, and the relationship
between the characters. We also consider the comments the author seems to be making
about society as a whole.

Portrayal of characters/the relationship between character

Queenie
Lena, known as Queenie, is the major female character in the story. Although Queenie’s
life is told by her step sister’s point of view, the readers will be able to know that the story is
basically about Queenie’s life. Queenie is a black-haired woman, married to, or rather
eloped, with Stan Vorguilla. Her family finds a note, in a winter morning, in her handwritten,
saying that she is going to marry Mr. Vorguilla (248). It is assumed that Queenie does not
want anyone to object her wedding with an older man so she snuck out in the middle of the
night. It is described that “Queenie looked like some of the girls passing on the street…she
looked—in my father’s words—as if she didn’t have to take a back seat to anybody” (251-
252). The passage means that Queenie has learned about life one thing or two since she
married, knowing that she used to be a sweet little girl who is growing up. Queenie also
undergoes a mild abuse from her husband which in the writer’s opinion is one of the
reasons she is not in a happy marriage. “Instead he closed his hands around her throat and
just for a second cut off her breath” (259). She is forbid to make friend with Andrew,
Mr.Vorguilla’s student, though she has been sending letters with him behind his husband’s
back. From several characteristics above, Queenie is a round character with some
personalities that make her a person. Although she is obedient to her husband, Queenie
does not want to be fully controlled by her husband especially in choosing friends. The
author basically shows the readers what kind of a person Queenie is by her actions and her
words mostly.

Chrissy
She is a single woman. She feels timid towards Mr. Vorguilla. “I sat on my made-up cot
in the sun porch until Mr Vorguilla was out of the house. I was afraid he might not have any
place to go but apparently he did.” She also feels slight lonely. “My father and Bet. Mr. and
Mrs.Vorguilla. Queenie and Mr.Vorguilla…I wished to be, cut off, for there was nothing I
could see in their lives to instruct or encourage me”. She is a bit pessimistic when she
compares herself to Queenie who already has her own family. For that fact, Chrissy is
considered a round character since she seems to be focusing on her sister’s life rather than
her own life, but in the end, when she has her own family she lets go the thoughts of
comparing herself to others and lives her own life.

Mr. Stan Vorguilla

Mr. Vorguilla is a short tempered and a suspicious person. “…He got up and came at her
with his hand raised, saying not to tell him that he’d been drunk, never to tell him that”. He
is somewhat abusive to Queenie, once he chokes her though it is not that hard to show her
that he is superior to her. And looks down on Chrissy. “‘Do you have qualifications for
finding a job in Toronto?’ Queenie said, ‘She’s got her Senior Matric’. ‘Well let’s hope that’s
good enough,’ said Mr Vorguilla.” And we could prove that this was a sarcastic tone when
Chrissy got a job. She says “All the time I was working I thought what a relief it would be to
go back and tell Mr Vorguilla that yes, I had a job.” For this reason, the writer considers Mr.
Vorguilla as a flat character due to his nature, which only causes Queenie pain and makes
Chrissy feels timid towards him.

Andrew
From the way that Andrew comes to the party with a record that Queenie loves (256), it
seems that she and Andrew are friends. Queenie’s husband looks as if he was jealous of
Andrew and even threatens Queenie about it (258-259). It appears that Mr.Vorguilla is
intimidated by Andrew and Queenie’s closeness. They even send letters to each other.
 Language of the Text

It revolves how Chrissy narrates the Queenie’s life as she knew. Chrissy is extradiegetic
narrator (Extradiegetic narrators are characters in their narratives, but at the moment of
narration they are operating from without its setting.) Her language is simple yet very
detailed in narrating.

Attitude/comments of the author about society as a whole

Munro shows her feminist attitude by portraying in the story how men in some aspects of
life are more controlling than women and how women are submissive to men. (Queenie’s
life Marrying Mr. Vorguilla)

Despite that men are rulers and women submissive; Munro portrays that we could live a
happy marriage if we set standards for ourselves and be a high standard to men. (Chrissy’s
life having a degree entering marriage)

VII. References

Alive Munro: Short Stories Characters. (n.d.). https://www.gradesaver.com/alice-

munro-short-stories/study-guide/character-list.

Lynley. (2021, April 11). Alice Munro, Queenie & Coercive Control. SLAP HAPPY
LARRY. https://www.slaphappylarry.com/alice-munro-queenie-coercive-control/.

10, H. T. M. (2020, April 17). Alice Munro: "Queenie". The Mookse and the Gripes.
https://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/2020/04/17/alice-munro-queenie/.

Noviyanti, S. (2017). LONELINESS AS THE PATH TO HAPPINESS IN ALICE

MUNRO’S FOUR SELECTED SHORT STORIES IN HATESHIP, FRIENDSHIP,
COURTHSIP, LOVESHIP, MARRIAGE: A STUCTURAL ANALYSIS.

Lynley. (2021, March 31). Narration and Storytelling: Diegetic Terminology. SLAP
HAPPY LARRY. https://www.slaphappylarry.com/narration-and-storytelling-
diegesis/.

tamsing, A. (2018, October 20). Queenie – short story by Alice Munro. Tamsin
Writing. https://tamsinwriting.wordpress.com/2018/09/17/queenie-short-story-by-
alice-munro/.