Publication type Magazine Originally published 27 February 1954 Published in The New Yorker | Publication date 27 February 1954 | |
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Similar Roald Dahl books, English language books | ||
"The Way Up to Heaven" is a macabre short story by Roald Dahl. It was originally published in The New Yorker, as were some of the other short stories that would later be reprinted in the 1960 collection Kiss Kiss.
Contents
Plot summary
Mr. and Mrs. Foster are a mature, wealthy married couple living in New York. Mrs. Foster has recently begun to suspect her husband of purposely exacerbating her "almost pathological fear of missing a train, a plane, a boat, or even a theatre curtain". She is continuously badgered by her husband, Eugene, who makes a habit of waiting to leave the house until after the proverbial last second has already passed.
Mrs. Foster is preparing for a six-week trip to Paris, where their daughter and her family reside. While attempting to leave for the airport, things finally come to a head. After the usual rounds of teasing his wife's delicate psyche, Mr. Foster tries to foil his wife for the last time by claiming he has mistakenly left a present for their daughter in the house. Mr. Foster insists on looking for the gift himself and goes back inside. While her husband pretends to search their six-story home, Mrs. Foster finds the present in the car and can't help but notice "it was wedged down firm and deep, as though with the help of a pushing hand." Mrs. Foster rushes to retrieve her husband as quickly as possible, but hears a noise from inside their home and has a sudden change of heart. Mrs. Foster gets back in the car and much to the surprise of the driver, demands to be driven to the airport immediately.
Mrs. Foster enjoys her time in Paris and writes her husband weekly, as promised.
The visit concludes, and Mrs. Foster flies back to New York. Upon her arrival at the airport, Mrs. Foster is "interested" and "might even have been a little amused" to find her husband has not sent a car to meet her. After arriving at home, she enters and notices "a great pile of mail" under the letterbox, as well as a "faint and curious odour in the air that she had never smelled before". She does a quick lap around the first floor and, seemingly satisfied, calls the elevator company to report the home's apparently broken lift. The story closes with Mrs. Foster "patiently waiting for the man who would be coming soon to repair the lift."
The implication is that despite her meek and subservient behavior for the last 30 years, Mrs. Foster was finally pushed to the point of purposely leaving her husband trapped in a broken elevator, inside their empty home, for six weeks.
The central character is Mrs. Foster. Mr. Foster is a major character; the servants (not mentioned in the summary above) and driver are minor, supporting characters. The story is written from a limited omniscient point-of-view and takes place in contemporaneous New York City.
Adaptations
"The Way Up to Heaven" was dramatized in a 1958 episode of Alfred Hitchcock's television show Suspicion (Season 1, Episode 29), and subsequently in a 1979 episode of Tales of the Unexpected (Season 1, Episode 9).