Interpretation of literary

11. The Factual Information (the plot of the story). In this story 
the author depicts the life of a small industrial town of Braddle and its 
inhabitants on the eve of the first World War and the postwar years. 
Coppard writes the story very laconically without extra details dwelling 
only on' the main crucial moments in the life of the characters. He 
purposely composes the story in such a schematic way in order to lay 
bare the class contradictions and to underline the difference between 
the rich and the poor. Thus he contrasts two Englands: the England of 
workers and the England of factory-owners. The author describes the 
life of two families within the lifetime of 2 generations. Two honest 
young men Tony Vassal and Nathan Regent worked together at the 
spinning mills in Braddle and courted the same girl Patience who was 
poor and pretty. Tony Vassal married Patience arid Nathan Regent 
married a rich girl. Hence their lives took 2 different courses, Tony went 
on working at the mill in the same position but Nathan was quickly 
promoted. Soon children were born to Tony, but he went on working in 
the same position. A daughter was born to Nathan, hut by that time his 
wealth permitted him to buy the entire concern and he became a 
factory-owner. 
During the war Tony Vassall and his sons lost their lives at the 
front and Patience died of grief but Nathan and his wife lent their money 
to the country, the country gave them large sums of interest and they got 
so rich that after the war they died of overeating. 
Nothing changed in the life of the second generation. After the war 
Tony's daughter Nancy married a mill hand and repeated the destiny of 
her parents. Nathan's daughter Olive married a very grand man and 
continued performing the duties of her father running the factory and 
appealing to the workers with demagogic slogans that they must work 
harder than before the war, much, much harder. She thought that 
managing the mill was her predestination on the earth and she 
hypocritically believed that she performed it very nobly.