In the short story, “Wilhelm” by Gabrielle Roy, true love is put to the test and undergoes great scrutiny. Through perseverance and the power of love, true love can conquer all obstacles in its path. The story starts with the main character, a daughter of oppressive parents who has forbidden her to see and talk to Wilhelm, an immigrant employed as a chemist in a small paint factory. Her stern parents went to great lengths to prevent communication between Wilhelm and their daughter and implemented various tactics to thwart their plans of crossing paths with each other.
The inspirational story of perseverance is told through the eyes of the daughter, the main character, making it in the first person point of view. The story takes place in Quebec, on the streets, at the main character’s home, and it all started at the O’Neills’ residence, a large gabled house located on Rue Desmeurons. One evening at the O’Neills’ house, the main character meets Wilhelm. It was a typical, musical night at the residence and the main character was asked to play Paderewski’s “Minuet”; and was then followed by a performance by Wilhelm on his violin.
Over time, their relationship developed until one day, Wilhelm started accompanying and escorting her home from school. When her mother discovered who it was accompanying her daughter home, she forbade her from returning to the O’Neills, so long as she had not got over the chivalrous Wilhelm. Wilhelm, being as intelligent as he is, now finishes work earlier and waits for the main character at the covent door. Upon her coming through the door, he carried all her homework and books – including music sheets, and metronomes all the way to the corner of her street.
Soon enough, her mother finds out about Wilhelm accompanying her home and carrying her books and prohibits her daughter from ever seeing Wilhelm again. Attempting to defend herself, she tells her mother that she can’t prevent him from even walking on the same sidewalk as her. Upon hearing this, her mother responds by saying that if he does walk on the same side as her, she should move to the other side and walk instead. To counter this, Wilhelm starts sending letters, beginning his letters with the phrases “My own beloved child…” or “Sweet little maid…” and to be outdone, she replies with “My own dearest heart…”.
One day, her mother finds her practicing her writing skills with a scrawl on it professing her love for Wilhelm. Furious, her mother started screening all the mail that was sent. Seeming powerless to do anything, Wilhelm starts to send gifts to his love’s house but unbeknownst to her, her maman would send them right back to Wilhelm as soon as they arrived: including music scores, tulip bulbs from Amsterdam, a small collar of Bruges lace, and more liqueur-filled chocolates.
Being as resourceful as they were, Wilhelm and the main character started communicating through the telephone. The mother was oblivious to this as it was not of her generation. As time passed, Wilhelm found a new way to show his love, by playing “Thais” a composition for violin and piano by the French composer Jules Massenet. At first nobody suspected a thing but as time went on, the others started to catch on and found reasons to loiter in the hall.
They begin to ridicule her and Wilhelm and one day, the main character hung up on Wilhelm mid-performance. This symbolized the end of their relationship and a year later, they learned that Wilhelm was returning to Holland. Everything went back to as normal as they could be and returned to their pre-Wilhelm traditions. In the present, some parents don’t approve of some relationships that their kids are partaking in but kids, athwart their parent’s wishes, continue to push the boundaries and partake in these types of relationships.
