Hopefully, you're only reading this only if a) You've read the story once already or b) You're Professor Murray. Preferably both. If not, well, I can't stop you from cheating.
The format of this story is that of a main story line - Mrs. Curtis looking for rat poison - with several digressions or memories which are triggered by objects or thoughts Mrs. Curtis has on her search. The memories themselves only have one link, which is the link back to the main story line. This is to keep the reader from losing interest from being constantly lead away from the story.
The main story line is linear and leads up to a surprising and inexplicable act, the suicide of Mrs. Curtis. Her reasons and history are not told in the main story line. Only by reading about her history and philosophies which are explained through her memories can the reader piece together why she did this.
People have been confused by the black page (page 4). This is to create a symbolic separation between the two versions of the story. The entire page is a link to the version of the story with hypertext links to Mrs. Curtis's memories. If you didn't get this the first time, go back and click on the page.
Link back to "The Lives and Deaths of Mrs. Curtis" Title Page. Send mail to marleigh@mit.edu.