A Single Man: A Novel

After class, George heads to a hospital to visit Doris, an old lover of Jim’s. As he makes his way to her floor, the hospital reminds him of his own impending death and the death of his partner—who was killed on impact and never had to endure a hospital stay, which George considers lucky. When George gets to Doris’s room, he is unsurprised to see her shrivelled and yellow, staring out the window. He resents Doris for taking Jim’s attention away during a summer in which the latter became curious about women. George believes that Doris’s body “already held seeds of this rottenness” (75) when she was with Jim and cannot understand why he wanted anything to do with her. Doris struggles to maintain awareness, their conversation being short. A nurse comes in, and George leaves. He admits to himself that the reason he visits Doris is because, despite his hatred for her, she knew a part of Jim that he never would. George laments her being so far departed from her body and mind that she is no longer connected to Jim, nor does she remember much of him— “and one more bit of Jim is lost to him for ever” (80).