Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life

Eileen’s death was likely due to her general weakness. Additionally, her decision to have the operation immediately instead of getting blood transfusions, resting, and gaining weight likely made her heart too weak to survive surgery. Orwell receives the news of her death while he is in a hospital in Cologne, suffering from another tuberculosis flare-up. He leaves the hospital with some painkillers and goes to Inez in London before traveling to Stockton-on-Tees to attend to Eileen’s funeral.

He tells his Aunt Nellie how much he grieves for Eileen, and Funder believes that Eileen’s death profoundly affected him and the rest of his life. He refuses to read the coroner’s report and does not attend the inquest, so he never knows precisely why she died. He believes that her death was a reaction to the anesthesia, but the report indicates that she experienced cardiac arrest because she was too weak to survive the surgery. Orwell takes Richard to stay with the Kopps before leaving for the continent again, even though Eileen specifically made her wishes clear that Richard should stay with Gwen or be brought to Norah.

Funder argues that Orwell avoids the details of Eileen’s death in order to maintain the fiction that this was a simple surgery and that she didn’t suffer.