In James Thurber’s “The Catbird Seat,” protagonist
Erwin Martin
seeks to rub out the forces of change that have upset his life.
Who is the antagonist of the catbird seat?
Erwin Martin
, the antagonist, doesn’t like her from the beginning because they are such different personality types. She is loud, aggressive, and insensitive. He is quiet, retiring, and shy.
Who is the main character in the catbird seat?
Erwin Martin
Martin is the protagonist of the story. He is described as a small, neat, quiet man. He has never taken a drink of alcohol or smoked a cigarette, and he has no family or friends. For twenty-two years he has worked for the firm of F&S, eventually rising to the position of head of the filing department.
Who are the characters in the catbird seat?
There are only three characters in James Thurber’s story “The Catbird Seat.”
Erwin Martin and Ulgine Barrows
are major characters and Mr. Fitweller is a minor character. Erwin Martin is a timid, sensitive, mild-mannered little man who is head of the accounting department.
What was Erwin Martin’s role in the catbird seat?
Erwin Martin is
head of the filing department at F & S
, a firm located in Manhattan. This fact is of prime importance to the story because Ulgine Barrows, who has recently been hired as a special assistant to the owner, Mr.
Why does Mr Fitweiler fire Mrs Barrows?
The very idea of Mr. Martin doing such a thing is too ridiculous for words;
Mrs. Barrows must be mad, he thinks
. So he fires her.
Why does Mr Martin bring cigarettes to Mrs Barrows House?
Why does Mr Martin bring cigarettes to Mrs Barrows House? …
The cigarettes would provide him a reason to allow her to live
; Martin’s new plan would simply discredit her, he foresaw.
What exactly does Mr Martin accuse Mrs Barrows of doing?
As examples of her “tangled and contradictory imprecations,” she is accusing Martin of
being a heroin addict and planning to blow his boss up with a bomb
, while at the same time she is calling Martin a little rat and accusing him of being a cunning schemer pretending to be a mild-mannered, ultra-conservative, harmless …
What does sitting in the catbird seat mean?
In the catbird seat was among the numerous folksy expressions that legendary baseball broadcaster Red Barber used to delight listeners. … To Red, according to Joey, sitting in the catbird seat meant ‘
sitting pretty
,’ like a batter with three balls and no strikes on him.
What qualities in Mrs Barrows lead Mr Martin to plot her murder?
What qualities in Mrs Barrows lead Mr Martin to plot her murder? In the story, Mr. Martin is
cunning, methodical, and diligent
. He is also a loyal and reliable employee.
What is Mr Martin’s title at f and s?
Erwin Martin is
head of the filing department
at F & S, a firm located in Manhattan.
Why does Mr Martin suspect that his department is about to be disrupted?
Martin worries that his department is
about to fall prey to the same chaos that Mrs. Barrows
had visited upon other departments in the course of implementing these “improvements” and decides to “rub out” Mrs. Barrows. He succeeds in a way he had not initially planned.
What is the conflict in the catbird seat?
Expert Answers
The conflict in Thurber’s “The Catbird Seat ” is
Mr. Martin’s opposition to his co-worker, Ulgine Barrows
. Mr. Martin, a staid and steadfast longtime employee of F & S, is disgusted by Mrs.
What are two themes of the catbird seat?
James Thurber explores two of his usual themes in the hilarious short story, “The Catbird Seat.” One of the themes is
the Battle of the Sexes–
in this case, the reversal of roles between men and women. As in many of Thurber’s stories, the woman is the dominant character, and the man is the weakling.
What is the climax of the catbird seat?
Climax- The climax occurs
when Miss Barrows has an extreme outburst on Mr. Fitweiler and tells him what Mr. Martin had said about him and about his condition the previous night in her apartment
. Falling Action- the falling action is resolved when Mr.
What is the resolution of the catbird seat?
Mr. Martin is clever enough to see that he can save his beloved filing department from Ulgine Barrows’ ravishment if he can disrupt her relationship with Mr. Fitweiler. Martin achieves this by making her look like a lunatic.
