The short story “You should have seen the mess”, by Muriel Spark is about Lorna, who is 17 years old, and went out from school when she was 15 years old. She failed the 11+ exam and went to the secondary school, which she prefers because it is a new and cleaner place. Her parents want only the best for her and want her to make friend with people in the higher society, for example the Darby family, a doctor family. The parents - like Lorna herself, think a lot about how to behave in the outside world and try to behave like the upper class. Some people will think about the character Hyacinth Bucket in the Tv-show, Keeping up appearance. Other examples of cleanliness are when Lorna is at her first interview, one of the first thing she mentions is, “ I was surprised at the windows, and the stairs up to the office were also far from clean.” and she mentions Mr. Greshams office as dusty everywhere. The teacups are far from clean and are all craked. The first time when she wents to the doctors house she says, “you should have seen the state is was in.”She notice every little thing, like pictures, the carpet, the furniture, etc. Willy´s place is the most unclean place she has ever seen in her young life. The parents do a lot to keep the flat. For example by renovating and cleaning the flat almost to perfection and to send a teacupe with Lorna to her job because the one they have are cracked. Lorna is spending time with the Darby family, which she likes, in spite of the mess they have at their home and clothes their children are wearing. She says, “I like them, but I did not like the mess, and it was a surprise.” In this case she can almost she threw how they behave and live, because she actually like them and like she says, “ I also kept in with them for the opportunity of meeting people.”
Other than call the toilet, the facilities, she gets insult by the choice of words, when her boss calls the Television ” Telly” instead of TV. A day when she was at the Darby´s...