1. There are a few secrets that are in this short story. Two are kept by Gail (or Ms. Thornebe) herself (having an alias as Mrs. Massie to her landlord/renter person...because she is writing to Will, and her identity is unknown to him ... she knows that the real Thornebe died) and one is kept by Monro herself, ending the story on a cliff hanger. She leaves you wondering whether or not Will will chase after her. Much of the story is from Ms Thornebe's perspective and her point of view, not Will's, so it is hard to predict where the story may go if there were to be a part two.
2. These secrets mirror other things that we have read in class. It is open ended like The Blackbird and involves letters like in Carried Away. The constant building and suspense of the writing letters comes to a crashing halt when Will figures out that it is Gail. He confronts her on this (pg 188), but Gail leaves him the option to follow her back or not.
3.I think that Monro's focus was on how open ended the story is left, because you can certainly tell that the emotion that is there is strong, yet so is the uncertainty of whether or not Will will follow. I feel that if the other secrets were not in the short story, then the ending would not have as much meaning as it does. She builds it up for the reader to want Will to chase after Gail, but theres always a possibility of unrequited love.
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I don't believe it was unrequited love that drove Gail to follow Will. But more or less her obsessive need. No one in the right mind follows an ex to another country to ride by their house and check in their mailbox. She goes too far, she writes to him and pretends to be someone else, this isn't love this is what a stalker does. The reader sympathizes with Gail in the hopes that he follows her, but realistically this isn't realistic.
I think that the secrets in this short story are necassary to understanding it. If the reader is never informed about Gail pretending to be Ms.Thornebe the letters would go misunderstood. Knowing that Gail wrote the letters leaves you wondering at the end if Will may follow Gail away like she asks. I dont think he will because if I was him I wouldnt cause what she did was alittle to crazy for me.
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