payment page
The next morning, the narrator stops by Father Flynn’s house on Great Britain Street, where a bouquet of flowers and a card announcing Father Flynn’s death hang from the door handle. Instead of knocking on the door and coming inside, the narrator decides to leave. To do so, the narrator realizes, brings about a curious sense of freedom and liberation which continues as he thinks about Father Flynn’s death. The narrator is unable to articulate why this is the case.
As he walks away from Father Flynn’s house, he reminisces about the many visits he spent with the old priest. He recalls how he used to bring Father Flynn snuffing tobacco from his aunt and how Father Flynn would teach him things, such as European history, Latin pronunciation, and the parts of the Mass. The narrator recalls how Father Flynn would drop copious amounts of snuff onto himself as he did so, staining both his priest robes and his handkerchief. The narrator then recalls how Father Flynn used to let his tongue lie upon his lower lip when he smiled, a habit that unsettled the narrator at the beginning of their relationship. Remembering Old Cotter’s cryptic comments, the boy then tries to recall more of his dream from the night before, but he can remember only a Persian setting—he cannot remember the end.
That evening, the boy visits Father Flynn’s house with his aunt, and they kneel at Father Flynn’s open coffin with Nannie, Father Flynn’s sister, to pray. The narrator is surprised to find that he is unable to pray and only pretends to do so. He blames his inability on Nannie’s loud mutterings. As he pretends to pray, the narrator imagines that Father Flynn is smiling but when he looks up that is not the case. Afterward, the three retire to another room to join Eliza, Father Flynn’s other sister. Over sherry and crackers they discuss Father Flynn’s death, his taxing career as a priest, and the helpful services of Father O’Rourke, another priest who anointed Father Flynn and completed all of the necessary paperwork and death notices. All the while the boy remains quiet and is unable to eat. The story ends with Eliza’s recollection of Father Flynn’s increasingly odd behavior, which started with dropping a chalice during Mass. In the story’s final line, Eliza says that one night Father O’Rourke and another priest found Father Flynn shut in a confessional box, laughing to himself which alerted them to the fact that he was sick.
