The climax of the story is when Walter Mitty stands up to his wife and, when she is haranguing him about putting on his overshoes, says, "I was thinking...Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?” While this is a very small revolt, it is rare enough for him to ask for anything from his wife that it constitutes a change in his actions and the climax of the story. He generally gives his wife a passive answer to her nagging questions and remarks, and then he returns to his world of make-believe heroism. He never lets his wife know about the fictions he makes up, and he veers between the real world and the world of his imagination without connecting them at all. In this small but significant climax, he brings together his two worlds and lets his wife know that he has other things on his mind. It's unclear whether this small change in Mitty's behavior will bring about a full-scale rebellion, but it is a change nonetheless.
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You could argue that there is no real climax in this story as Mitty does not ever change or reach a turning point. For argument's sake, you could analyze his final daydream. He envisions facing a firing squad as a form of suicide. Is he metaphorically killing his former self in order to become more assertive and stand up to his wife (or act more responsibly so his wife won't nag him so much)? Or does he really dream of dying as a form of escape? In reality, his limited options include standing up to his wife, positively changing his behavior, and/or leaving his wife. He could also kill himself or kill his wife. But considering that over the course of the story he his weak and passive, it's unlikely that he suddenly decides to make a significant change and much more likely that he simply continues to be a doormat to his wife and the firing squad is just the next daydream and many more will follow.
How does “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” end?
At the end of James Thurber’s short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” Walter’s wife leaves him alone to go into a drugstore. Walter waits outside for her and leans against the wall of the store. He lights a cigarette, and it begins to rain quite heavily. As he throws the cigarette away, he escapes one final time into a vivid daydream which is again much more dramatic and eventful than his real, mundane life.
In this final daydream, Walter Mitty faces a firing squad. He refuses to be blindfolded, saying "to hell with the handkerchief," and he stands very still while he waits to be hit. It is interesting to consider that Thurber does not focus so much on the events that are occurring in this daydream but...
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rather on how Walter approaches the situation. He writes:
Then, with that faint, fleeting smile playing about his lips, he faced the firing squad; erect and motionless, proud and disdainful, Walter Mitty the Undefeated, inscrutable to the last.
In this final daydream, Walter Mitty faces his executioners with no resistance and no fear. He casually flicks his cigarette away in the face of this imaginary death. It is interesting to note that the story ends with a daydream, just as it began with one. This choice emphasizes how Walter’s daydreams overpower his thoughts and are the most significant aspect of his dull life.
Further Reading
What is the rising and falling action of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?
James Thurber's short story about a mediocre man whose fantasy life impinges upon his real life is both humorous and tragic.
Immediately in the exposition, the reader is immersed into the imaginary world of Walter Mitty. Then, abruptly his wife invades this world and scolds him and gives him instructions on what to do while she is at the hairdresser.
RISING ACTION
The rising action involves heroic daydreams of Mitty mixed with his mundane errands and weak attempts to rebel.
- As he drops Mrs. Mitty at the beauty shop, she tells Walter to put on his gloves; he does so, but quickly pulls them off after she gets out of the car. Soon, a policeman barks at him, "Pick it up, buddy!" and the intimidated Mitty puts his gloves back on. This action triggers another imaginative escape as he imagines himself as a medical specialist.
- Mitty's brief interlude from the vicissitudes of life is interrupted as he hears, "Back it up, Mac! Look out for that Buick!" The insolent parking attendant tells Mitty that he will park the car, and a humiliated Mitty walks off remembering another "young, grinning garageman" who took the snow chains off his tires. As he walks toward the stores, he tries to remember what the second thing is that he is supposed to purchase.
- The frustration of trying to remember his errands sets off another daydream. This time Mitty, a "crack shot with any sort of firearms," is on the witness stand during a murder trial. But, suddenly Mitty remembers the puppy biscuits that he has temporarily forgotten. A woman who passes him laughs. She tells her companion what Mitty has said, and Walter hurries away in embarrassment.
- Walter Mitty quickens his steps to the hotel where he is supposed to wait for his wife. Finding a large leather chair that faces a window, Mitty retreats into the seat as he waits.
- Another daydream takes Mitty away from the insipid and demeaning life he leads. This time Mitty is a war hero. However, this dream is interrupted by the arrival of Mrs. Mitty, who typically scolds her husband.
FALLING ACTION
- After the berating of his nagging wife, Mrs. and Mr. Mitty leave the hotel through the revolving doors. As they walk the two blocks to the parking garage, they stop at a drug store. "Wait here for me. I forgot something...." Mrs. Mitty orders.
Walter Mitty lighted a cigarette. It began to rain, rain with sleet in it. He stood against the wall of the drugstore, smoking.....He put his shoulders back and his heels together. "To hell with the handkerchief," said Walter Mitty scornfully.
The story concludes as Walter Mitty "the Undefeated, inscrutable to the end" faces a firing squad.
What is the rising and falling action of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?
In The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I think you can point to several points across the plot for the rising action. At the point when we see Mitty's second day dream and he is a doctor, we are into the rising action. We have seen the first trigger that puts him into his dream world: a cranky, nagging wife: her introduction is what I would call the inciting incident. It begins the rising action. After his experiences as a doctor, we see continued rising action as the parking lot attendent catches him mid-daydream. Next, he tries to go buy whatever he was supposed to for his wife. He turns into a courtroom witness (daydream). Then he goes to buy a buscuit for the dog (real life). He then becomes a heroic bomber (daydream).
The climax occurs when he finally catches up with his wife again... the potential source of his need to daydream about being successful.
The falling action is fast in this one, she claims she is going to check into his health and goes into a store. He remains outside.
What is the climax of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?
The climax to this story isn't easily identified. I've read commentaries on this story that say the story doesn't have a climax. To some extent, that does make sense—the story weaves through Mitty's reality and fantasies so seamlessly and quickly that it doesn't follow a typical plot structure. However, the story does have a conflict that runs throughout the story. This is the conflict and tension that exists between Mitty and his wife. She treats him like he's incapable of thinking and doing things for himself. Consequently, Mitty loses himself inside of his fantasies, envisioning himself as a brave, take charge-kind of guy. Mitty wishes that he was more like his fantasy personas, and readers get to see a little bit of that come through in his reality. Near the end of the story, Mitty's wife is reprimanding him once again; however, this time he stands up to her (if only for a brief moment).
“Couldn’t you have put them on in the store?”
“I was thinking,” said Walter Mitty. “Does it ever occur to you that I am sometimes thinking?”
She looked at him.
“I’m going to take your temperature when I get you home,” she said.
I believe that this brief sequence could be viewed as the story's climax, because it is the moment when Mitty meets his main conflict/antagonist head on. Readers get the impression that his wife is stunned at his words. She's so stunned that she believes that something must be wrong with his health for him to act so out of character.
What is the climax of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?
The climax of this wonderful little story is when Walter Mitty faces the firing squad. However, what exactly does that mean? It's not fully clear due to the nature of Thurber's story. To be specific, Mitty's fantasy life is much richer than his dull, limited, and henpecked daily existence. He regularly escapes into fantasy, and that's what he does at the end when his wife takes too long.
In doing so, he essentially commits himself to living in fantasy, rather than reality. Now, there is some ambiguity as to what that will mean here. Sometimes there's a close connection between fantasy and reality (the sound of one engine becomes the sound of another), but it's not fully clear how close it is here. It's possible that the firing squad is all in his head—but it's also possible that this is Mitty's wife "firing" questions and accusations at him.
Greg