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The author examines the nature of the relationship between French novelist Marcel Proust and his mother Jeanne. He describes the Proust family as very nice and polite people. He cites the response of Proust's mother to his letter of apology regarding their family quarrel. He believes that the extravagance of Jeanne's analogy in the letter represents a degree of continuing distress. He explains the idea behind Proust's article about a man who had killed his mother and then killed himself.

The article focuses on literary creations of poet William Empson. Topics discussed include the book on criticism of literary creations "Seven Types of Ambiguity" by Empson, Empson tracing a pattern of thought and finding metaphors for behaviour of a piece of language, the article "The Intentional Fallacy" by W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley on intention of the author not desirable as a standard for judging success of a literary art and Empson's connection with schools of criticism.