Stefan Jeziorny

Stefan Jeziorny is an important character in Helen Dunmore’s short story “My Polish Teacher’s Tie”. Stefan is a Polish teacher looking for a British teacher penfriend, as he wants to improve his written English (p. 100, ll. 21-22). He lives in Katowice, Poland (p. 102, l. 45). In his letters to Carla, he calls himself Steve (p. 102, ll. 6-7). When Carla describes his appearance, he is portrayed “sitting stiffly upright, smiling in the way people smile when they don’t quite understand what’s going on” (p. 104, ll. 24-25) and “talking very loudly” (p. 104, l. 26). Carla also associates him with a child when she describes his hopeful face (p. 105, ll. 3-4).

Steve’s physical particularity is his eccentric choice of ties (p. 104, l. 22), which makes Valerie Kenward mock him. Ca...