The Postman Always Rings Twice

[carnivorousplant]

I read the novel, but I do not understand the title. Two car crashes, and two deaths must have some relation.

[PastTense]

Wikipedia has several possible explanations starting with:

The title is a non sequitur in that no postman appears or is even alluded to. The meaning of the title has therefore often been the subject of speculation. William Marling, for instance, suggested that Cain may have taken the title from the sensational 1927 case of Ruth Snyder, who, like Cora in Postman, had conspired with her lover to murder her husband. Cain used the Snyder case as an inspiration for his 1943 novel Double Indemnity; Marling believed it was also a model for the plot and the title of Postman. In the real-life case, Snyder said she had prevented her husband from discovering the changes she had made to his life insurance policy by telling the postman to deliver the policy’s payment notices only to her and instructing him to ring the doorbell twice as a signal indicating he had such a delivery for her.

The Postman Always Rings Twice (novel)

[x-ray_vision]

A more definitive answer is given later in that Wiki page.

In the preface to Double Indemnity, Cain wrote that the title of The Postman Always Rings Twice came from a discussion he had with the screenwriter Vincent Lawrence. According to Cain, Lawrence spoke of the anxiety he felt when waiting for the postman to bring him news on a submitted manuscript, noting that he would know when the postman had finally arrived because he always rang twice. In his biography of Cain, Roy Hoopes recounted the conversation between Cain and Lawrence, noting that Lawrence did not say merely that the postman always rang twice but also that he was sometimes so anxious waiting for the postman that he would go into his backyard to avoid hearing his ring. The tactic inevitably failed, Lawrence continued, because if the postman’s first ring was not noticed, his second one, even from the backyard, would be.

As a result of the conversation, Cain lit upon that phrase as a title for his novel. Upon discussing it further, the two men agreed such a phrase was metaphorically suited to Frank’s situation at the end of the novel. With the “postman” being God or fate, the “delivery” meant for Frank was his own death as just retribution for murdering Nick. Frank had missed the first “ring” when he initially got away with that killing. However, the postman rang again and this time the ring was heard; Frank is wrongly convicted of having murdered Cora and then sentenced to die. The theme of an inescapable fate is further underscored by the Greek’s escape from death in the lovers’ first murder attempt, only to be done in by their second one.

[carnivorousplant]

Thanks, X-ray!