A Minor Role

Question 1

A minor role

Answer 1

-within society

-within the speaker’s own life

-within the hospital 

-short life

Question 2

I’m best observed on stage,

Propping a spear, or making endless

Exits and entrances with my servant’s

patter, Yes, sir. O no, sir. If I get

These midget moments wrong, the monstrous fabric

Shrinks to unwanted sniggers.

Answer 2

‘Stage’- theme of performance 

‘Servants’ - obedience lack of control / powerless

‘Yes. sir. O no sir.’ -> Itallics !!!

-done to please others

-unbothered to elaborate

-conforming to societal expectations

-playing a minor role / with little dialogue

-mindless speech

-italicised to show outer speech or maybe even inner thoughts

If - conditional / sense of responsibility

Midget moments /m/  - alliteration puts emphasis on how even in small moments the speaker must uphold societal expectations

Question 3

But my heart’s in the unobtrusive,

The waiting-room roles: driving to hospitals,

Parking at hospitals. Holding hands under

Veteran magazines; making sense

Of consultants’ monologues; asking pointed

Questions politely; checking dosages,

Dates; getting on terms with receptionists;

Sustaining the background music of civility.

Answer 3

‘Driving…parking…holding’

-continuous present tense makes the whole process seems repetitive and continuous / laborious / time consuming and chore like

Role 

-continuous metaphor and motif of medical care and hospitals being theatres or plays / operating theatre etc

Monologue

-The doctor takes control

-Only one speaking sense of authority and power

Caesuras

-Split between the roles being played

Asyndetic List 

-This gives a dry, terse tone, suggesting the speaker is familiar with the culture of hospitals and illness, and the way of behaving when attending clinics. 

Question 4

At home in the street you may see me

Walking fast in case anyone stops:

O, getting on, getting better my formula

For well-meant intrusiveness.

Answer 4

Walking fast in case anyone stops

-avoiding others / avoiding societal expectations

-inability to waste time ?

O, getting on, getting better 

-Italicised / repeated speech

-O - creates a sense of casualty 

-Better - suggests recovery / however that may not actually be the case 

-Automatic response and a easy answer to give / she is putting up a front just as in a performance it is rehearsed and practised

My formula

-Doctors treat her with medical formulas

-She treats her issues and burdens with avoidance

Well-meant intrusiveness

-Juxtaposition shows how she understands that people may well have good intentions however even then to her they are still annoyances and maybe even reminders of her sickness

Intrusiveness

-Juxtaposes her longing for unobtrusiveness / society demands the opposite of her

Question 5

Thinking ahead: Bed? A good idea!

(Bed solves a lot); answer the phone,

Be wary what I say to it, but grateful always;

Contrive meals for hunger-striker; track down

Whimsical soft-centred happy-all-the-way-through novels;

Find the cat (mysteriously reassuring);

Cancel things; pretend all’s well,

Admit it’s not. 

Answer 5

Bed solves a lot 

-Bed and sleep is a way to escape from reality 

-Mentall weak - the physical toll is affecting the speaker mentally

Cat

-unlike a human / non demanding / non obtrusive

Contrive / Track

-Imperatives to herself / force herself to do things 

-She directs the imperative at the end

Question 6

Learn to conjugate all the genres of misery:

Tears, torpor, boredom, lassitude, yearnings

For a simpler illness, like a broken leg.

Answer 6

Conjugate

-Changing verbs making them make sense and fit in context of a sentence -> making sense of her own pain

Genres

-Play and theatrical motif

Asyndetic list

-A wide range of emotions / but nothing can explain how she feels

Question 7

Enduring ceremonial delays. Being referred

Somewhere else. Consultant’s holiday. Saying Thank you,

For anything to everyone

Answer 7

Thank you - politeness and out-of-societal niceties 

Caesura - Hopelessness / changing and shifting from person to person showing the amount of obstacles

Question 8

                                      Not the star part.

And who would want it? I jettison the spear,

The servant’s try, the terrible drone of Chorus:

Yet to my thinking this act was ill advised

It would have been better to die*. No it wouldn’t!

Answer 8

I jettison the spear 

• Active control / doing something non passive

It would have been better to die 

-Tragedy 

-Contrast to nihilism

I am here to make you believe in life

Imperative 

Pessimistic -> Optimistic 

Illness is a the minor role OMG 

“I jettison the spear” or “I am here to make you believe in life”
The imperative “make” adds to the confidence within the persona’s tone which contrasts the lack of power seen at the beginning stanzas
Jettison -> gives the persona agency and no longer a passivity
Spear -> weapon and connotes power and control
The more confident tone and imagery of power suggest a different interpretation of the title / rather than the persona having the minor role in her life the persona has switched into seeing their sickness as the minor role and has gained a sense of power