A Minor Role Flashcards
1
Q
Form and structure
A
- disordered and gappy structure as well as no rhyme scheme and strand a length
- this shows her possibly disordered health and certainly emotions
- unrediactability of suffering
2
Q
Title
A
- lexis ‘role’ introduces the dramatic metaphor and implies she is comforting a dn acting in order to appear healthy/dignified
- lexis minor however implies she is in denial at how her life is changed by illness
3
Q
Sematic field of acting/ dramatic metaphor
A
- I’m best observed on stage- shows how she is consntaly putting on a facade of dignity and is most digestible societally this way
- waiting room roles, implies everyone even in the most raw painful moments is acting
- genres of misery
4
Q
- endless exits and entrances-
A
-continues the semantic field of acting/ facade
- enjambed line emphasises the helpless monotony of being ill
- alliterative e blends together sentence aiding the notion that she feels trapped
5
Q
Midget moments wrong
A
- continues dramatic metaphor in the idea she cannot mess up her lines, contributes the idea that this si not her authentic reaction to illness
- plosive alliterative m sound mimics violence and creates unsettling, shows how chaos can ensue if she breaks her facade
6
Q
Driving to hospitals; parking at hospitals
A
- symmetrically mirrored line implies that the same thing is happening again and again
- aided by the repetition of the lexis hospital connoting to bodily illness
-verbs in the gerund imply an endless circle of suffering as does the dry asyndetic listing
7
Q
O, getting on, getting better
A
- repetition of lexis ‘getting’ also in gerund shows a cycle and an endlessness, implies monotony in her answer and a lack of authenticity
- acting, italicised letters further the idea she is pretending and has forumualted this response
8
Q
At home,
Thinking ahead: bed? A good idea!
A
- at home being On a separated caesurad line creates a pauses which mimics how she needs to decompress from a day of pushing a facade
- her tone is light hearted and trivialising of her struggles
- however the theme and the italics show that in reality bed becomes a refuge for her demands of being sick and having to pretend
9
Q
Happy all the way through novels
A
- shows how mentally she is fragile to the point where she can’t overwhelm herself with any sadness
- this is ironic as she is presenting how the books she searched for her, alluding to herself
- attempt at satire but the caresura makes it disjointed and awkward to read
10
Q
Pretended alls well
Admit its not
A
- antithesis of the two lines separated by caesura, breaks her motif of acting to show the difference between her appearance and reality
- short sentence emphatically placed at the end of a stanza to reveal the real trauma of a long term illness
11
Q
For a simpler illness like a broken leg
A
- alludes to the stage saying ‘break a leg’ which plays into the dramatic metaphor underscoring again the idea she’s consntalty acting
- moreover, the fact an illness can be so trivialised shows that it doesn’t come with any mental baggage compared to her own illness
12
Q
Saying thank you for anything to everyone
A
- shows how death or impending death makes life grateful and futile
- also reveals how people with illnesses in hospital are EXPECTED to be endlessly gratitude despite their somber fates, reflects the power imbalance of the ill
13
Q
Not the star part.
A
- short stanzas with an end stop forces a pause and makes us consider her situation
- reinforces the idea that the speaker is insignificant feeling despite their experience of illness and feels their truthful emotions are not valid
- perhaps they feel they can’t make a scene at risk of appearing overly emotional and ungreatufl
-theme of ‘a minor role’
14
Q
I jettison the spear
A
- cyclically comes back to the beginning when they are acting, now it seems they are rejecting the theatrical motif at a volta
- she is living her life authentically now
15
Q
It would have been better to die. No it wouldn’t!
A
- italic section is a classical tragedy which presents how no one can escape their fate and thus the hero dies in the end
- howeeer at a dramatic climax she rejects the ancient fate and survives at the end of the poem
