a minor role Flashcards
How is the title significant?
Introduces the use of performance, the speaker is drawn to pretence and fading into the background
How is the idea of performance reiterated in the opening stanza?
‘propping a spear’, ‘exits and entrances with my servants patter’
How and why is formal language used in the opening stanza?
‘Yes sir. O no, sir’ - the speaker wishes to remain detached and keep up a mask of politeness and contentment
What is the AO2? ‘the monstrous fabric shrinks to unwanted sniggers’
The fabric is a metaphor for life, suggesting that to allow themselves to be vulnerable and openly discuss illness is terrifying
How is there a shift in the second stanza?
The second stanza moves from a place of fictional dramas to real ones
What does the speaker make particular use of in the second stanza?
Verbs - ‘driving to hospitals, parking at hospitals’, ‘making sense of consultants monologues’, ‘checking dosages’. These are used to convey how the speaker fills their life with activities as a means of distraction
‘Sustaining the…
…background music of civility’
What is the AO2? ‘sustaining the background music of civility’
The metaphor suggests that these activities are all part of maintaining ‘normal’ life
‘O, getting on…
…getting better’
What is the AO2? ‘O, getting on, getting better’
The speaker speaks in empty, polite words and phrases so they don’t have to confront their true feelings
‘track down…
…whimsical soft-centered happy-all-the-way-through-novels’
What is the AO2? ‘track down whimsical soft-centered happy-all-the-way-through-novels’
The listing conveys the extent to which the speaker will go to in order to keep up the facade
What is the AO2? ‘Pretend all’s well, admit it’s not’
End stop reflects sudden change in tone
‘For a simpler illness…
…like a broken leg’
What is the AO2? ‘For a simpler illness, like a broken leg’
Simile shows how the speaker craves a ‘normal’ or straightforward form of suffering
How is the idea of performance subverted at the end of the poem?
‘I jettison the spear’ - minor role is now let go of
‘I am here to make you believe in life’ - speaker decides to play a different role to show that life has meaning
