a minor role -u.a fanthorpe

Question 1

dramatic monologue

Answer 1

conversational sense

implied listener - theatrical

Question 2

structure falls apart

Answer 2

façade begins to fall

Question 3

single stanza

Answer 3

tonal shift

Question 4

enjambment

Answer 4

outpouring of emotion

Question 5

caesura

Answer 5

pauses and interruptions involved with illness

how it impacts life

Question 6

‘i’m best observed on stage’

Answer 6

first person

someone else

metaphor for life

sense of distance between the reader and the speaker

almost ironic - only the best in a side role

Question 7

‘yes sir. o no sir’

Answer 7

simplistic lines - mirrors her role in society

Question 8

‘midget moments wrong, the monstrous fabric shrinks to an unwanted snigger’

Answer 8

societal norms

still important - contributes to something bigger

metaphor of society as a ‘monstrous fabric’ is complex and multi-layered, its dangerousness is alluded to by the adjective ‘monstrous’, whilst there is also an implied sense of facade being central to society through ‘fabrications’.

we present ourselves in a way that doesn’t cause embarrassment or discomfort to others

Question 9

‘but my heart’s in the unobtrusive’

Answer 9

go under the radar - doesn’t want to draw attention to themselves

disjunction - how the illness changes the speaker

Question 10

‘waiting room roles; driving to hospitals,’

Answer 10

boring and monotonous

exhaustive technique in order to attempt to make the reader understand the heavy toll in which the hospital-world has on those involved

Question 11

‘consultants monologues’

Answer 11

trying to make sense of it

bored

links to theatre

hospital world and its expectations sound as exhausting as the illness itself

Question 12

‘getting on terms with receptionists’

Answer 12

being polite

there so often

Question 13

‘sustaining the background music of civility’

Answer 13

social norms

metaphor

have to play a certain role

people asking if you’re okay

Question 14

‘walking fast in case anyone stops:’

Answer 14

caesura - mimics being stopped, trapped in illness

rude not to ask

bored of being asked

Question 15

‘o getting on, getting better my formula for well meant intrusiveness’

Answer 15

medical language

procedural way of answering questions - second nature now

echolalia

they are opposites.- society demands the very thing her heart wishes to avoid.

Question 16

‘answer the phone’

Answer 16

imperative

doctor or family?

Question 17

‘wary what i say to it’

Answer 17

alliteration

distanced themselves

doesn’t want to talk

Question 18

‘whimsical soft centred happy all the way through novels’

Answer 18

escapism

cheer themselves up

Question 19

‘cancel things, tidy things; pretend all’s well’

Answer 19

caesura - masking

not well enough to to simple things

façade drops

Question 20

‘for a simpler illness, like a broken leg’

Answer 20

easy to fix

know the healing process

know the cure

the reality of chronic illness

Question 21

‘enduring ceremonial delays’

Answer 21

elongated words - emphasises the torture of the process

Question 22

‘not the star part. and who would want it?

Answer 22

hates attention

rhetorical question

cyclical structure

wants to be honest with themself and the world. And yet they don’t

more contradictions - pretence was part of life and she wants to live, so it should continue

Question 23

‘terrible drone of the chorus’

Answer 23

can’t cope anymore

Question 24

’ i am here to make you believe in life’

Answer 24

optimistic

doesn’t want to give up

wants to live

volta?

powerful statement of human desire to live

Question 25

headlines

Answer 25

illness affects your role in society

creating an act to hide struggles

there is no existence without struggle

isolation of illness

society’s fabric causes those who are ill to still be considered by others

societal expectation often lead to illness being neglected