A minor role - UA Fanthorpe

Question 1

Title

Answer 1

• insignificance
• convenience by necessity
• invisibility

Question 2

‘I’m best observed on stage,’

Answer 2

minor role becomes metaphor of life lived in the sidelines

Question 3

‘propping’ ‘exits and entrances’

Answer 3

the semantic field of stage imagery, terminology
- tone is mocking and sadistic

Question 4

‘But my heart’s in the unobtrusive, The waiting-room roles:’

Answer 4

• she no longer wants to be on stage
• list of the hospital theme is a syndetic

Question 5

‘Of consultants’ monologues;’

Answer 5

• mundane reality of illness

Question 6

‘Sustaining the background music of civility.’

Answer 6

• using dictation of theatre to explain reality
• reference to ensemble - minor roles

Question 7

‘O, getting on, getting better my formula For well-meant intrusiveness.’

Answer 7

• direct speech
• stoicism - from playing a minor role she doesn’t like to fuss
• In contrast to obtrusive, society demands the thing she is trying to avoid

Question 8

‘Thinking ahead: Bed? A good idea!’

Answer 8

• harsh realities mirrored in home life
• sleep is escapism

Question 9

‘Whimsical soft-centred happy-all-the-way-through novels; Find the cat’

Answer 9

• depicting a life that she wants for herself
• ‘Find the cat’ - offers unconditional love and symbolism of comfort

Question 10

‘Cancel things, tidy things; pretend all’s well, Admit it’s not.’

Answer 10

• uses routine to create normality
• a reality that performing is hiding and escapism between reality and illusion
• painful admission that everything isn’t fine for them

Question 11

‘Learn to conjugate all the genres of misery: Tears, torpor, boredom, lassitude, yearnings’

Answer 11

• sense of isolation, coping on their own
• metaphorical conjunction of misery results in the inevitable list
• trying to escape reality and yearing for a similar life

Question 12

‘Saying Thank you For anything to everyone’

Answer 12

• maintaining the illusion that everything is okay solidifying and playing the act

Question 13

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

Answer 13

• speaker rejects thoughts of suicide or giving in through the exclamatory phrase
• Greek theatre representing the chorus

Question 14

‘I am here to make you believe in life.’

Answer 14

• ambivalence
• the poem is filled with imperatives the speaker gives to herself, which sharpens the irony of the last line, where the imperative is directed at the reader

Question 15

Overall message

Answer 15

• life is made up of people leading in minor roles, therefore everyone has a responsibility to take everything into account so we can grow as a society

Question 16

Structure

Answer 16

• free verse, no rhyme scheme
• no consistent line or stanza length - reflects the chaotic, uncontrollable nature of the speakers life
• enjambment through the chaotic nature of her work, she can’t get a break
• minor sentences - sporadity of her life
• different sentence types, lots of questioning - her changing reality
• chaoticness of stanza four - climax of the poem reference to the theatrical theme. repeated location change