Aunt Julia Flashcards
“Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic very loud and very fast”
‘gaelic’ - MacCaig was from Edinburgh and spoke no Gaelic, despite the fact that his mother was also from Scalpay and three of his grandparents were also Gaelic speakers.
‘very loud and very fast’ - the language here is simple to show that MacCaig had this experience as a child. Repetition of ‘very’ shows how forceful Julia’s personality is. She’s also ‘loud’ and speaks quickly which shows how vibrant and exciting she is.
“I could not answer her I could not understand her”
Repetition of ‘could not’ shows how difficult he finds it to communicate with her. He can’t speak the language and she doesn’t speak English, so they can’t talk to or understand each other. He’s frustrated that he can’t ‘answer her’ or ‘understand her’.
“She wore men’s boots when she wore any. - I can see her strong foot stained with peat,”
‘she’ - refers to her directly again. He does this at the start of every stanza.
‘men’s boots’ ‘strong foot’ - Aunt Julia is strong and hardworking. She works the land and does the hard labour traditionally associated with men.
‘when she wore any’ - goes barefoot, not concerned with what people think of her. Likes to be natural - connects her with nature.
‘peat’ - a type of soil associated with islands. This connects her with island/outdoor life.
“paddling with the treadle of the spinning wheel while her right hand drew yarn marvellously out of the air.”
‘spinning wheel’ - connects with Harris Tweed.
Long vowels suggest the length of time it takes to make Harris Tweed/spin the yarn. ‘Marvellously’ shows how impressed he is with her skill. ‘ out of the air’ suggests it’s almost magic - emphasises his admiration of her skill.
“Hers was the only house where I’ve lain at night in the absolute darkness”
‘the only house’ - the only place he felt safe and secure at night/at peace with the world/nature.
‘absolute darkness’ - no street lights - it’s pitch black, but he’s not afraid. This phrase is echoed in ‘absolute black’ in the last stanza.
“of a box bed, listening to crickets being friendly.”
‘box bed’ - built into the wall, enclosed, safe, cosy. He likes it
‘crickets’ connects to nature, again. They are ‘being friendly’ which gives us a positive, pleasant feeling about his aunt’s house/his experiences there.
“She was buckets and water flouncing into them.”
‘buckets’ - personification. Shows her hard working attitude.
The word choice of ‘flouncing’ suggests that she is enthusiastic in her movements. She is showy, exciting. She has a big personality.
‘“She was winds pouring wetly round house-ends”
Personification - again links her with nature. She’s outdoors, getting on with the work that needs doing no matter what the weather is like.
“She was brown eggs, black skirts and a keeper of threepennybits in a teapot.”
‘brown eggs’ suggests that looking after chickens/working on the farm.
‘black skirts’ suggests traditional dress - big, wide skirts that are easy to move in.
‘threepennybits in a teapot’ - she’s thrift (saving) and eccentric (keeps money in a teapot)
“Aunt Julia spoke Gaelic very loud and very fast.” (2nd time)
Repetition of first two lines. Emphasising how much he does not understand/how little change as the years go on. Refocusing.
“By the time I had learned a little, she lay silenced in the absolute black of a sandy grave at Luskentyre.”
‘by the time I had learned a little’ - attempts to learn Gaelic later in life, but she’s dead, so he never gets the time to have a conversation with her/share knowledge or understanding with her.
‘silenced’ - contrasts with ‘loud’. It’s not natural for her.
‘absolute black’ = death. This isn’t comfortable, like the ‘absolute darkness.’ It’s the end/forever.
‘Luskentyre’ - place on Harris
“But I hear her still, welcoming me with a seagull’s voice’
‘welcoming me’ - His memories of her are happy. Even though they couldn’t communicate, they still had a fondness for each other. She enjoyed having him there. He enjoyed going.
‘seagull’s voice’ - loud and senseless (because he couldn’t understand) possibly also annoying. It’s a familiar sound since they’re everywhere in Scotland/seasisde.
“across a hundred yards of peatscrapes and lazybeds and getting angry, getting angry”
‘peatscrapes and lazybeds’ - references the Isle of Harris and the farming life/working the land.
‘getting angry, getting angry’ - repitition suggests their anger at their inability to communicate with each other. It also refers to his anger at her death/the fact that he couldn’t speak to her in Gaelic before she died.
“with so many questions unanswered”
He had ‘so many’ questions to ask her about her life. He wants to know and understand the island life that he feels is being list in the modern world. This is also another reference to their inability to communicate with each other because they could never answer each other’s questions which was frustrating and upsetting for them both.
