Ian Critchon-Smith Flashcards
Moment of epiphany: She is now empathetic to the thin woman’s sacrifices
Moment of epiphany
She saw what it must have been like to be a widow bringing up a son in a village not her own
The Telegram
Characterization: Sarah is a bit naive/dim as she doesn’t understand that rank would make no difference
Conflict
‘Why is it different for the officers?’ … ‘Well, I just thought they’re better off’ said the fat woman in a confused tone,… ‘They’re still on the ship’
The Telegram
Setting: Boring and miserable
Rural, Scottish Setting
This was a bare village with little colour
The Telegram
Word Choice: The other villages think of her as an intruder, thirty years is a long time
Small-Mindedness
She was an incomer from another village and had only been in this one for thirty years or so. The fat woman had lived in the village all her days; she was a native
The Telegram
Word Choice: The thin woman wants a better future for her son other villagers think this is snobbish
Individuality versus Conformity
Also the thin woman was ambitious
The Telegram
Setting: The thin woman’s house is the last one on their street, this highlights how distanced she is from the other villagers
Isolated Characters
There were only another three houses before he would reach her (Sarah’s) own, and then the last one was the one where she was sitting
The Telegram
Charcaterisation: Shows the difference in status between the fat and the thin woman
Conflict/Status
“Sub-lieutenant… ordinary seaman”
The Telegram
Structure: the short, blunt sentence structure creates impact mirroring the impact the door will have in the village
Individuality versus Conformity
It certainly singled him out
The Red Door
Parallel sentence structure reinforces the repetitive of his life. The list he often completes alone also emphasizes the solitary nature of his life
Isolated Characters
He lived by himself, prepared his own food, darned his own socks, washed his own clothes and cultivated his own small piece of ground
The Red Door
Setting - Small mindedness of villagers
Small-Mindedness
It was true that the villagers when they woke up would see it and perhaps make fun of it, and would advise him to repaint it… Or they could hunt him out of the village
The Red Door
Sentence Structure: Climax- explicitly expresses dislike. Colon - creates a dramatic pause
Desire to Break Free
On the other hand, he didn’t like wellingtons and a fisherman’s jersey. He hated them in fact: they had no elegance
The Red Door
Characterization and sentence structure emphasizes his new found need to break out of the shekel his society has put him in
Moment of Epiphany
‘I have always sought to hide among other people… I have never,’ he thought with wonder, ‘been myself’
The Red Door
Sentence a Structure: The short sentence emphasizes the conflict that Murdo has within himself
Conflict
Please let me live my own life
The Red Door
Shows that the blue yellow and green doors blend in with the landscape
Rural, Scottish Setting
Green and black landscape
The Red Door
Setting: Pathetic Fallacy - dreary weather reflects the character’s emotions
Rural,Scottish Setting
It had been a cold, dismal afternoon in the fields.
Mother and Son
Word Choice: Suggests that any little things anything she does he reads it as though she’s doing it with malice
Conflict
He had become so sensitive that he usually read some devilish meaning into her smallest utterance
Mother and Son
Simile: Emphasizing his isolation
Isolated Characters
As if he were on a boat on the limitless ocean
Mother and Son
Word Choice: Repeated questions emphasizes his epiphany and and confusion - inner turmoil at the fact that he is just realizing that he doesn’t have to deal with his mom being horrible to him
Moment of Epiphany/Desire to Break Free
How can this thing make my life a hell for me?
Mother and Son
Characteristion: Moment of near epiphany followed by strange through about a bicycle. Makes Jackson an unreliable narrator, as we can see he lacks understanding and his view of the world is highly prejudiced
Moment of (almost) Epiphany
For a Moment he did see himself as a black, cringing in that rotting office… But then a black would buy a bicycle and forget all about his humiliation. Blacks weren’t like us
Home
Characterisation: Conflict between Jackson and his wife. She is harsh and unkind about his past- makes her just as unsympathetic to the reader as he is
Conflict
‘What would the Bruces say if they saw you running about in this dirty place like a schoolboy?’ She said coldly.
‘Whit dae ye mean?’
Home
Setting: Clearly shown as an unpleasant place. “brown and “dirty blue” show how dirty the place is while “pitted with scars” shows that it can be quite violent
Rural, Scottish Setting
Walls were brown above and a dirty blue below, pitted with scars
Home
Characterisation: Shows just how much the couple want to fit in the upper class ties into their attitude about eventually wanting to leave their former lives behind
Individuality versus Conformity
They stood there decisively as if they belonged there
Home
Theme: 3rd person narrative - the wife’s thoughts. She looks down on her former neighbors
Small-Mindedness
Prejudice
Not that at that level you could distinguish Catholic from Protestant
Home
Characterisation: Unpleasant wife wants to humiliate him
Isolated Characters
‘So you admit you were wrong,’ said his wife
Home
