Motifs/themes Flashcards
Negative portrayal of the Big Ben
“a suspense before Big Ben strikes. There! Out it boomed. First a warning, musical; then the hour, irrevocable. The leaden circles dissolved in the air”
Saints Margret’s clock appealing to the human spirit
It chimes in a little late, gliding “into the recesses of the heart and buries itself, to be, with a tremor of delight, at rest”
The Big Ben with God-like characteristics? personification
‘Still the last tremors of the great booming voice shook the air round him’
Clarissa talking about death and London through the water motif?
She watches London “far out to sea and alone” and describes London as the “ebb and flow of things”. She felt “laid out like a mist”
Clarissa talking about death through Shakespeare?
“Fear no more the heat o’ the sun”
Clarissa as a mermaid?
wearing “a silver-green mermaid’s dress”
water motif in masturbation?
“gushed and poured”
hyperbolic language used to describe the prime minister? (satirising method)
-guests repeat “the prime minister”
-“The Prime Minister? Was it really?”
In reality how is the prime minister described?
“so ordinary”, “poor chap, all rigged up in gold lace”, “nobody looked at him”
Peter’s knife
-he is “fingering his pocket-knife”
-he “clenched his fist upon it”
Clarrisa feeling like Othello
“that was her feeling -Othello’s feeling, and she felt it”
what kind of bird is Clarissa described as?
a “jay”
what kind of bird is lucrezia described as?
a “little hen”
what kind of bird is Septimus described as?
a “young hawk”
How is Bradshaw described as? (bird motif)
“he swooped; he devoured” “he shut people up”
Septimus’ love for shakespeare
he was “devouring Shakespeare”
How does Septimus’ literary passion change after the war?
“he could not feel” (repetition) but “could read Dante”- Septimus reading Dante’s inferno suggests death of emotion/ passion
Sally Seton and flowers?
“picked hollyhocks, dahlias” and “cut their heads off”
Description of Big Ben?
“the leaden circles dissolved in the air” and “irrevocable’
Description of chaotic London?
“galloping ponies” “whirling young men and laughing girls” “shopkeepers were fidgeting”- sensory overload, vitality link to T.S Eliot’s waste land
Description of the car
“violent explosion”
“they had heard the voice of authority, the spirit of religion was abroad”
Image of war as ominous and destructive
“so prying and insidious were the fingers of the European war”
the vast and eternal timescale in which humanity is transient and irrelevant
“this voice, pouring endlessly, year in year out”
The clock strikes at Septimus’ suicide, sinister, order regaining control
“The clock was striking- one, two, three”
Subtle, internal shifts between times of day, contrast to strict linear time
“some sort of lapse in the tides of the body, two forces meeting in a swirl, morning and afternoon, they paused”
The plane in the sky- Septimus and Bowley’s interpretation
Septimus- “they are signalling to me”
Bowley- “It’s toffee”
Water motif and time
“the sound of the bell flooded the room with its melancholy wave”
