LITERARY TECHNIQUES

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 390.

MESSAGE

THEME

CONFLICT

What is the basic conflict? Is it between

- male and female

- man and social establishment

- animalistic and spiritual in man?

Which of the following phrases could be said to be the theme of the story:

- a way to get your daughter off your hands?

- paralysing force of the social establishment and conventions ?

- the revenge of an outraged female on an evasive male ?

- making the most of human frailty?

- man and woman are unevenly matched?

1) Young men should be fortified against the devilishness of the world of females.

2) Hipocrisy is not always the simple thing melodrama makes of it, but it is deeper, darker and harder to cope with

3) The weight of an authoritative and encompassing system can reduce a captive to ambivalence, panic and abject submission

4) Other:___________________

1.What do the following parallelssuggest?

- There were two confessions the night before: Doran made a confession at Church, while Polly had to confess to her mother.

- The priest had Doran thinking in the same words as Mrs Moooney: he must make ‘reparation' for his ‘sin'.

- Mrs Mooney rehearses her conversation with Doran taking into consideration society's reactions; Doran rehearses reactions of society represented by his employer, his relatives and friends

- In Doran's thoughts Mr Leonard, his boss commands authoritatively “Send Mr.Doran here, please”; Mrs Mooney summons him for a real interview.

- Polly's desperate question ‘What am I to do?' is applied by Doran to himself.

2. What role does contrast play? What does it emphasize?

- Mrs Mooney's calm determination and clear mind is contrasted to Doran's perturbed state and blurred consciousness

- the reposeful procession of the churchgoers outside is contrasted to Doran's perturbation

3. What is the role of symbol in the story?

- What does “cleaver” symbolize?

- What are the colours of the following: Doran's three-days' beard, punch, wine (“wine-merchant”), blood (“the blood glowed warmly behind her perfumed skin”)? Does it seem meaningful in the story?

3. In which line does the epiphany* occur in the story ? Does the epiphany reflect a joyful and optimistic or harsh and pessimistic view of life? Were you surprised by the epiphany or did you find it predictable?