Интерпретация текста “Doctor in the House” by Richard Gordon

In our world, full of difficulties and various problems I am sure no one can say that he is free from spoiling his nerves and health in order to overcome some important destiny barriers. As a matter of fact, who can agree that life is more interesting, when it flows as a calm river of constantly and monotonously changing events? 

A person becomes experienced and strong only having felt the whole disgrace of the world he has a chance to live in. And what an amazing quality our memory has; it specially chooses the worst recollections and with the sense cruelty reminds us our past mistakes and annoyances, making us feel that awful feelings again and again.

The fact that nothing can be as memorable as our misfortunes was remarkably proved by Richard Gordon in his novel under the title "Doctor in the House". 

Having a great medical practice, the author reveals his own recollections of the old days, when he was just a student, stumbling through the most scaring trial in his life – the finals. He colourfully describes all the sides of his extremely important event. Cheating is practically impossible, all the knowledge is an inseparable mass in the heads of young and full of hopes students. Oral and writing examinations become some kind of a “judgment day”. And not everyone becomes that lucky, who will take the diploma from the professor’s hands. With an irony the author gives us the description of students’ feelings and behaviour. Some of them have “superiosity in their faces”, others were trying to complete the last brilliant sentence, “dissatisfied with the period allowed for them to express themselves”.

Richard Gordon describes in details the examiners too, people, who were maybe the most scaring ones for poor students. All the professors were calm and steady. For most of them the finals were just a point in their schedule, and their calmness seemed to the narrator to be the act of real cruelty.

“One doesn’t fail exams. One comes down, one muffs, one is ploughed, plucked or pipped”. In this amplification the author shows the real significance of the exams, and for somebody the failure can be a synonym of “dying”. The hopelessness of the situation is supported by the day, when the results are published. The past can’t be changed, and everything a person can do is just waiting, the most annoying thing for people, who practically won through the circles of hell. Fortunately, the narrator reached the finish line with success.

After years such event seems to be extremely funny. The author showed us the atmosphere people sometimes have to be in. Recollecting my own experience I can say that in many cases my feelings were the same. Everything, which happens to us sooner or later turns into the simple recollection. Of course it puts a trace in our mind, and not always pleasant one. Richard Gordon gives us a way to understanding of such things. It is humour, the best “cure of the injures” the life gives us. Remembering this rule a person is able to overcome many life trials, becoming stronger and wiser. In this case even the best professor can’t be compared with the teacher we all have – our past.


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Другие интерпретации текстов на нашем сайте:

• Art For Heart's Sake by Reuben Goldberg
• A Canary For One by Ernest Hemingway
• The Eyes Of The Dragon by Stephen King

One Stair Up by Campbell Nairne

The book “One stair up” was written by a Scottish novelist Campbell Nairne in 1934 and describes the life of a working-class family from Edinburgh. The great advantage of this novel is that it shows the life with great realism, fine style and good sense of humour. 

It the short fragment of this novel the scene takes place in one of the Broadway cinemas. Two young people – Andrew and Rosa – decided to watch some movie. Andrew supposed some comedy, not a big film, but very fun, in his opinion. It was some kind of sitcom, and all the fun was when somebody appeared in any foolish situation, for example, had an egg broken on his head or was all covered with custards. Andrew really enjoyed this comedy, but Rosa was very unsatisfied. In order not to hurt Andrew she just said that she had another sense of humour.

The composition of the story can be divided in 4 parts: coming to the cinema, Rosa and Andrew sitting in the circle before the comedy, the comedy itself and the final part, when Rosa says her opinion about the movie. The culminating point of this story is the moment when Andrew says in excitement, “Good, isn't it?”, but receives the answer, “I don't see anything funny in that”. In this scene we can see how different Rosa and Andrew are. 

From this fragment we don’t know anything about their origin and social status, but we can guess that Rosa was from richer family than Andrew, that’s why she had better taste and didn’t like the foolish comedy. We can also easily understand it from one sentence: “It pleased her to be seen in the dress circle, even with Andrew”. She hoped to see some of her friends to spend more pleasant time with them, but as she couldn’t see anybody, she had to stay with Andrew. There is one more evidence for it: “Is he really so stupid, she wondered. Yes, I suppose he is”. All these facts show us that Andrew and Rosa had very different social status. 

So, we can say that the main idea of this small fragment is to show how difficult it is for people from different classes to understand each other. What is fun for one is absolutely fool for another. Some habits, like talking in the cinema, are absolutely normal for one and unacceptable for another. I think that the moral of the story can be very well illustrated with two proverbs: “Tastes differ” and “A place for everything and everything in its place”. 

In order to describe the scene properly author uses different stylistic devices. On the whole he describes the movies that the heroes watched in details, so the reader can easily imagine everything that happened on the screen. For this aim the author forms his speech into short sentences that follow one after another like the scenes of the movie. But to make the story more artistic he uses, first of all, different epithets: “shadowy faces”, “looped curtain”, “hardest hearts”. 

Epithets make the speech more artistic and interesting; what is more, they help the reader to imagine everything in details. Secondly, we can see here a personification: “voice rise above another voice and sink again into voluptuous stillness”, which transforms the reality of the cinema in some kind of illusion. The hall was dim, so everything could seem absolutely unreal. Also there are similes: the carpet “yielded like springing turf”, “a hard-worked dog, for you saw it, or another like it, in dozens of these comic films” and other to recall some associations in the readers’ mind and to make the images more “visible”. What is more, similes help the reader understand the way of thinking of different characters and the author, too. For example, the comparison of soft carpet and springing turf must have belonged to Andrew, as he was a member of a working family and knew what the turf was like. As we can guess, Rosa could associate it with something else.

But the main device that the author uses is irony and parody. It is very visible at the moment, when the writer describes the announcement of the “Mothers of Broadway” movie. Here he uses different set phrases that were very common for that time: “The film seemed to have smashed all records. It drew tears from the hardest hearts. It sent thrills down the spine” and others. It is described even with some kind of sarcasm as a sample of bad taste. Also there is an oxymoron: the main part in the “mightiest drama of Broadway” has a “bewitching” actress named Minnie Haha. Also the author uses book and high lexicon for usual things, for example: “to-night he would resist that awful temptation to explain the story in a whisper”, so it’s a burlesque.

The description of the sitcom is also very interesting. It is really neutral, so we can’t see whether the author likes it or not. But then we can see very clear two absolutely opposite points of view. So, we can call it contrast that shows us how different Andrew and Rosa are. 

As for me, I liked this story, but I feel pity to Andrew. From different books we know about life in America in the 30-s (for example, Theodore Dreiser’s “American Tragedy”) and we know that young people from lower classes wanted to have better social position and dated with girls from rich families. But the chasm between them is so big and so deep that it’s really difficult for them to be equal. The one thing can have opposite estimations. So, I think that Campbell Nairne had shown everything really truly, without any embellishments.

Стилистический анализ “My Watch” by Mark Twain

The story under the title "My watch" by Mark Twain tells us about one man, whose watch broke at once and how he gave it to different watchmakers and had no success. He suffered very much, as he believed his watch very much and he appeared out of time, he was usually late or too early and his life became a complete trouble. Finally he understood that the best thing was to get rid of this watch, because it "ran away once".

The main idea of this story is that we shouldn’t try to repair or return that was once lost for us, and this idea repeats in uncle William’s words, that a good horse was a good horse until it had run away once. The message of the author is to make us think about the choices and decisions we make in our life and what we prefer: to look forth or back, to choose something new or not let go something old. 

The culminating point is the murder of the last watchmaker who appeared to be just a steamboat engineer of other days. At the moment main hero’s vicious reached its culmination and he couldn’t keep calm.

The moral of the story is not to trust unknown people too much and not to entrust our precious things to others. 

Mark Twain uses different stylistic devices to describe the hero and his watch. First of all, there are a lot of similes, such as "it ticked like a tolling bell", "it kicked back like a musket", "shut together like a pair of scissors" , "seemed a delicate spider’s web over the face of the watch" and some other.

All of them show us how terribly the watch worked and that they worked in the most inappropriate way for watch, as watch should have nothing in common with a musket or a tolling bell. Secondly, there are several epithets like "beautiful new watch", "fair and square average", "plain truth". They help us imagine the whole situation, items and what happened to them.

Finally, there are many personifications and metaphors, there are few of them: "it sickened to a raging fever, and its pulse went up to a hundred and fifty in the shade", "it was a recognized messenger and forerunner of calamity", "I danced around him in anguish, and implored him to let the watch alone". 

The first two let us compare the life of the watch with human life, as this watch really was something alive for the hero. The last one also is some kind of irony.  

As for me, I liked this story, as it’s short, but very substantial. It gives us a chance to think about our actions and our values.



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Другие стилистические анализы текстов на нашем сайте:

• Up The Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
• A Canary For One by Ernest Hemingway
• The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham

Анализ текста "Can-can" by Arturo Vivante

The story under the title "Can-can" was written by Arturo Vivante. Born in Rome in 1923, Arturo Vivante graduated in 1949 and practiced medicine in Rome until 1958 when he ended his medical career and moved to America to pursue a career as a professional writer. 

Vivante has since been on the faculty of several American universities and is now retired and living in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. 

Though Vivante writes in English and has lived in America for much of the last 35 years, his Italian heritage has an undeniable presence in his fiction. His short stories often read like reflections or memories of a distant and foreign past that a reader of Vivante cannot help but link to the life of the transplanted author himself.

The plot of the story under the discussion is quite interesting and I dare say close to our reality. A man is going to the secret meeting with the other woman, leaving his house, wife and children. Suddenly it occurs to him that he wants to stay, but the date is already arranged. So, having arrived to the summer cottage he finds himself thinking of his wife and that surprises him greatly. 

The problem raised by the author is quite clear: the husband intends to have a love affair and is already unfaithful to his wife. However some feeling of upset, comprehension of the fact his wife is still a sweet cherry, not broken by a small stuff, a woman able to give him love and firmness – doesn’t let him stay calm. 

Awaiting the woman at the café he hopes she wouldn’t come and he would return home easily and happily: "How strange he should be hoping for her absence." Even spending time with the lover he misses his wife and thinks of her. How is that possible? 

Let’s characterize the wife. First of all we should say she is fairly a wise woman. We see she loves her husband and wants to have a happy family as any woman does: "she felt safer with him at home, and he helped look after the children, especially the baby." 

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Другие стилистические анализы на нашем сайте:

• The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde
• Widow of Ephesus by Petronius
• What Was It? by Fitz-James O'Brien

Стилистический анализ текста "Ernestine" by Theodore Dreiser

The story for analysis is called "Ernestine" and written by Theodore Dreiser, who shows what the female success conceals.

The plot of the story centers around a woman who sacrifices her career in theatre for the existing world of cinema, where she hopes to win great fame. But her initial success leads her total failure.

So the subject matter is a person and her aspiration in career. And the idea of this short story is that ambitions often ruin a human being.

As for the composition of the text, it is not chronological, for it deals with the foreshadowing at the beginning of the story. This part of the story displays Dreiser's attitude to his character, who is sure to make mistakes or to be lead to some degradation. The use of such phrases as "eventually and perforce", "via related compulsions" and the use of the passive construction in the sentence "If anyone or anything is to be indicted, let it be life" are aimed at the attempts to persuade the reader that a person is not a ruler of his/her destiny, but a product of the society and circumstances.

As for me, I don't share Dreiser's point of view. At first I'd like to attract your attention to the epithets used by the narrator to describe the girl: "very young and not very sophisticated" and the verb to condescend in "Hers was a person who condescends to take notice of a domain offered for her inspection".

These epithets and the verb serve as proofs of the fact that she wasn't a naive girl, she was young, but had some experience of life and knew her own worth (had a high opinion of herself).

The following sentence is also of great importance "The first time I saw Ernestine she was coming down the steps of the Sixth Avenue Elevated Station".

The title "Elevated Station" and the phrasal verb "to come down" are symbolic here, for they are the evidence of the fact she didn't cognize all negative sides of "the joyous profession", but she has taken the road of it, and the use of the Past Continuous proves that.

In due course she starts to realize her own power: "Her temperament as well as her beauty was focal and she knew it". Her fame gives her an opportunity to have a high opinion of herself, that's why there is no wonder she becomes "too cool and too rain".

Другие лингво - стилистические анализы произведений:

• The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov
  
  
• The Escape by Somerset Maugham
  
  
• An Error in Chemistry by William Faulkner

Стилистический анализ текста “A Very Short Story” by Ernest Hemingway

The story under the title “A Very Short Story” was written by one of the most world-famous American writers – Ernest Hemingway. Himself a great sportsman - Hemingway liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters - tough, at times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope and faith. His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and his predilection for understatement are particularly effective in his short stories.

Analyzing the text "A Very Short Story" we observe that the author makes use of the colloquial style avoiding professionalisms and pompous bookish words and phrases. Hemingway resorts to the language of every day life and surely it is a deliberate choice of vocabulary. Such a laconic and neat narration demonstrates the talent of the author and makes us aware of the genre of this literary creation – a novel. It tells us about war and peace, about senses and disappointments, about lie and truth.

So, the subject matter of the story under discussion is love of a man and a woman, which was lost because of the ruined dreams and awkward misunderstanding between them. Realizing all this we can for sure read between the lines the message of Hemingway, as if saying – reach your goals by all powers and opportunities, stay firm on your way and be persistent in your attempts.

Indeed, how often people surrender, go back and leave their dreams when just a step divides them from what they were looking for.

Here we can say that a little unnecessary quarrel became the point of couples’ parting. If just one of them could concede to another… Perhaps it could be a great history of love, who knows? The following sentence confirms the message mentioned above: “She hoped he would have a great career, and believed in him absolutely”. The truth is that everything turned out vice versa, not the way she imagined.

The stylistic device – antithesis – skillfully used by Ernest Hemingway proves the same could be said about her: “and she expected, absolutely unexpectedly, to be married in the spring.” We know she never did.

What concerns the text itself, it is told in the 3rd person narrative. The narration is not interlaced with descriptive passages and dialogues of the personages. It is extraordinarily poor for colorful emotions and vivid actions. Only dry, concrete and taciturn facts are present in here.

It is important to note, however, that such a dull narration, as by mistake it would seem, can give us no new idea, but the author displays a mastery in rendering the subtleties and contradictions of life. Hemingway pursued his own purpose by composing the narration this way, and he was a success in it.

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Другие лингво-стилистические анализы рассказов Эрнеста Хемингуэя:

• Canary For One
• Cat in the Rain
  
• On the American Dead in Spain

Стилистический анализ текста "An Error in Chemistry" by William Faulkner

The story "An Error in Chemistry" is written by William Faulkner who was the master of psychological analysis and the works of whom are characterized by the use of implication, stream of consciousness, peculiar graphics, metaphorical language etc.

The plot of the story centers around Joel Flint, a Northerner, who kills his wife and her father - old Wesley Pritchel, who were the inhabitants of the South. After the murder Flint plays the role of the old man and tries to make the profit from it. But his contempt for local traditions becomes his undoing.

I believe the author worked in two directions in this story, that's why I'd like to define the following subject matters:

1) a murderer who tries to evade penalty

2) an outlander in the society

So we come to the following ideas:

- lies have short legs;

- a person is a prisoner, locked up in jail of customs and traditions, and those who are reluctant to live in it, are sure to remain lonely and misunderstood.

At the beginning of the story "An Error in Chemistry" the narrator describes Joel Flint and his opposition to the southerners.

At the sentence "He was the foreigner, the outlander, the Yankee, who had come into our country" the synonymic repetition is contrasted with the personal pronoun to stress the external conflict, which exists between the Southerners and Northerners. The origin of the conflict is in the war between the South and the North, in the reluctance of people to accept representatives of the contrary camp as a part of their society.

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Другие лингво-стилистические анализы произведений:

• Departure by Sherwood Anderson
  
• The Wedding Gig by Stephen King
• The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

Интерпретация произведения "Departure" by Sherwood Anderson

The story for analysis is called "Departure". It's written by Sherwood Anderson, famous in literature as the author, who used implication, wrote in the style of sober realism and depicted strange characters.

The hero of the story "Departure" is young George Willard, leaving his native Winesburgh in search of new life. He is excited and concerned, worried, his thoughts are devoted to the future, for he doesn't have any command of what is expecting him. Since 2 o'clock he had been awake thinking of the journey he was about to take, and wondering what he would find at the end of the journey.

I'd like to dwell on the following sentence, as it is a part of the setting:

"It was April and the young tree leaves were just coming out of their buds."

That is a compound sentence, both clauses of the sentence are directed to one aim - to show that a new life begins for George Willard, for April is a spring month, and "buds coming out" are used symbolically.

Idea - departure is a period when you feel ambivalent: on the one hand you dream of your happy future, on the other - you remember your past to say good-bye to it.

But at the same time he returns to his past, for without it there is no future. He visits the places with which his recollections, his everyday life are connected:

"The land becomes a wide green billiard table on which tiny human insects toil up and down."

George Willard had been in the habit of walking on Trunion Pike. So the use of lexis of great importance, "the habit" is the evidence of his life being routine.

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Другие стилистические анализы текстов на нашем сайте:

• The Eyes Of The Dragon by Stephen King
• Anthony in Blue Alsatia by Eleanor Farjeon
• Astronomer's Wife by Kay Boyle

Стилистический анализ текста "The Ormolu Clock" by Muriel Spark

The story under the title "The Ormolu Clock" was written by Dame Muriel Spark, who is perhaps best known for her novel "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and for her autobiography "Curriculum Vitae".

Over her long career Muriel has received countless literary tributes and honours. In 1971 she was awarded an honorary degree in literature from Spathclyde University and has been similarly honoured by University of Aberdeen, St. Andres, Edinburgh and Oxford.

In 1993 Spark was made a Dame of the British Empire and in 1977 she received the David Cohen British literature Prize for Lifetime Achievement.

The story under discussion begins with the description of two hotels standing side by side and separated by a narrow path - the Hotel Stroh and the Guesthouse Lumblonitsch. The first one is a disappointment for its visitors, what can't be said about the second.

The story goes on to tell that the author had a chance to get acquainted with the owner of the Guesthouse - Frau Lublonitsch, who was a very hardworking woman. Once he saw her bedroom and was moved by the sight.

The room was richly established and there was a large ornamental clock known as ormolu. The story ends with the scene when Herr Stroh seemed to be meditating upon Frau Lublonitsch ...

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Другие стилистические анализы текстов на нашем сайте:

• The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham
  
• Wild Swans by Alice Munro
• Ms. Found In A Bottle by Edgar Poe

Стилистический анализ текста "Running for Governor" by Mark Twain

NB: набросок анализа

The story "Running for Governor" appears to be an excellent example of Mark Twain's talent of a humorist and satirist.

Electoral tricks that can be accepted as a subject matter, throw light on situation in American politics, where everything can be done to achieve one's aim and every service is involved in the dirty game. Get elected tends to be the goal for the sake of which one can overstep one's principles, lives at others, buy everything and everybody.

Surely, Mark Twain doesn't underscore the corruption of the politicians pointblank, but it's his satire that concentrates the reader's attentions on the filthy ways of how to get round the law and to remain a good reputation at the same time.

Right from the beginning we get involved in the preelectoral race where the narrator is the main aspirant to the post. The narrator and the author coincide, this and the fact that the story is told in the first person narrative bring us close to Mark Twain and we take his point of view and believe him or at least sympathize with him.

Thus, when he comes across unfair charges with numerous crimes such as perjury, wholesome bribery, theft, corruption, we appreciate the events from his viewpoint.

Moreover it's clear as a day - accusations are exaggerated. [Hyperbole - "to rob a poor native widow and her helpless family of a meager plantain-patch, their only stay and support in their bereavement and desolation", "they have been endorsed and re-endorsed by his own eloquent silence"].

Surely, there are hints that remind of some bits of truth, "three long years had passed over my head since I had tasted ale, beer, wine, liquor of any kind." But the point is who has never been mistaken? Moreover, let bygones be bygones.

As a result, such a great stream of charges washed away all the grounds on which Mark Twain was running for Governor, and what's more important, his wish and self-assurance to go on in politics.

Thus, his opponents got rid of him.

Другие стилистические анализы текстов на нашем сайте:

• Thursday Evening by Christopher Morley
  
• Dangerous Corner by John Priestley
  
• One Stair Up by Campbell Nairne