English Study Notes
Remember that you will have to answer a question comparing a convention, so do not just list the setting or the characters, rather make notes on the significance of the setting, or how characters are developed.
5th Business:
Narration:
* Narration: first person perspective from Dunstan Ramsay. Though reliable, observant, narrator (opening paragraph) all events are subjective and can’t be verified. Events that occur outside of Dunny’s experience must be relayed to him through third party. (Compare to Jane Eyre)
Plot/structure:
* Comic sections often follow serious; Parts devoted to Dunny are followed by parts devoted toBoy; Story is a written memoir/letter; six sections each containing several chapters; chapters follow the growth and development of Dunny and Boy
Characterization:
* Dunny * is the younger of two sons born to strict Scottish Presbyterian parents in small town Deptford; extremely intelligent but too clumsy to take over family business; shown negatively in contrast to Willie. * Dunny is large and clumsy; skilled in storytelling and teaches himself magic as diversion; he is judgmental of others and is observant narrator – very detailed oriented. * morality of parents forbids emotional expression; they demand hard work and the performance of one’s duty; extremely religious; Dante’s Inferno: impacts on Dunny’s psyche (he becomes obsessed with punishments for one’s actions); Amasa Dempster’s emotional outbreak also impacts Dunny (shows him the dangers of emotion) * Dunny’s mother, Fiona Ramsay, dominant feature – his first name is her maiden name; demands his loyalty as proof of his love; dominates her husband and is unbending, controlling woman; Ramsay has difficulty reconciling the loving mother figure with his "witch-like" mother when she is angry; she is the duality in the Mother Nature of Jung's archetype who emasculates men - symbolically shown through Ramsay's wooden leg [consider Diana + Diana’s mother/father]
5th Business:
Narration:
* Narration: first person perspective from Dunstan Ramsay. Though reliable, observant, narrator (opening paragraph) all events are subjective and can’t be verified. Events that occur outside of Dunny’s experience must be relayed to him through third party. (Compare to Jane Eyre)
Plot/structure:
* Comic sections often follow serious; Parts devoted to Dunny are followed by parts devoted toBoy; Story is a written memoir/letter; six sections each containing several chapters; chapters follow the growth and development of Dunny and Boy
Characterization:
* Dunny * is the younger of two sons born to strict Scottish Presbyterian parents in small town Deptford; extremely intelligent but too clumsy to take over family business; shown negatively in contrast to Willie. * Dunny is large and clumsy; skilled in storytelling and teaches himself magic as diversion; he is judgmental of others and is observant narrator – very detailed oriented. * morality of parents forbids emotional expression; they demand hard work and the performance of one’s duty; extremely religious; Dante’s Inferno: impacts on Dunny’s psyche (he becomes obsessed with punishments for one’s actions); Amasa Dempster’s emotional outbreak also impacts Dunny (shows him the dangers of emotion) * Dunny’s mother, Fiona Ramsay, dominant feature – his first name is her maiden name; demands his loyalty as proof of his love; dominates her husband and is unbending, controlling woman; Ramsay has difficulty reconciling the loving mother figure with his "witch-like" mother when she is angry; she is the duality in the Mother Nature of Jung's archetype who emasculates men - symbolically shown through Ramsay's wooden leg [consider Diana + Diana’s mother/father]