Member Of The Family
Oleksandra Sydorenko
The Member of the Family
By Muriel Spark
Analysis
The extract under consideration is taken from the story “A Member of the Family” by a famous award-winning Scottish novelist Muriel Spark. The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945"
The fragment is about two women with the desperate mood Gwen and Trudy who spend their leisure time in a cheap lake town. Sometimes they argue and discuss the weather outdoor.
The extract under analysis belongs to the belles-letters functional style, the main aim of which to give the readers aesthetic pleasure, to make them think and to entertain them by appealing to their emotions.
It is told in the 3rd person narration from the point of view of an anonymous omniscient narrator and interspersed with dialogues and an example of the reported inner speech Trudy thought I’d better shut up.
In the extract of the scene is laid in a lake town Bleilach where Trudy and Gwen stayed. It was quite a cheap and affordable place for them to stay. The cheapness of the town is presented by the example of inversion cheaper was the way of putting it and gives the reader the information of the protagonists’ lack of money.
The spatial markers lake town, Southern Austria, Bleilach, room represents the place the scene happened.
The temporal continuum of the extract is presented by direct markers summer, previous June. The numbers of toponyms Austria, Bleilach, Wales and a proper name Kensington give the reader information of the place of scene and the real life of the protagonists. The descriptive details of 35 aged Gwen creates the impression of desperate woman who gave up all thoughts of marriage and shows the author’s irony towards her. It is confirmed by means of anaphoric repetition She wore her hair and her clothes and her bit of lipstick in such a way… and the antithesis you are the unjust and I’m the just. These stylistic devices create the effect of the author’s ironical
The Member of the Family
By Muriel Spark
Analysis
The extract under consideration is taken from the story “A Member of the Family” by a famous award-winning Scottish novelist Muriel Spark. The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945"
The fragment is about two women with the desperate mood Gwen and Trudy who spend their leisure time in a cheap lake town. Sometimes they argue and discuss the weather outdoor.
The extract under analysis belongs to the belles-letters functional style, the main aim of which to give the readers aesthetic pleasure, to make them think and to entertain them by appealing to their emotions.
It is told in the 3rd person narration from the point of view of an anonymous omniscient narrator and interspersed with dialogues and an example of the reported inner speech Trudy thought I’d better shut up.
In the extract of the scene is laid in a lake town Bleilach where Trudy and Gwen stayed. It was quite a cheap and affordable place for them to stay. The cheapness of the town is presented by the example of inversion cheaper was the way of putting it and gives the reader the information of the protagonists’ lack of money.
The spatial markers lake town, Southern Austria, Bleilach, room represents the place the scene happened.
The temporal continuum of the extract is presented by direct markers summer, previous June. The numbers of toponyms Austria, Bleilach, Wales and a proper name Kensington give the reader information of the place of scene and the real life of the protagonists. The descriptive details of 35 aged Gwen creates the impression of desperate woman who gave up all thoughts of marriage and shows the author’s irony towards her. It is confirmed by means of anaphoric repetition She wore her hair and her clothes and her bit of lipstick in such a way… and the antithesis you are the unjust and I’m the just. These stylistic devices create the effect of the author’s ironical