The Nine Tailors Commentary

Michael Abushacra

English SL

Commentary: The Nine Tailors

In this passage from The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers, Wimsey, the main character, climbs up a

bell-­‐tower and endures the deafening vexatious shrills of the bells. The clangor from the bells causes him extreme amounts of pain and suffering. Throughout the passage, Wimsey struggles to keep the noise from harming him as he tries to climb up the belfry. Sayers portrays Wimsey’s painful situation with the use of vivid auditory imagery regarding the deafening noise of the bells and with the use of personification to amplify the magnitude of the destructive force of the bells. She is as well able to create an apprehensive and menacing mood in the passage with enumeration to mimic the incessant violent nature of the bells and with an uneven paragraph structure to convey tension and to slow down the narrative of the story.

All throughout the passage, Sayers adds life and substance to the bellicose sounds using vivid

auditory imagery to create a chaotic and violent scene while portraying Wimsey’s state of pain as he climbs the ladder using. The