5 Мар 2014 в 2:50|Это спам|Ответить

Ganya Starostin▼

The text which I’m going to analyze is “Dangerous corner ” by J.B. Priestley, one of the outstanding English authors of his time. He is the author of the famous “time trick”, which we are now accustomed to, but which at the time of writing the play was a stunning innovation, confusing audience, readers and critics. This trick means the development of the character. We see same roles, but already from the other point of view. Characters of his plays appear in a new light before eyes.

According to the title we can see that the play describes some dangerous situation. And it means that “dangerous corner” is a dead end, a difficult situation, which has no way out. The situation described in the play shows us the state of affairs in the family of Caplans. From the beginning of the extract we can see the there 2 ways of plot development: play “Sleeping dog” and the situation on the foreground, which are mixed.

As we know the play is called “The Sleeping Dog”. As the characters explain, the sleeping dog is the truth, which you shouldn’t disturb. But not all characters agree with this statement. Robert Caplan wants to know the facts about his brother’s suicide and begins to gather the information. And sooner big quarrel leads to Robert’s suicide.

From the stylistic point of view, it’s a dialogue which has quite lot stylistic devices. For example, I’ve found some kind of mixture of bookish and colloquial style, and also remarks in the brackets. Also we can see there irony and allusion. For example: “To lie or not to lie– what do you think, Olwen? You’re looking terribly wise.” This phrase is an allusion to Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” – “to be or not to be” – a question of life and death for Hamlet, it is the first sign of seriousness of the discussion. Also we can take the play from the philosophical point of view. Its Olwen’s thoughts about the truth. I think it is a philosophical moral of the story Truth is the first concept of the play, and it is created through the theme: “to lie or not to lie”, which consists of such words as: secret, lie, truth, treacherous stuff, God’s truth, self-deception, facts.

Then, with the help of antithesis: “a fool’s paradise” – “a fool’s hell” – the author draws our attention to the second concept – the world of illusions. “A fool’s paradise” stands for the world of illusions, a world, which Robert has built for himself, because he didn’t want to face up the reality, and searching for the truth he ruined his world.

The main character of the play is Robert. The author made a double attitude to him. On the one hand we see Robert, as an honest man among the liars. Robert was the only one who insisted upon telling the truth. Example: “Serious or not. I’m all for it coming out. It’s healthy.” But on the other hand, Robert was the only one who lived in “a fool’s paradise”, in the illusions where he tried to hide from the truth of life.

The climax of the text is the revolver shot, and then comes the denouement – the second variant of events.

J.B. Priestley made a unique phenomenon in literature. And his time tricks and flashbacks will be actual for a long time.

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