Free Indirect Discourse

Having just read Pride and Prejudice, there was one narrative technique that really stood out as the main, and possible most influential, technique in Austen’s writing. This is free indirect discourse. Although the story is told by an omniscient third person narrator, it frequently changes to take on the viewpoints of the characters.

The character that the narrator takes the view of most often is Elizabeth Bennet. An example of this would be during Mr Collins’ proposal, when it says that “the idea of Mr Collins…being run away with his feelings, made Elizabeth so near laughing,”. This is a change to Elizabeth’s viewpoint because the narrator describes how she is finding the situation, and how Mr Collins is dealing with it, funny, whereas were it from Mr Collins’ viewpoint it would not have thought that any part of it was funny, because Mr Collins thinks that what he is doing is a ‘proper part of the business’. We also know that it is not possible for Mr Collins to “be run away with by (his) feelings”, seeing as Elizabeth was his second choice after he found out that Jane was not available, whereas Elizabeth was not aware of this, and so thought that he was being serious about his feelings. The constant swooping in to Elizabeth’s viewpoint through the use of free indirect discourse manipulates the narrative in the favour of Elizabeth, so that the reader is much more sympathetic to her than any other character, even when she is in the wrong, such as with her first judgment of Darcy.

Another example of free indirect discourse is in this same episode. This is the change to Mr Collins’ viewpoint right before he makes the proposal. The fact that the narrator gives his reasons for proposing to her at that exact moment of time as just, and the language that the narrator uses are both evidence for this. His reasons, such as “having no feelings of diffidence to make it distressing”, would only be felt by Mr Collins, and most definitely not Elizabeth. His language when describing how “he addressed the mother in these words.” is probably the biggest change. This is because the third person narrator is not usually nearly as florid and over eccentric in its language, whereas in this particular part and throughout Mr Collins’ dialogue it is.

The very first sentence of the novel is actually an example of free indirect discourse. Although the first chapter mainly consists of dialogue between Mr and Mrs Bennet, the introduction to the story is told from Mrs Bennet’s viewpoint, this being that ” it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” The reader of course knows this to be false, but this is a view and motive that Mrs Bennet lives by throughout the novel, and therefore is not only a good summary and introduction to the story, but also the character of Mrs Bennet.

‘Mariana’ Alfred Tennyson

This is a very dark and depressing poem about a lonely, depressed woman with suicidal emotions as a result. She lives alone in an old, decaying ‘grange’.

Tennyson uses a number of methods to create the most depressing and death-representing poem he could. The first line of the stanza, “with blackest moss the flower pots”, is an example of this blackening of even bright things, and is a reference of the emotion and content of the poem still to come, thus immediately creating the mood of all things holding nothing but sadness or death.

Another way in which the narrative is given an impression of depression and death, is through the many examples of gothic tropes present in the poem, such as the “flitting of the bats”, “blue fly sung” and “the mouse…shriek’d”. These are all images that are commonly related to a gothic scene, often dominated by death, as is this poem. In this sense, this poem could be described as being gothic literature.

Another main them in this poem is the woman’s loneliness, which the reader is constantly reminded of at the end of every line with “I am dreary, he cometh not” or some variated thereof. This shows that she is not at all happy with her current isolated existence and is hoping that some man, perhaps her lover, will come and save her from her lonely fate. This man could be Angelo, from Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure, as Tennyson’s and Shakespeare’s Marianas have very similar characters and situations, and Tennyson himself told us of the link and inspiration for poem from Measure for Measure. The fact that she includes her grief of the man not coming to her in every lamentation shows us that this is a big cause in her wishing that she “were dead”.

Throughout the poem, despite the desperation, loneliness and depression felt by the woman, we still get the sense that she has not lost all hope and that she still hopes for her man to come. This is because of the phrasing of “he cometh not” and “he will not come”. “he cometh not” is entirely fixed on the present, saying that the man is not coming yet, but the change in the last stanza to “he will not come” suggests that up until that point, she still thought it possible that although he had not come yet, he could still come in the future, and it is only at the very end that she looses all hope. This is backed up by the way that she phrases her wish to be dead. After saying “he will not come” she always ends with “I would that I were dead”, which very much a passive desire for which she will not take any action. On the other hand, the “Oh God, that I were dead” following the “He will not come” shows how much more desperate and resolute she is on her wish to die, and we think that she may now take action, committing suicide.

A more abstract and metaphorical approach to this same point would be that instead of literally waiting for a man or a lover, she could be waiting for Death itself – otherwise referred to as the Grim Reaper. In this case, her reason for wanting death could due to her dull, lonely life in her dull, lonely and decaying grange. “He cometh not” and “I would that I were dead” could show her impatience for death, and the “he” in this circumstance could be Death. This would mean that the final stanza with “he will not come…Oh God, that I were dead!” could show her giving up on waiting for Death to come and take her life, so she decides to take it herself.

Tithonus Alfred Tennyson

Upon first reading, I found this poem quite hard to understand. This would mainly have to do with the fact that there are so many metaphors throughout this poem, it seems at least one per sentence. Another factor that makes this poem quite confusing is the number of chronological changes, with almost each paragraph-styled stanza being in a different tense or talking about a different time to the previous one. The first stanza is set in the present, whereas the second and third stanzas are reminiscent of the past, with the second being about when Tithonus was in youth and at his prime; when he thought himself “none other than a God!”. The fourth stanza is not really set in specific time period, as it is a question about why whoever he is talking to wont take back the gift of immortality, with references to the past, “in days far off”.

One source of debate about this poem is to whom Tithonus, and the poem, is talking to. One argument is that Tithonus changes who he talks to throughout the play. In stanzas two and four for example, he is obviously talking to a god, as he is talking to the person/being that granted him immortality, and it says that “‘The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.'”, is this case the gift being immortality. As another example, stanza five is obviously addressed to his lover, though how they can be alive seems impossible; maybe he is talking to her memory. Another way of interpreting the poem that, I feel, answers these questions and makes the most sense, is that Tithonus only every speaks to one person, and that therefore the addressee of the poem is both a god and his lover. After some quick research, I found that Tithonus was the lover of Eos or Aurora, the goddess of the dawn. This would make sense as Eos, being a goddess, would be capable of giving him the gift of immortality, or would at least be able to ask a more powerful god to do it, and her being a goddess who renews herself every morning (at dawn) would have eternal youth and so makes it possible for Tithonus to be speaking to his lover in stanza five. This theory also helps to understand one of the lines in stanza two, “immortal age beside immortal youth”, with immortal age being a metaphor for Tithonus and immortal youth being a metaphor for Eos, which effectively creates a contrast between and juxtaposes the state of the two lovers, and shows the effect that the simple mistake of not being specific enough in a request or really knowing what you want can have.

The opening stanza is very good at portraying the main themes and motifs that recur throughout the poem; death, or the absense thereof, and the cycle of life

The Lady of Shalott – Alfred Tennyson

Because of the nature of the poem, consisting of 171 lines and four separate parts, I have not written the poem out above, so instead, here is a link to the poem written on the BBC Poetry page.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/poetryseason/poems/the_lady_of_shalott.shtml

I really enjoyed reading this poem. This is mainly because of the contrast of emotions that the poem evokes in the reader and the fact that it is a true narrative with an interesting storyline, but also because it is so open to interpretation, as it is not at all obvious what the poem is about – there are no common or clichéd links or metaphors that one usually sees and expects in poems.

In Part I, the narrative describes an ostensibly pastoral, bucolic and beautiful scene. The personification that the “fields… clothe the wold” adds a sense of humility to the wold, that it feel the need of being covered up, which creates a vision of idyllic innocence in the town of Camelot and its surrounding countryside. The “long fields” “on either side of the river lie”, with the roads running through the fields and the wold touching the perfect blue sky all gives a sense that everything fits together, and creates an aura of serenity. This is all juxtaposed by the dark, dull and austere tower on an island in the middle of the river, that does not fit in with the rest of the scene and which is pushed to the foreground by the narrator in order to draw attention to the fact that it is so out of place and different to the rest of the scene. This difference is not only created by the society of Camelot and the surrounding countryside’s opinion of the tower, the very nature of the place is a contrast to the surrounding scene. Where everything around the island is moving with a smooth fluidity, the tower is silent, still and imposing. Tennyson obviously wanted the reader to feel the intimidation of the tower, and he does this through his description of the area immediately surrounding the island in the first part of the second stanza. His use of words such as “quiver”, “shiver” and “whiten” create quite a fearful feeling in this area. And to emphasise the fact that this tower resembles a prison, it says that the “silent isle imbowers / the Lady of Shalott.”

Apart from the first stanza, Part II creates quite a happy and bustling scene for outside, which is again in contrast with the alienation of the Lady of Shalott, especially seeing as this part is written from her point of view. We gain in insight into her world, and discover why she is imprisoned in her tower and what the world  and life is like for her.

The Draft Horse – Robert Frost

With a lantern that wouldn’t burn

In too frail a buggy we drove

Behind too heavy a horse

Through a pitch-dark limitless grove.

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And a man came out of the trees

And took our horse by the head

And reaching back to his ribs

Deliberately stabbed him dead.

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The ponderous beast went down

With a crack of a broken shaft.

And the night drew through the trees

In one long invidious draft.

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The most unquestioning pair

That ever accepted fate

And the least disposed to ascribe

Any more than we had to to hate,

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We assumed that the man himself

Or someone he had to obey

Wanted us to get down

And walk the rest of the way.

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         This is a very simple poem about a seemingly random act of violence in which two people are innocently travelling through a grove in a horse-drawn buggy, when their horse is suddenly killed by an unknown man. The form, structure and language all add to the simplicity of the poem, and there is nothing odd or out of place in the poem. There aren’t even any metaphors or phrases that the reader would have any trouble in understanding. This is why, if you try to look deeper into the poem to find its meaning or symbol, there is so much room for interpretation, and so many ways in which the poem can be viewed.

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          The poem consists of five stanzas, with a simple ABCB rhyme scheme. The first two stanzas form one sentence each, with no punctuations in either of the stanzas until the full-stop at the end. This gives these two stanzas a very matter of fact tone, and makes sure there are no pauses or chances for contemplation or consideration for what has been said. The third stanza consists of two sentences. This is because the first sentence in this stanza is the last of actually telling the story of the event, and the second sentence is the conclusion of the event, with ‘and the night drew’. Night is obviously what comes after the end of the day, and in this case is used to signify the end of the event. The last two stanzas then simply describe that, and why, the couple then walk away.

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           One way of interpreting this poem is by seeing it as a metaphor for old age and encroaching death. In this case, the ‘lantern that wouldn’t burn’ could either signify that the body has lost its radiance and energy, or could be the waning of the sharpness and awareness of the mind. The ‘frail buggy’ is the frail and weak body, and the ‘heavy horse’ shows the struggling and labouring heart. The ‘pitch-dark limitless grove’, could be death, with ‘pitch-dark limitless’ symbolising the black eternity or nothingness of death. In this case, the man could be Death itself, or more likely a servant of Death, seeing as it says ‘the man itself, or someone he had to obey’. This fits because Death or the messenger of Death, by killing the horse, is making the couple have to venture into the limitless grove, or death. This would also explain why the couple ‘ accepted fate’ and were the ‘least disposed to ascribe / any more than they had to to hate.’ They go out into limitless grove of death without question not through fear or hate, but because of the inevitability of the situation. That is why they seem to treat such an abnormal situation with such acceptance, and almost indifference; it is fate. This interpretation, however, does bring about questions such as why the two people in this story share the same body and heart, and why killing one heart kills them both.

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          Another way one could look at the poem is by seeing it as a metaphor for the lives of ordinary citizens in totalitarian states, such as Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia and West Germany. The link could be to people seeing or noticing strange and unnerving things that they know aren’t right, but accepting them because the other option is to be brought down into them. An example could be when these states encourage people to ‘denounce’ their neighbours, co-workers, families and friends for doing anything that is seen as against the state or its policies. A lot of the time, when someone was denounced, and most of the time they were found ‘guilty’, although a lot of the time they hadn’t committed any crime, they would then disappear, being sent to a work camp or the like, or be formally and publicly charged and prosecuted. When this happened, onlookers would have no choice but to get on with their own lives, for to oppose or question the system meant being persecuted by it. This means that the random act of a horse being stabbed could signify another, perhaps for violent event, taking place to a human being, and the ‘long invidious draft’ could be almost a curtain covering up what had happened from the outside world. Then the man could be an agent of the government, who does what he deems necessary and then disappears again. This is why the people would simply follow along and ‘walk the rest of the way’.

Out, Out – Robert Frost

The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard

And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,

Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.

And from there those that lifted eyes could count

Five mountain ranges one behind the other

Under the sunset far into Vermont.

And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,

As it ran light, or had to bear a load.

And nothing happened: day was all but done.

Call it a day, I wish they might have said

To please the boy by giving him the half hour

That a boy counts so much when saved from work.

His sister stood beside him in her apron

To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,

As if to prove saws know what supper meant,

Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—

He must have given the hand. However it was,

Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!

The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,

As he swung toward them holding up the hand

Half in appeal, but half as if to keep

The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—

Since he was old enough to know, big boy

Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—

He saw all was spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off—

The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’

So. But the hand was gone already.

The doctor put him in the dark of ether.

He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.

And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.

No one believed. They listened to his heart.

Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.

No more to build on there. And they, since they

Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.

There was one line in particular that I found particularly powerful. This is ‘The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all-’. I think this is powerful through the use of metaphor of ‘his life’. In this case the boy’s blood symbolises his life, and therefore if he could somehow stop the blood from leaving his body he would thereby also contain his life too. The second part of the line, ‘Then the boy saw all-’, is referring to the fact that he  suddenly realises just how serious his injury is, being, as it says in the next line, ‘old enough to know’ that he was in danger of losing a limb. Yet being a still a boy, he isn’t old enough to know that he has already lost the hand, and that it is actually his life that is in danger. The dash at the end of the line also adds suspense, and a sense of thoughtfulness to the sentence, before continuing into the next two lines which elaborate the fact that although he is a boy, he is not quite as naive as a young child. The dash is also useful by making the reader, consciously or not, take a small pause before continuing with the rest of the poem, something Frost uses two lines later. This forces the reader to read the poem as it is meant to be read aloud to an audience, and makes it more obvious how that the narrator is saying this thoughtfully, and adds more meaning and importance to the fact that he was a boy, but not naive.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep

The very start of the poem, describing the woods, could easily be seen as one big metaphor; the woods symbolise heaven, or heaven’s doorstep. The narrator of this poem could be close to death, sometimes referred to as ‘on heaven’s doorstep’, and has found himself in an unfamiliar place, yet he has a feeling that he knows where he is, which is shown in the first line ‘whose woods these are I think I know’; they are God’s woods. The use of woods as a metaphor for heaven’s doorstep is also very effective because woods themselves are usually used in literature as places of danger and fear, although in this poem the wood is a very calm, almost safe haven that the narrator is resting in for a short while. This is shown in the third and fourth stanzas, with ‘of easy wind and downy flake.’ and ‘The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.’. Death itself is also a very scary subject, often brought upon by danger, yet in this case the man welcomes it, and in the last line refers to it as ‘sleep’.

This is backed up in the second line with ‘his house is in the village though’. The house could symbolise a church, being literally the house of God, which would be found in the village, and not in the middle of the woods. This ties with the idea of the woods being heaven’s doorstep because in that case, heaven’s doorstep would be God’s woods.

The fact that the poem is set in the evening is very interesting. This is because evening is often associated with the ending of things, and therefore could be a metaphor for the ‘evening’ of his life, that his life is drawing to an end.

This all ties in with the end of the poem, with ‘The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.’. The woods being lovely and dark make the reader think that they would be a good place to sleep, another metaphor for death. ‘Deep’ could be the fact that the further or deeper into the woods you go, the further you become from the world not just outside of the woods, but from the world of the living, and you go deeper and deeper into sleep until death comes. The fact that he says ‘But I have promises to keep’ and the repetition of ‘and miles to go before I sleep’, could be symbolic of the responsibilities and promises to other and himself that he has to fulfil before his life is over. The repetition of ‘miles’ suggests that the responsibilities are numerous and big, and that he would go miles and miles (literally and metaphorical for the effort and lengths he will go to to fulfil these promises) suggest that these promises and responsibilities are for loved ones, that he will be there for them and not give up on life and everyone and everything he loves.

Of course, it could be argued that this doesn’t have anything to do with God or death, seeing as it says in line three ‘he will not see me stopping here’, when surely if it was God’s wood or heaven’s doorstep, he would see the man stopping there, as God is supposedly omniscient. Therefore, the sleep could be symbolic of Frost becoming dormant as a writer, and the evening could signify his creativity and career coming to an end, as opposed to his life.