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Quot;ONE STAIR UP" BY CAMPBELL NAIRNE

I've engaged in the interpretation of the text "One Stair Up" written by Campbell Nairne, a Scottish novelist. Though admittedly the function of prose is to entertain, the author explicitly conveyed a message about the life of Edinburgh working-class families. At the beginning of our century readers had unflagging interest to the subject matter, which was brought here into sharp focus. The writer gave the detailed delineation of cinema-world, as a favourite pastime of representatives of the working-class. I'm thoroughly persuaded that the title of the story is suggestive and thought-provoking. I shaped the idea in words: some people are not content to live in obscurity, and Rosa's aim was to go even one stair up in the world by hook or by crook.

To my mind, two methods of character-sketch were employed in the text: direct and indirect. It goes without saying the indirect way of character drawing predominates here. The author didn't pass judgements on his figures, but let them speak for themselves and they became clear through their own actions. Several times we came across the protagonists' stream of consciousness. These passages written in non-personal direct speech give us the opportunity to know for sure what main images really thought and in what way they did it, in other words, they help the reader to get psychological insight into main characters' inner world. [#1 p99] Here I grasped the idea, that Andrew was shy, diffident, was afraid of being offended and was accustomed to Rosa's being hard on him. If the author is unintrustive, doesn't impose his views on the reader, but lets him form his own attitude, Rosa traced into Andrew's inner world, passed judgements on him which showed signs of bias against him. [#2 p101] But we couldn't trust her version, because subjective opinions are unreliable.

Campbell's books are characterized by realism and a fine style, a peculiar lay-out of the language can take the reader's fancy. While reading the extract we can point out incalculable instances of usage of learned words, professionalisms and colloquialisms and on this account we draw a conclusion, that the author selected words with respect to their subtle and delicate shades of meaning. The writer applied to professionalisms such as: a salon, the bull's eye, circle, the stage apron - in order he might give the fictional world of cinema a concrete visual quality. We must confess he succeeded in it. The writer's choice of vocabulary is admirable and precise. The employment of different formal words as "treading, dim region of luxury, voluptuous stillness" conveys the idea that Rosa was unaccustomed to richness, her nerves were strained, sensation-acute, she adored that world. In order the reader might grasp this idea, the author applies to the periphrases [... , the e..., and the s...]. Besides they assist him to create just that picture which Rosa perceived. In addition, we can say that the author laid emphasis on her social background in a way. As well as colloquialisms, elliptical phrases in speech of both characters draw the reader's attention to the fact that they were illiteral, inhabitants of slums. So non-standard language was used to add depth to all this and we can say lexis suggests something about the nature of the subject matter.



In the text we come across the piece of advice. The author shows in what way films were advertised in order to hold the picture-goer with a firm grip. The use of metaphors and epithets is dictated by nothing other but considerations of maximum expressivity. [#3] This extract proves the idea that clever advice are temptations to spend money. Nairne Campbell possessed a sense of humor. The reader feels that this passage is permitted with irony. Parallel constructions, anaphora lay certain cadence. [#4 p100] This and case of anticlimax [#5 p100] lead to ironical effect.

The extract consists of the explosion, the story, the climax and the denouement. I consider the delineation of the cinema-house to the scene setting paragraph. I think the sentence [#6 p101] is the moment of the highest tension, a real landmark in the story. And the passage where Rosa shared her impression can be regarded to my mind as the denouement.


Date: 2016-03-03; view: 2753


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