Isa And Mr Haines example essay topic

The text introduces the reader to a number of characters Mrs Haines, Mr Oliver, his daughter in law Isa and Rupert Haines himself. It is through the representation or rather the authorial manipulation of these first two characters that we are drawn into to the dynamic between the latter: Isa and Mr Haines. It is important to note that it is not the characters themselves that are represented as the important theme of the text but the relationships between them. The purpose of the passage is not concerned with giving a set of details about each character, though of course some limited description is given, but in revealing a dynamic tension between them and to leave the reader to wonder what has happened or indeed will occur in terms of the interaction between them. It is a literary device, what is not said, that draws our attention.

The lack of explicit descriptive text regarding the characters themselves draws our attention elsewhere, away from the individual characters as distinct entities causing us to focus on the relationships between them. The reader is given the barest detail in terms of actual descriptive prose. We are given a sketch of the milieu, that the events are occurring in a village, on a summers night and in "the big room with the windows open to the garden, . We know therefore that the characters are drawn together due to a set of circumstances, the failure to bring water to the village, but the fact that the discussion around this topic is then not pursued suggests that it is a plot device in order to enable the characters a setting in which to interact.

It is the tension between the characters, in particular the relationship between Haines and his wife and subsequently Isa, that our attention is drawn to. Mrs Haines is immediately described as a "goose faced woman with eyes protruding as if they saw something to gobble in the gutter, and that her utterance "What a subject to talk about on a night like this, , in itself inconsequential (it is not dignified by a response only silence), is described as being delivered in an "affected, manner. We are immediately given an apparently pejorative impression of her. This is in contrast to her husband being described as a "gentleman farmer, . While this description of Mr Haines is by no means conclusive an inference to his good character is made. Questions are immediately raised as to whether the relationship between the two is a harmonious or well-matched one.

The negative impression of Mrs Haines is reiterated in the next paragraph. In response to a commonplace rural event, the silence being punctuated by the noise of a cow, she is compelled to make further inconsequential small talk regarding her fear of horses but not cows. To compound this she immediately follows this with an irrelevant statement regarding her ancestry and goes on to pass an erroneous comment on the nature of the bird song heard outside. The utterances and limited description of Mrs Haines drive the narrative in two ways: Firstly, we are told by virtue of her repeated irrelevances that we are not to be instantly drawn to her or hold her in esteem or that she is slightly comic and light. Also that the relationship with her husband may not be all that we might assume and possibly, although it is not known at this stage, that by the authors invitation to not particularly like her, to illicit sympathy for the character of Mr Haines should he transgress or if there is to be an intimacy to the relationship between him and Isa. (more will be discussed on this later). Secondly as a literary device she provides a backdrop of ineffectuality and inconsequence from which more important textual detail can be contrasted.

By this it is meant that more attention can therefore be brought to other events, throw them in sharper relief and thereby draw greater attention and instil greater import to them. There could also be another reason for Mrs. Haines continuous chatter, either a way for the author to assert that the character of Mrs Haines has no knowledge of any dramatic tension between her husband and Isa or indeed the reverse in that with full knowledge of their implied chemistry she is made to chatter incessantly in order to avoid showing this knowledge and to hide any emotion that results from it. It is not until we have several instances of dialogue, all from Mrs Haines, and her character is asserted that a second character is introduced in Mr Oliver, "the old man in the armchair, of "the Indian Civil Service, retired, . His utterance seems again out out of context. His importance in the scene seems minimal and that he is part of the milieu rather than an executive of dramatic action. This passivity and ineffectuality is re-in forced in a number of ways.

He is seated, his utterance is second hand news that may not even be reliable "if he heard aright", and it is even given in the text as a continuation of the author,'s narrative rather than quoted dialogue. While his initial comment relates to the topic in question he digresses by discussing an aerial view of the proposed cesspool site. Here the modern is juxtaposed with the old. The "scars made by the Britons; the Romans, represent an age that has been and gone, thrown into relief by the modern motif of the aeroplane. In addition to this he is stated to be retired, itself an indication of a degree of redundancy and retired from an institution that itself by the time of the aeroplane had become defunct and representative of a dilapidated, redundant empire and political system. Like Mrs Haines, Mr. Oliver reinforces this haze of non-action that makes the introduction of the implied relationship between Isa and Mr. Haines all the more dramatic.

It is the text that surrounds the entrance of Isa that starts to give the first real indicators of a narrative thrust. Isa,'s entrance occurs just at the moment when a revelation is poised to occur. Mrs Haines utters "But you don, t remember... , and in doing so is given her first instance of dialogue where there is opportunity to provoke response. The author interjects to instil the moment with mystery to inform us that there is a secret about to be revealed. The author adds that Mr Oliver is aware of what she means even though the reader is not. At this moment of high drama when the reader is about to learn what the revelation may be, Isa enters, heralded by the "sound outside, .

We are told a relatively large amount of information about her in a short space of time. In comparison to the preceding text it is extremely descriptive and notably not judgemental (in contrast to the physical description of Mrs Haines for example). We learn of her relation to Mr. Oliver, her son, that she is married, that she enters with "her hair in pigtails" wearing a dressing gown with faded peacocks on it, that "she came in like a swan swimming its way, . We are allowed into her thoughts, her surprise on finding the room occupied then her immediate dynamic with the other characters ^a EUR" the phrase that is repeated - "what had they been saying? , . In knowing this we are granted a privilege so far not conferred with any other character and are made aware of the importance of both the character and the entrance itself.

We are aware that there are other events surrounding Isa and that she may have something to hide. It is of note however that her thoughts are not presented in dialogue, again we are drawn to the expectation of what she might say rather than the utterance itself. We are given two brief asides as a break in the tension from Mr Oliver and Mrs Haines. They reinforce there secondary role in the narrative, Mr Oliver is merely a conduit for information, a device for the narrative while Mrs. Haines reiterates her irrelevance by repeating her earlier phrase of "What a subject to be talking about on a night like this, and in doing so confirms that their topic of the conversation is unimportant in terms of the plot instead drawing further attention to the discourse of the relationship between Isa and Haines in the text. It is with the final paragraph that we realise the importance of Rupert Haines character and the importance of the dynamic, central to the entire text, that exists between him and Isa. Haines has remained an enigmatic presence in the narrative.

He reflects the theme of the unsaid being a crucial structural element of the narrative. "What had he said about the cesspool: or indeed about anything, Isa asks (though not in dialogue) - Haines does not make a single utterance throughout the text, our attention is now brought to this and it becomes the most important aspect of it. Neither Isa nor the reader knows and it becomes far more important than any of the actual dialogue. The readers, expectations are now wholly reliant on the unspoken. It is only through the use of this structural device of characters with dialogue saying nothing of import that the author can draw our attention to the unspoken. Through the narrative the reader is made aware that with the "noise, of nonsense something more important must be happening in the undisclosed subtext.

At the close of the passage Rupert Haines is finally introduced by name. The attention is drawn to him through the use of his name and metaphorically by Isa "inkling her head towards the gentleman farmer, , though again it is the unspoken that is the key element of the text. Isa and Haines have met before on two previous occasions but have not exchanged words - "He had handed her a cup and racquet" that was all, . The fact that they meet at a social occasion and not spoken reinforces the significance of silence. The author then confirms the impression that the text has insinuated and the reason behind it in stating that she had felt "in his silence, passion, . It is re-iterated because not only has Isa felt it before but at this third instance she feels it more strongly.