16/11/21

DON’T FORGET
Lecture 8 READ THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER ON
MOODLE AND ORDER YOUR COPY!!!
Characterisation & Setting

Plan
¡ FOCUS on characterization
¡ Showing v telling
¡ Names and titles
¡ Physical appearance
¡ Speech
¡ Behaviour/ action
¡ Round v. flat characters I. Characterisation
¡ FOCUS on setting
¡ “Uncle Ernest”
¡ “The Disgrace of Jim Scarface”

Telling: what are we told?

Though his cousin Bert was ¡ Colin is 10
eleven--a year older--Colin
was already in a higher class ¡ Colin is brighter than his
at school, and felt that this cousin Bert
counted for something
Telling versus anyway, even though he had
found himself effortlessly there.
¡ Colin is proud of this

¡ Colin loves reading

showing With imagination fed by books
to bursting point, he gave little
thought to the rags he wore …
¡ Colin is poor, but his
imagination compensates
for this
“Noah’s Ark”

Rags = old clothes

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Showing
A middle-aged man wearing ¡ Ernest neglects himself
a dirty raincoat, who badly
needed a shave and looked ¡ Ernest may be depressed
as though he hadn't washed
for a month, came out of a ¡ Ernest has no proper home
public lavatory with a cloth
bag of tools folded beneath
his arm.

¡ “Uncle Ernest”
Names & titles

Names & titles

¡ Pip in Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861)
¡ Pip – something that grows (an apple pip)

¡ Jane Eyre Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte,1847)

¡ Eyre a common name in Yorkshire, setting for the novel
¡ Eyre // air

¡ Smith in “The Loneliness”

Physical
¡ Smith is a common surname (cf. Dupont) = “everyman”
appearance
¡ Uncle Ernest in “Uncle Ernest”
¡ Ernest // earnest = sincere

¡ Jim Scarfedale in “Jim Scarfdale

¡ scar : cicatrice in French => connotations???

“Noah’s Ark”
hollow-cheeked
He’s hungry
“We want to trust you while you are in this Bert called out, ever-sharp
establishment,” he says, smoothing out his overgrown* hair
and hollow-cheeked […] He’s wild, uncared for
newspaper with lily-white workless hands, while I
read the big words upside down: Daily Telegraph” The top and back of his
broken slippers
head was padded by
¡ “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” He’s poor
overgrown* hair, and he
slopped along in broken hands in pockets, whistling
lily-white workless - an effeminate man who has slippers, hands in pockets, BUT He’s happy
never really worked. whistling
Daily Telegraph = equivalent of Le Figaro in French
* Too long (“overgrown grass”)

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Speech
Look at how social class is
expressed in speech
.
Mr. Raynor roared with such fury that there was instant
silence […] "Come out, Bullivant," he cried.[…]
Bullivant slouched out between rows of apprehensive
boys. "'e 'it me first," he said, nearing the blackboard.
"And now I'm going to hit you," Mr. Raynor retorted,
[…]
"Y'aren't gooin' ter 'it me," he said. "I ain't dun owt ter
get 'it, yer know."
"Hold out your hand," Mr. Raynor said, his face turning
a deep crimson.
“Mr Raynor the school-teacher”
“The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale”
=>Who is Jim’s mum? Who is Jim’s
posh fiancée?
"Good evening, Mrs. Scarfedale,”.
"Sit down,”
. "I hear as you're wanting to marry my lad?"
"That's right, Mrs. Scarfedale,”
"We're going to be married quite soon. My
name's Phyllis Blunt. Call me Phyllis.”
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“Mr Raynor the school-teacher”
=> Who is the teacher?
Who is the pupil?
.
"Come out, Bullivant,
"'e 'it me first,”.
"And now I'm going to hit you,”, […]
"Y'aren't gooin' ter 'it me,”. "I ain't dun owt ter get 'it,
yer know."
"Hold out your hand,”
“The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale”
=>Who is Jim’s mum? Who is Jim’s
posh fiancée?
"Good evening, Mrs. Scarfedale,”.
"Sit down,”
. "I hear as you're wanting to marry my lad?"
"That's right, Mrs. Scarfedale,”
"We're going to be married quite soon. My
name's Phyllis Blunt. Call me Phyllis.”
"Good evening, Mrs. Scarfedale," she said as she
came in. […]. Nobody shook hands.
"Sit down," Jim's mam said. She turned to the girl,
and looked at her properly for the first time, hard.
"I hear as you're wanting to marry my lad?" **
"That's right, Mrs. Scarfedale," she said, taking the
best chair, though sitting in it stiff and not at her
ease. "We're going to be married quite soon." Then
she tried to be more friendly, because Jim had
given her the eye, like a little dog. "My name's
Phyllis Blunt. Call me Phyllis.”
“The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale”
** “I understand you wish to marry my son”
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“Uncle Ernest”

His name and trade were always spoken in one breath, even
when the nature of his trade was not in question: Ernest
Brown the upholsterer. Every night before returning to his

Behaviour / lodgings he left the bag of tools for safety with a man who
looked after the public lavatory near the town centre.
action “Uncle Ernest”

Upholsterer = tapissier

“Uncle Ernest”

His name and trade were

always spoken in one breath, ¡ ‘Name and trade always
even when the nature of his … in one breath
trade was not in question: Ernest
Brown the upholsterer. Every His job is his only identity
night before returning to his
lodgings he left the bag of tools
for safety with a man who
looked after the public lavatory
¡ . Every night before
returning to his lodgings Round & flat
he left the bag of tools
characters
near the town centre
for safety
“Uncle
Ernest” His lodgings are not safe=>
he has no real home

Upholsterer = tapissier

E. M. Forster: from Aspects of
the Novel (1927)
‘We may divide characters into flat and round.
Flat characters […] are sometimes called types, and
sometimes caricatures. In their purest form, they are
constructed round a single idea or quality:
Round or flat?
A policeman in ‘Loneliness…’
He was like Hitler in the face, right down to the paint-
brush tash (moustache), except that being six-foot tall
made him seem worse. But I straightened my
shoulders to look into his illiterate blue eyes--like I
always do with any copper.
Then he started asking me questions,

[…] It is only round people who are fit to perform
tragically for any length of time and can move us to any
feelings. […]The test of a round character is whether it is
capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never
surprises, it is flat..’
"Tell me where the money is, and I'll get you off with
probation." (sursis)
"What money?" I asked him, because I'd heard that
one before as well.
“The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”

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What do you remember ? Types of character

¡ How do writers make their characters seem ‘real’ ¡ Characters can be …….. or …….
¡ Telling or ………
ROUND FLAT
¡ Showing
¡ NT
¡ Names & titles
¡ In ‘The Loneliness…. ’
¡ PA
¡ Smith is a …………….character
¡ Physical appearance
¡ ROUND
¡ S
¡ The governor and the policemen are ……. characters
¡ Speech
¡ FLAT
¡ B/A
¡ Behaviour & action

Uncle Ernest -1
Over the theatre patches ¡ Patches of blue sky
of blue sky held hard-won ¡ Autumnal clouds
positions against autumnal
clouds, and a treacherous ¡ Treacherous wind lashed out
wind lashed out its gusts,
¡ “Uncle Ernest”

II Setting To lash = to whip / fouetter

Treacherous = traitre
“Uncle Ernest”
Gust= a rush of wind/ rafale
“The Disgrace of Jim Scarfdale”

Uncle Ernest:
Pathetic fallacy Uncle Ernest -2
… sending paper and ¡ Paper & cigarette packets
patches of blue sky held hard-
won positions
Pathetic fallacy cigarette packets
cartwheeling along un- ¡ Unswept gutter
a literary device that attributes
= happiness is hard to find swept gutters. Empty-bellied
human qualities and emotions Ernest was ready for his
a treacherous wind lashed out to inanimate objects of breakfast, so he walked ¡ Empty-bellied Ernest
its gusts nature. through a café doorway,

= life is harsh and violent ¡ “Uncle Ernest”

Gutters=caniveau

Empty-bellied = ventre-vide

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Uncle Ernest -2
Connotation
… paper and cigarette
packets
un-swept gutters.
Uncle Ernest is linked to
detritus
Empty-bellied Ernest
He is hungry and also his
life is empty
“The Disgrace of Jim
Scarfedale”
Jim Scarfedale lived in our
terrace, with his mam, in a
house like our own, only it
was a lot nearer the bike
factory, smack next to it in
fact, so that it was a
marvel to me how they
stuck it with all the noise
you could hear. They might
just as well have been
inside the factory, because
the racket it kicked up was
killing.
16/11/21
“The Disgrace of Jim
Scarfedale”
it was a lot nearer the bike
factory, smack next to it
Vivid description of a
¡ Connotation in fact it was a marvel to me working-class house
how they stuck it with all the
Home and work are
noise you could hear
juxtaposed
an idea or feeling that a
word conveys in addition They might just as well have
to its literal or primary been inside
meaning
The racket it kicked up was
killing.
What do you remember?
Note the use of SETTING
¡ “Uncle Ernest”
AUDITORY IMAGERY
¡ Setting mirrors the character’s emotions and
Note the situation
HARSH CONSONANTS & ¡ “The disgrace of Uncle Ernest”
ASSONANCE ¡ Setting underlines the harsh reality of working class
life
Note the
METAPHOR