Prose Commentary
Lanark: Prose Commentary 1
Lanark
Prose Commentary
Retno Widyanti
This extract from Lanark ,written by Alasdair Gray, is a highly evocative piece of narrative prose. Set within a church in Lenzies, Glasgow, the excerpt illustrates the loss of love and theloss of self-belief which are inextricably intertwined for the character Duncan Thaw. Writtenin a post-modern style, it is also representative of the subjectivity of perception and its abilityto change with the passage of time. Duncan is forced to reflect upon his experiences as he isvisited by haunting representations of his past, in the form of two characters: Marjory and theunnamed man.The extract begins by immediately evoking a sense of atmosphere: µThe afternoon darkenedearly¶. The setting of the piece at dusk, which marks the beginning of darkness in theevening, creates a sense of ominous foreshadowing in its transition from optimistic brightnessto sinister lack of light, representative of the eerily gloomy images of grief and sorrow. Themovement of the man µworking peeringly¶ is humble and unobtrusive, reflected in the slowrhythm of the sentence. His quiet concentration, though, is abruptly shattered; the harshonomatopoeia of µcough¶ creates a sudden break in the deliberate rhythm of the sentence justas the cough itself creates a sudden break in the tranquillity of the scene.He turns around to µa man and a woman [standing] in the aisle¶. Taking place in a church, itis an image symbolic of a marriage. This in turn signifies the apparent relationship betweenthe two people. In the µbetter light¶ he realises that the woman is not just any woman: thesyntactical arrangement of the sentence causes the emphasis to fall on the name µMarjory¶,illustrating her clear significance to the man. The importance of Marjory to Duncan, on a personal level, is placed in contrast to the namelessness of the man standing by her side, whois referred to using distancing language; he is simply µthe man¶. He is merely a
Lanark
Prose Commentary
Retno Widyanti
This extract from Lanark ,written by Alasdair Gray, is a highly evocative piece of narrative prose. Set within a church in Lenzies, Glasgow, the excerpt illustrates the loss of love and theloss of self-belief which are inextricably intertwined for the character Duncan Thaw. Writtenin a post-modern style, it is also representative of the subjectivity of perception and its abilityto change with the passage of time. Duncan is forced to reflect upon his experiences as he isvisited by haunting representations of his past, in the form of two characters: Marjory and theunnamed man.The extract begins by immediately evoking a sense of atmosphere: µThe afternoon darkenedearly¶. The setting of the piece at dusk, which marks the beginning of darkness in theevening, creates a sense of ominous foreshadowing in its transition from optimistic brightnessto sinister lack of light, representative of the eerily gloomy images of grief and sorrow. Themovement of the man µworking peeringly¶ is humble and unobtrusive, reflected in the slowrhythm of the sentence. His quiet concentration, though, is abruptly shattered; the harshonomatopoeia of µcough¶ creates a sudden break in the deliberate rhythm of the sentence justas the cough itself creates a sudden break in the tranquillity of the scene.He turns around to µa man and a woman [standing] in the aisle¶. Taking place in a church, itis an image symbolic of a marriage. This in turn signifies the apparent relationship betweenthe two people. In the µbetter light¶ he realises that the woman is not just any woman: thesyntactical arrangement of the sentence causes the emphasis to fall on the name µMarjory¶,illustrating her clear significance to the man. The importance of Marjory to Duncan, on a personal level, is placed in contrast to the namelessness of the man standing by her side, whois referred to using distancing language; he is simply µthe man¶. He is merely a