A Minor Role by UA Fanthorpe
Addresses the fact that life is a performance and that whilst some people are
more charismatic and the centre of attention, the narrator enjoys their role in
the background.
Does the speaker in the poem have a mysterious but serious illness, it makes
her a star attraction. The speaker rejects other people’s overtures; she wants
to have a simpler illness.
The speaker might be one of the patients which Fanthrope met in her work as
a receptionist and secretary in a neurological hospital.
Optimistic nihilism.
Fanthorpe caught in a purgatory between where she is and who she wants to
be- reader forced to question the performance of identity
Shakespeare also questions whether identity is a performance in ‘Macbeth’
and ‘As you like it’
PARODY TO A GREEK TRAGEDY- POEM GETS MORE DEPRESSING
UNTIL IN STANZA FOUR AND FIVE THE RHYTHM QUICKENS REACHING
A CLIMAX- THIS IS THE REVERSAL IN FORTUNE- THE INVERSE OF
PERIPETEIA. THE ENDING IS A DIDACTIC MESSAGE, ONE OF
POSITIVITY AND CONNECTION- THE INVERSE OF A GREEK
CATASTROPHE
“AND WHO WOULD WANT IT?” ACCEPTANCE AND ANAGNORISIS, THE
PROTAGONIST REALISES THEIR FLAW. she starts at peak condition (on
stage), becomes isolated with illness (maintains connection ‘holding hands’),
isolation reaches climax and rhythm quickens, reversal in fortune as she
forges connection with reader through a direct address.
Features
➔ Prufrockian
➔ Self-deprecating confessional lyric
➔ Phatic talk
➔ Sardonic tone
➔ Semantic field of theatre
➔ Uneven stanzas with no rhyme scheme are a reflection of free thought
➔ First verse is polysemic- reminiscing on an actual performance or a
reference to the fact everyone plays a part?
➔ Fourth and fifth verse reach a faster rhythm, perhaps a climax to
➔ Lots of asyndeton- pressures of the human performance
Persona means ‘mask’. We are ‘persons’ = we wear masks. All life is an act
,● “Im” first person pronoun brings attention onto narrator
● “Observed” enjoys attention
● “Stage” extended metaphor for performing a part
● “Endless” enjambment, the push to perform your identity is imminent
and endless
● “The monstrous fabric” this is a society which is fabricated, disgusted
at how clear it is yet everyone conforms
● “Unwanted sniggers” cruel nature of society
● “Unobtrusive” juxtaposition against “observed” this is the monotony of
a barren life as a patient
● ‘Waiting room roles: driving to hospitals’ establishes contradiction of
life
● “Hospitals” asyndeton develops this monotony, prescriptive
● “Background music of civility” self depreciating or acceptance?
● “At home..at home” anaphora reflects cyclical structure of life
● “Getting on, getting better” repetition- life slips away, prepared
response. Narrator gone from main part to 4 words
● “Well-meant intrusiveness” forced to play a minor role through her
illness, she has transformed into a shell of the person she used to be
● “Bed? A good idea!” only conversation is with herself
● “Be wary what I say to it” can never express true thoughts in such a
critical and hateful society
● “Soft-centre happy-all-the-way-through novels” looking for any
positive influence in this mundane existence
● “Pretend” vs “admit” juxtaposition, sometimes the mask slips
● ‘Tears, torpor, boredom, lassitude, yearnings’ asyndeton, mounting
hardships
● “Ceremonial delays” persistent failures of NHS, there is a forced
gratitude despite the unhelpfulness
● “Drone of Chorus” reference to Oedipus Rex, sees a return to the
grandeur at the start of the poem
● “No it wouldn’t!” caesura, conflicting dichotomy between her
wellbeing, bleak but a flash of happiness
● “I am here to make you believe in life” direct address- how the
narrator faces adversity should inspire the reader, there is connection in
a poem of isolation
An easy passage by Julia Copus
,The title is perhaps ironic as the process of moving from the house or, in a
broader sense, the transition to womanhood is complicated.
This poem is based on the transition from girlhood to womanhood and plays
on the concept of liminality, the use of one lang stanza makes the process
arduous, drawn out and awkward.
Perhaps, in terms of relationships, the phrase ‘half in love’ implies the girl is an
unrealised lesbian who is in transition (liminality) through denying and
realising her sexuality. Alternatively, this is a relationship that is forbidden by
her parents which she continues to pursue, disrupting the relationship and
trust with her parents.
Also critical of ageing, ‘life is first boredom, then fear’ -Larkin. As you grow
older, life only really gets worse
Features
➔ Passage from terra firma
➔ Passage from exterior to interior
➔ ‘Rite de passage’ French for rite of passage: the movement from
childhood to adulthood
➔ Liminal (the state or the moment between two states) images
➔ Intimations of lesbian love
➔ One long, free-verse stanza reflects the progression of time but also its
inevitability as there are no pauses
➔ Voyeuristic (sexual pleasure gained from watching another).
Themes
★ Relationships
★ Ageing
★ Womanhood
★ Time
● ‘Halfway up there’ is she breaking in or out? This debate is interesting
and deliberate, because it highlights how we typically focus on the end
point of a moment rather than the moment itself
● ‘She is half in love’ homosexual? Perhaps why her parents don't trust
her
● ‘In a moment’ the use of time adverbs without punctuation highlights
the inevitability of one moment to the next
● ‘Her tiny breasts’ she is pre-pubescent, but the noun ‘breasts’ implies
that they are there and will grow
, ● ‘The way the world admits us less and less the more we grow’
rhetorical question, as women grow older they are viewed as less
valuable
● ‘Only for them’ plural, def fruity x
● ‘In the drab electroplating factory’ this girl will age into a mundane
job yet she longs to age out of her current, enthralling life
● ‘Or the trip of a lifetime’ as you age, you long for the moments of
escapism which free you from the harsh reality of your own existence
● ‘Stirring omens of the astrology column’ as you age, you become
fearful of the future and death <3
● ‘Flash of armaments’ time moves in a flash, liminality
● ‘Gracefully into the shade of the house’ ambiguous- not about
outcome, but the process
Liminality
Liminality is a state of transition between one stage and the next, especially
between major stages in one's life or during a rite of passage. The concept of
liminality was first developed and is used most often in the science of
anthropology (the study of human origins, behaviour, and culture).
Edward Hopper
Painted realistic scenes from everyday life. As you
look closer and try to discern details of the people,
you become aware that you are watching as an
onlooker, almost voyeuristic. This makes you feel
uncomfortable as you feel almost sinister.
Chainsaw versus the pampas grass- Simon Armitage
Armitage describes a relentless attempt to remove pampas grass from his
garden, yet even after all the work the pampas grass grows back. If the grass
was to be a symbol for the bourgeois, then its growing back displays the
impermeability of the class hierarchy and yet also the difficulty of removing this
class barrier.
Confronts traditional country house poets, writing back to the poetic elites.
What humans want vs what nature will permit
Pampas grass= personified Chainsaw= zoomorphic
