The Dress - af Julia Darling

Jeg har i dag været oppe i årsprøve i skriftlig engelsk B, og til del B i den del med hjælpemidler fik vi teksten The Dress af Julia Darling. Jeg er lidt spændt på hvordan det er gået, og ikke mindst resultatet, da jeg ikke føler mig særlig god til engelsk. Mit spørgsmål er om nogle kunne læse den i gennem, og evt. kommentere og vurdere den ? :) Tak på forhånd ...

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The Dress

We – the people are very different from each other. Some of us are like each other, but some of us are very different. Some of us have some common points, even though maybe with some we do not like. Sometimes some of us do something worse, like stealing and robbing etc. In this text we meet two girls; two sisters who do not like each other, but still have common points together; they both like the same dress, and then one of them steals her sister’s dress, leads it to a very unbelievable end – the both girls leave the home.

”The Dress” is written by Julia Darling in 2006. The text is about a woman and her two girls; Rachel and Flora. It mainly takes place at home, and in an expensive restaurant, where the mother celebrate her birthday with her two daughters. The act happens precisely in a day; from morning till night. The text is written in a third person narrative, with an omniscient view, because the narrator knows everything, and we learn about the person’s thoughts; “She would return the dress later, she thought” . The text is contains especially the two girls thoughts about each other; “Rachel would get over it. And that night it was their mother’s birthday and Rachel would not be able to shout at her” . Both the mother and the two sisters are main characters, because they have an important role in the story, and there is a subordinate character; Alberto, who is Flora’s Italian friend. Alberto has not a bigger importance in the story, and it does that it is a subordinate character, and thereby also a flat character. The text did not contain flashbacks.

The atmosphere in the text is exactly very cold between the two sisters, and the mother is a little bite remained, but sometimes she also turn op to the discussions between her daughters.
The mother is a bereavement counselor, has 2 daughters, and is possibly divorced from her husband, since they did not live together; Rachel wants to leave the home, she called her father “… She called her father, and asked if she could stay with him.” To her fortieth birthday she was wearing in a harsh black dress and bright red earrings, which gives us an idea that she is a neat woman and in addition, she haves black hair. At her birthday, she wanted to relax, and wanted to feel loved. She feels that she is old, and think that she might leave her job like a bereavement counselor, and do something like jewels instead. Sometimes she sounds like a teacher, when she talks with her daughters; harsh and unforgiving.

The two sisters, Rachel and Flora have - very obviously - not a well relationship, and already in the start of the short story, we are presented with Rachel, who screams her sister’s name several times, because her sister has lent her dress; or correct defined, her sister has steeled her dress. Their mother describes their communication like this: “Communication between her daughters was often like this: barbed and dangerous” , and it is also confirmed; “I never took your fucking dress! Shouted Flora” Rachel says also, that she never wants to see her sister again, and that she hates her anyway, which is not something to hear among sisters – it is in any case not ordinary. The two sisters did not like each other, but they have common point; they both like the dress.

The story is structured thus, that the events are presented in chronological order and we, the readers get knowledge to the turning point last in the story; where Flora tells that she buried the dress in the garden, because the front of the dress was stained horribly, and then she and Alberto try to clean it, it just made it worse.

I think that the themes in the text are first and foremost stealing and relationship between sisters. The message in the text is, that nothing would be hiding forever, and that everything would turn up at a later date. The message is also, that we should not do things like stealing; neither not small things, because it can leads to bigger problems, like in this story, where both sisters leave the home.
Thus I can conclude, that the short story “The Dress” is mainly about the sisters relationship, and what a little thing like a dress can leads to.