Hej er der nogen der vil se min skriftlig engelsk eksamen på A niveau igennem?

The short story “In the National Gallery”(2007) by Doris Lessing is about an I person and a man in the sixties who is reminded of his unattainable love from his youth when he sees a young French girl who is like the girl he loved.
In the text we are dealing with a first person narrative who is taking of a free hour in the National Gallery. The I person is biased on some points which, however, doesn’t have any importance to the story e.g. “Well-behaved girls should not mock and giggle in a public gallery” The short story is taking place over a short period of time probably not more than an hour or two. The story is also focusing on a single event which is very characteristic for short stories. The main characters are the I person, whom we don’t get the name or age of, and the man who is sitting next to him. The sixteen years old French girl is also playing a major role in the story but she is only being watched.
The story is simply about the narrator who is, through inner monologue, at first only describing what he can se and hear the two men who sits next to him is talking about. The narrator starts talking with the old man after they have been staring at the gorgeous French girl. The narrator has a good understanding with the man, which is seen e.g. on line 77 where he immediately understands how the man’s situation must have been. Both sitting on the bench keeps on staring at the girl and talking about her and the man’s earlier love. When the girl is leaving the old man decides to follow her and then the narrator tells the possible consequences of it. It is not worth the candle in his opinion. As readers we are left without a resolution and a curiosity of what would happen to the old man.
The language is low-keyed. It resembles spoken language among other things because the text is marked by dialogue. There are used simple words, but there are some words which differ from the degree of difficulty compared to rest of the text. E.g. on line 48 where the word “vivacious” is used but what’s funny here is that the word is described by a synonym in the same sentence, a word later (“so lively”). Part of the text is written in paratactic style which is a literary technique that favours short and simple coordinated main clauses which is especially seen in the dialogues. The paratactic style is very close to the spoken language that’s also why it seems more natural to use it in dialogues.
The narrator is making use of similes i.e. on l. 122: …”, for elation rises in them like bubbles in liquid…” In this example the narrator is drawing a comparison between liquid and girls.
The text is smeared in adjectives adverbs especially when the narrator describes the girls and what they are doing.
The narrator must be past 40 because he has the time to sit and discuss with an unknown old man, which normally young people don’t prefer and have time to and finally because of the fact that he is talking on the same level as the elder man.
If we take a look at the horse painting by George Stubbs and Ronald Moody’s sculpture “The Onlooker” we can find two of the character from the short story, precisely the French girl as the horse who is very effervescent and attractive but at the same time very dangerous like what a horse can be. The colour red is the colour for love and blood. So she is capable of giving love and absorbing the spirit from men. The sculpture could be the narrator who is sitting as an onlooker and looking, he is not very prominent like the colour grey from the sculpture.
Our third character, the old man, can be found in “There eyes were watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston as the women who “…forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget”. The old man forgets his age and everything when he sees this young girl who looks like the girl he was in love with when he was a child. He starts to live out his dream and act like he is capable of getting her love by following her even though it would be impossible for most of us.
B
Doris Lessing uses a first person narrative in his short story. In this story the narrator is a minor participant in the story. The first-person narrative is always directly involved in the story. Doris Lessing uses this I person to tell the story instead of a third-person even tough that he is not a part of an act or something like that. By using a first-person narrative he is more effectively getting the reader intellectually and emotionally involved. The American Poets and critics Kennedy and Gioia claim that a first-person narrator often suggests a certain bias, especially when the narrator describes events in which he or she played a part, this is not really the case in this story, the narrator remains loyal to what he see and experience. Of course he is subjective, but he is able to build up his reliability which is important if he wants us to believe in what he says. One of the things a narrator must not do in order to become reliable is to change one’s mind. The text can be split into three parts; the first one where the narrator is describing what he is going to do and why. The second part when the narrator is describing the conversation between the two men who sits next to him and his own conversation with the man while they are looking at the girl. The third part is when he describes the action the elder man takes in order to come closer to the girl.
It is not through the author Doris Lessings point of view we are told the story, but a narrator whom he creates.