What is the significance in the way Barry uses description in the narrative?

1. 4. Gothic imagery • ‘The storm was still howling’- Mirrors her cries when giving birth and her baby’s first breath ‘howled out in miniature’ - Wolf-like and animalistic. • ‘I pulled myself onto all fours… and weak as a newborn foal myself’ – she is a baby again, reliving her own birth, animalistic behaviour dehumanises herself – instinctive nature of mother. • ‘…without real thought, bit the cord’ – instinctive nature of animals – cannibalism • ‘Even the storm seemed to draw its breath in silence, there was a silence.’ – pathetic fallacy, the storm and the sea are symbiotically connected to Roseanne and her baby. • 2. Location Symbolism (AO2 structure) • Parallelism between Roseanne’s divine dream in Chapter Twenty and her description of Sligo in Chapter One: ‘ a little fresh river at the bottom… as I stepped into the river… the water cleaned me.’ – ‘There was a black river that flowed through the town… the river also took the rubbish down to the sea’ • Theme of religion amplified with the idea of baptism - Roseanne is cleansed from her sins before she passes on to heaven • Theme of belonging - brings element of home into her new world/ ‘Utopia’ • Theme of Liberation - she is freed from her old life by giving herself a voice in her scriptures • Typical of Post-Modern novel - Roseanne ends where she begins. Shakespeare’s ‘Seven Ages of Man’: ‘Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion.’ • Distorts Todorov’s theory of a beginning, middle and end • Physically does not leave the hospital where she starts her narration and where she comes to an untimely demise • Metaphorically begins with the river in Sligo and then passes on to another world in her dream crossing yet another river - she ends where she begins - however in her scriptures she is dynamic and tells of her past as she is physically stationary yet she is moving in her memories • Introduction • Symbolic meaning of location • Characterisation- Father Gaunt • Synaesthesia- quality of memory • Gothic imagery- animalistic description • 3. Characterisation (AO2 Lang) • Father Gaunt pg 231: ‘Neat, black, clean and strange.’ • Use of asyndeton to gradually construct image of Father Gaunt is very structured and routine similar to Father Gaunt’s character • Fragmented and sharp in syntax- different to the other sentences in Roseanne’s stream of conscious - he disrupts her life • Triadic structure of adjectives ‘neat, black, clean’ – sense of faith in Roseanne as this is in relation to the Holy Trinity • ‘strange’ - indicative of theme of alienation - ironic because although he alienates her from Sligo for being different, he is viewed as strange as well What is the significance in the way Barry uses description in the narrative? • 6. Conclusion • Human V animal • Normal V strange • Belonging V alienation • It’s subjective – what is normal? What is human? • Description is therefore used to enhance the human senses and make the narrative more verisimilitudinous. It heightens the climax of the novel and makes the reader relate to Roseanne and her story better. • 5. Synaesthesia • ‘The mother’s bungalow was nice enough but it smelled of boiling lamb – sacrificial animal, relates to religion and to Roseanne who feels weak and innocent.