Five-Twenty by Patrick White
About the authorFrom TheGuardian online
Patrick White was one of those writers who won the Nobel prize for literature because he really deserved it. But it is interesting that despite his genius and international reception, he was not beloved in Australia, where the 100th anniversary of his birth has just been celebrated. White was a natural gnostic – he believed people were divided between, on the one hand, those who know, and perceive the world with a tentative, costly but exacting sharpness and delicacy; and on the other, the mass of chancers and doltish worthies who seem to flourish in it. In White, the meek certainly don't inherit the earth, nor is the earth worthy of them. It is a fallen place. His writing is often set in a bitter landscape and characters often move with obvious doom written on their foreheads . His world is a harsh Australia, a netherworld. It is the essence of all that made White, throughout his life, doubly alienated, as a European soul in a philistine place, and as a homosexual in a wilderness of assertive heterosexuality. White's skill is to make these characters, anguished as they are, engrossing. He constructs refined traps of plots, by which the venal are cast down and the noble thwarted in their escape attempts, and looks back on a different kind of nobility. |
In a nutshell:
An old couple sit out at the same time every day and watch the traffic: everyone is locked into their own quiet patterns, with the monotony of existence made clear. However, for the couple, it is the one thing that they share as it briefly unites them. The woman is passive, lacks self confidence and has sacrificed her life and identity to the ego of her arrogant, bitter husband, Royal. In a series of stream of consciousness flashbacks, we see this reflected throughout their relationship. However, as these come closer to the present, her husband loses his masculine power and becomes an invalid -- as a result, the protagonist grows in independence. She becomes fixated with a man driving a pink Holden who has a hair-lip (so obvious parallels between his physical deformity and her emotional deformity, not to mention Royal's wheelchair and how that deforms/emasculates him). Royal dies. There is a lot of stuff about flowers - the only thing that has clearly reflected her feminine identity and arguably a substitute for children in the way she proudly nurtures them and how they degrade with her own developing frailty. She is briefly adrift when Royal dies as her sole purpose has been to provide for him. Seemingly randomly, her world collides with the Holden driver and they have a sudden explosion of attraction. He promises to meet her at the same time next day, which she prepares for almost like a bride on her wedding day, re-feminising herself. He turns up late, has a heart attack and dies. The end.
People are trapped and isolated by their roles. Happiness is an illusion or an impossibility. Life is bleak and hopeless.
Another uplifting story from Cambridge.
PRIORITY: I really, really dislike this story as a reader, However, in terms of playing the revision game, this is - grudgingly - pretty high (it gives you an aging perspective and ticks a lot of boxes). It is easy to engage with the thematic ideas about the Big Depressing Stuff and there are loads of technical and language features that you can analyse.
POSSIBLE ESSAY PAIRINGS WITH:
An old couple sit out at the same time every day and watch the traffic: everyone is locked into their own quiet patterns, with the monotony of existence made clear. However, for the couple, it is the one thing that they share as it briefly unites them. The woman is passive, lacks self confidence and has sacrificed her life and identity to the ego of her arrogant, bitter husband, Royal. In a series of stream of consciousness flashbacks, we see this reflected throughout their relationship. However, as these come closer to the present, her husband loses his masculine power and becomes an invalid -- as a result, the protagonist grows in independence. She becomes fixated with a man driving a pink Holden who has a hair-lip (so obvious parallels between his physical deformity and her emotional deformity, not to mention Royal's wheelchair and how that deforms/emasculates him). Royal dies. There is a lot of stuff about flowers - the only thing that has clearly reflected her feminine identity and arguably a substitute for children in the way she proudly nurtures them and how they degrade with her own developing frailty. She is briefly adrift when Royal dies as her sole purpose has been to provide for him. Seemingly randomly, her world collides with the Holden driver and they have a sudden explosion of attraction. He promises to meet her at the same time next day, which she prepares for almost like a bride on her wedding day, re-feminising herself. He turns up late, has a heart attack and dies. The end.
People are trapped and isolated by their roles. Happiness is an illusion or an impossibility. Life is bleak and hopeless.
Another uplifting story from Cambridge.
PRIORITY: I really, really dislike this story as a reader, However, in terms of playing the revision game, this is - grudgingly - pretty high (it gives you an aging perspective and ticks a lot of boxes). It is easy to engage with the thematic ideas about the Big Depressing Stuff and there are loads of technical and language features that you can analyse.
POSSIBLE ESSAY PAIRINGS WITH:
- Yellow Wallpaper (oppression of women by patriarchy, change, isolation, unbreakable cycle, conflict);
- Games at Twilight (childhood, innocence lost, change, isolation, gender, age/youth);
- Journey (age/youth, oppression of women by patriarchy, change, isolation, colours and physical symbols)
- Secrets (memory, age/youth, relationships, women in society, change, isolation, isolation, guilt
- The Lemon Orchard (oppression, isolation, natural imagery and objects as symbolic elements)
Other resources:
Student-made prezis below:
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Student-made prezis below:
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Ways of Seeing
Feminist perspective
The male figure is distant, powerful, arrogant and bitter. The female protagonist lives a life of quiet suffering and isolation. Royal is a distant, judgemental, arrogant patriarch who uses her but shows little care or love. He limits her power, dimishes her personal identity and witholds from her the only thing she really wanted (a child, which again reinforces how women are trained to see themselves only as wives and mothers). Over time, she becomes an almost materal figure to him, and ironically, she gains power and independence through this.
Just as she watches people trapped in traffic and isolated from human contact, locked into the same monotonous routine, so we see how her life mirrors this experience.
Instead of becoming empowered by the independence she gains with her husband's death, Mrs Natwick crumbles, reflecting how women in society are defined by the men in their lives. She only reasserts herself and becomes a strong and independent character when she finds apparent love with a new man, again defining herself by her potential relationship. Her love literally dies before her, symbolising the end of any potential happiness; again, beyond the obvious isolation issues, this reinforces how women are seen as helpless without the strength and purpose given to them by a relationship with a man.
Heavy symbolism to explore:
- The cinerarias
- Shrivelled flowers
- The lipstick (phallic imagery)
- The tunnel (imagery of sexual desire)
- Her voice and how it changes
Depressing things worth considering: despite the fact that the protaganist is clearly old, she sees herself in the same way she always has. For instance, the narrative mainly refers to her as 'Ella' or even 'little Ella'; in the stream-of-consciousness flashbacks, the term 'Mrs Natwick' is used to refer to Royal's mother, whereas in the present narrative 'Mrs Natwick' is used - mainly by others - to refer to the protaganist as she is seen as an old woman and the title shows how her identity is dependent on being Royal Natwick's wife. What does this say about the journey from youth to age? Consider the patterns of behaviour and how her emotional and physical needs change or stay the same.
Rough thematic areas: gender identity, patriarchy, transition, growing up, loss of innocence, powerlessness, age and youth, isolation.
Enquiry
1) Collate the most important sensory elements/images. What techniques are used and how can these be seen as metaphors?
2) These are not the only ones, but you may want to specifically explore : The cinerarias, ; the description of domestic/farm animals in a female way, Shrivelled flowers/'the wreckage of her garden', The dropped egg on the side path, The lipstick (phallic imagery), The tunnel (imagery of sexual desire), Her voice and how/when it changes
3) p221 - look at how the pronouns and verbs emphasise her passivity eg 'she liked him to tel her about the vehicles'. What does this show about the character and about females in society/relationships? Next, look for where males or females seem active or passive: when, how and why does this change? What does this reflect?
4) Look for instances where she holds in her emotions (typically associated with male behaviour). What does this show? How can this be compared to the interior truths/exterior appearances in other stories (such as The Yellow Wallpaper)?
5) p 222 When the man in the pink holden is first introduced, Royal and Ella judge him according to societal gender expectations. How do they do this? In what ways is this ironic?
6) How is Royal made to be unsympathetic and antagonistic through both his behaviour towards Ella and how others see him? You may want to start by looking at White's use of hypophora on p223 and how he uses dialogue to reflect Royal's lack of empathy. Given how deeply unpleasant he is, and how there is even implied adultery (top of p225), why does Ella disintegrate so much when he dies? What is White commenting on about the human condition through this?
7) Although Ella repeatedly makes sacrifices for Royal, giving him the best, it can be argued that White actually strengthens her and emasculates him. Look for instances of this and comment on the effect in terms of character and societal comment. You may want to start by looking at p223 about the fillet and the chump chop...
8) In what ways are the cinerarias a metaphor for Ella or her feelings?
9) In what ways do the trapped drivers reflect Ella's life and what is Patrick White reflecting about our lives/society/relationships through this? You may want to look at the bottom of p230, the middle of p227 ('the way he held hs hands...possums or monkeys in cages'),
10) Compare the sexualised events/imagery with a) Royal and b) the Holden driver. Explore how White shows her independence and suppressed rage in the former (3/4 down on p225), compared to the latter.
11) How and why does White juxtapose age and youth as she prepares to meet the Holden driver. What is he saying about identity or mortality? You might want to link it to exploration of p236 'you would shrivel up in time along with the polyanthers and out-off-season hibiscus'.
12) While the new relationship seems improbable and coincidental, the idea of fate offering happiness and hope, only to crush it before it had the chance to develop (or flower...) is important in terms of what White is conveying about our lives. You might want to consider the comment in The Guardian that in White's work, 'the noble are thwarted in their escape attempts'. Discuss the effect of the death in terms of these ideas - pay attention to the last line: 'she hadn't had time to ask his name, before she must have killed him by loving too deep, and too adulterously', Try and look at this from different viewpoints (eg lack of control over our own fates, isolation, feminism etc).
1) Collate the most important sensory elements/images. What techniques are used and how can these be seen as metaphors?
2) These are not the only ones, but you may want to specifically explore : The cinerarias, ; the description of domestic/farm animals in a female way, Shrivelled flowers/'the wreckage of her garden', The dropped egg on the side path, The lipstick (phallic imagery), The tunnel (imagery of sexual desire), Her voice and how/when it changes
3) p221 - look at how the pronouns and verbs emphasise her passivity eg 'she liked him to tel her about the vehicles'. What does this show about the character and about females in society/relationships? Next, look for where males or females seem active or passive: when, how and why does this change? What does this reflect?
4) Look for instances where she holds in her emotions (typically associated with male behaviour). What does this show? How can this be compared to the interior truths/exterior appearances in other stories (such as The Yellow Wallpaper)?
5) p 222 When the man in the pink holden is first introduced, Royal and Ella judge him according to societal gender expectations. How do they do this? In what ways is this ironic?
6) How is Royal made to be unsympathetic and antagonistic through both his behaviour towards Ella and how others see him? You may want to start by looking at White's use of hypophora on p223 and how he uses dialogue to reflect Royal's lack of empathy. Given how deeply unpleasant he is, and how there is even implied adultery (top of p225), why does Ella disintegrate so much when he dies? What is White commenting on about the human condition through this?
7) Although Ella repeatedly makes sacrifices for Royal, giving him the best, it can be argued that White actually strengthens her and emasculates him. Look for instances of this and comment on the effect in terms of character and societal comment. You may want to start by looking at p223 about the fillet and the chump chop...
8) In what ways are the cinerarias a metaphor for Ella or her feelings?
9) In what ways do the trapped drivers reflect Ella's life and what is Patrick White reflecting about our lives/society/relationships through this? You may want to look at the bottom of p230, the middle of p227 ('the way he held hs hands...possums or monkeys in cages'),
10) Compare the sexualised events/imagery with a) Royal and b) the Holden driver. Explore how White shows her independence and suppressed rage in the former (3/4 down on p225), compared to the latter.
11) How and why does White juxtapose age and youth as she prepares to meet the Holden driver. What is he saying about identity or mortality? You might want to link it to exploration of p236 'you would shrivel up in time along with the polyanthers and out-off-season hibiscus'.
12) While the new relationship seems improbable and coincidental, the idea of fate offering happiness and hope, only to crush it before it had the chance to develop (or flower...) is important in terms of what White is conveying about our lives. You might want to consider the comment in The Guardian that in White's work, 'the noble are thwarted in their escape attempts'. Discuss the effect of the death in terms of these ideas - pay attention to the last line: 'she hadn't had time to ask his name, before she must have killed him by loving too deep, and too adulterously', Try and look at this from different viewpoints (eg lack of control over our own fates, isolation, feminism etc).