Characterisation in The Shipping News
Proulx has the ability to elicit empathy and affection for deeply flawed human beings. The reader is always curious to hear what the characters will say or do next. Each disclosure is surprising, tantalising and unique.
The Shipping News:
- A novel that depicts a community with no fixed points: relationships in a state of flux, weather that changes overnight
- Characters are people aware of living with the joys of one another in the present time
- Portrayal of the local is evocative
- Characters are subtle and complex
- Depicts the importance of place and local community in defining individuality
- She defines the role of the eccentric as a way of inspiring self-knowledge and demonstrates the place of the eccentric in a small, isolated community
- Focus on the importance of home and homecoming or “the return” and shows the opposition is displacement
The Shipping News:
- A novel that depicts a community with no fixed points: relationships in a state of flux, weather that changes overnight
- Characters are people aware of living with the joys of one another in the present time
- Portrayal of the local is evocative
- Characters are subtle and complex
- Depicts the importance of place and local community in defining individuality
- She defines the role of the eccentric as a way of inspiring self-knowledge and demonstrates the place of the eccentric in a small, isolated community
- Focus on the importance of home and homecoming or “the return” and shows the opposition is displacement
QUOYLE
- An everyman, an unsympathetic character who we gain affection for, an unlikely hero, unheroic, unlikely protagonist but compelling all the same, he affects a transformation along with the setting - Undergoes psychological and spiritual growth and demonstrates the process of change within an individual. He develops a voice, a sense of self and belonging. Who is Quoyle at the start of the novel? - Low point in Mockingburg NY - Victim of a dysfunctional family - Occasional unemployment - "a coil of rope" - Deep sense of his own inadequacy - Chronically low self-esteem - Brutally unhappy marriage - Negative outlook - Naive, passive, ugly, clumsy, lacks ambition - Chronic under-achiever - Silent, lumbering giant "This was the stuff of others' lives " - Postmodernist way of thinking - Quoyle's retreat, isolation of self - Has he retreated at the start of the novel? "The aunt had made a good case. What was left for him in Mockingburg? Unemployed, wife gone, parents deceased." - Quoyle's position in the beginning of the novel Symbolism of the knots/rope symbol - Quoyle's identity, his context and life Qouyle's "failure" and image of himself, "A great damp loaf of a body..." (approx. pg. 2) - What part does image play in the sense of who Quoyle is? Is image more a part of the larger, global world than it is in a localised one? Silence - Quoyle lets others speak and is represented through newspaper headlines/banners. - These let us know him intimately, encapsulating his thoughts and creating pathos Does Quoyle’s ‘happy ending’ reinforce a sentimentality or nostalgia for the local? |
AGNIS
- She is not marginal or peripheral. She is pivotal. - Oblique asides, fragments and allusions help the reader piece together her past and sexuality - pg. 35: “Fifteen” to end of the page. Extended metaphor and descriptive imagery lends a graphic feel to the local and global in the life of Agnis - How does her retreat differ from Quoyle’s? Consider what we know initially. - The reader has privileged access to her inner life when information is made available - Agnis, unlike Quoyle, makes the decision not to speak. She does not discuss her abuse, or her sexuality through dialogue. This does not mean she doesn’t reflect, process or deal with them on her own terms Total Education Media - The Shipping News Character Study (Agnis)
Total Education Media - The Shipping News Character Study (Quoyle)
|
Chapters to consider and use:
1-3: Opening, Quoyle and Agnis 7: The Gammy Bird 10: Nutbeem, Dennis, Jack and Agnis 14: Agnis and Wavey 20-21: Island and Poetic Navigation 24: Berry Picking 25: Oil and Quoyle’s voice 28: Agnis’ revelation 36: Cousin Nolan’s confirmation 38: Quoyle and Agnis Total Education Media - The Shipping News Character Study (Other Characters)
|