Analysis «From Doctor in the house»
By Gamzatova Fatima
The extract under analysis is from the book Doctor in the house, which is
one of Richard Gordon`s twelve Doctor books. R. Gordon is English writer, who is
famous for his witty descriptions and candid humor. Many of these stories are
based on his experiences in the medical profession, so it makes them more realistic
and reliable for the readers.
The extract belongs to the belles-lettres styles. The type of narration is the
first-person narration, because the events are presented by the narrator, from his
point of view. The story is partly narrative with elements of dialogue (when the
narrator talks to his fellow Grimsdyke and to the examiners) and description of the
waiting room and the process of exam.
As for the setting of the extract, we cannot exactly state the time the events
happened, but we can guess that the events took place in London, because there are
mentions of Cambridge and the Old Bailey in the text. Local setting is an
examination building.
The main problem exposed within this story is the problem of passing final
exams. It is external conflict between students and examiners: «Examinations
touch off his fighting spirit, they are straight contest between himself and
examiners…» Throughout the text we can see students’ struggle and emotions
during the whole process.
The story describes the final examination for medical students. The narrator
believes that it touches off students’ fighting spirit and it looks like a contest
between them and the examiners. Students repeat everything and wait for the
examination, which is divided into 2 parts – written and oral. It begins with the
written papers and next is viva, which resembles Judgement day. The narrator
copes with it easily as he knows the answers for the questions. At midday
candidates gather and wait for the Secretary and his porters. They announce the
results. The narrator soon gets to know that he has passed.
The plot of the story is linear. The exposition of the story contains the general
information about medical final examinations. The tone here is ironical, as the
author of the story is looking back to the times when he was a student, when
everything felt super hard and important for him. The complication starts with the
narration about Richard`s experience of preparation for the exam. The tones here are
nervous and expecting. The climax of the story is the moment when the narrator has
passed his exam and was waiting for the results. The tones are tensed and excited.
The denouement is the moment when the narrator gets to know that he has passed.
The tones here are relieved and happy. The ending of the story is the last sentence
“Blindly, like a man just hit by a blackjack, I stumbled up”.
There are different symbols in the text. The first and main symbol is a grade,
which student will get for his examination. All the preparations and worries are
connected with the final result that candidate will achieve in the end. Expecting the
final mark was compared to having a severe accident: I began to wonder if I would
ever make a recovery and win through.
Next symbol is a textbook, which is mentioned several times in the text do
learning general medicine from their textbooks, fondling the pages of his battered
textbook in a desperate farewell embrace. It is important attribute for the student,
who is swotting up and repeating material before the examination. The epithet a
desperate farewell embrace shows how significant is the battered textbook with the
help of which they were preparing for the exams.
The main character of the story is a medical student, he is the protagonist of
the story. To describe him the author uses different stylistic devices. For example,
metaphor «I felt my stomach had been suddenly plucked from my body» which is
used by the author to illustrate the narrator`s state during the examination, to show
how nervous he was. There are some cases of simile such as I walked down the stairs
feeling as if I had just finished an eight-round fight, which also shows narrator`s
condition after exam. His friends and Grimsdyke are flat characters because they
don`t change through the story and their emotions are not shown as deep as
narrator`s.
The choice of words is structured in several layers. The first layer is neutral
words, for example sun, world, winds, man, week, day. Any literary work consists
of neutral words as the author uses them to represent the situation and events in the
way that people will easily understand. The second layer is bookish words which are
used for descriptive and aesthetic functions: flagrant, nonchalant, thenceforward.
The third layer is educational terms as the story is connected with the exam: to mark
and grade, textbooks, examiners, to fail, answer book, oral exam, written papers, to
prepare, cheating, to swot up, knowledge, tripos, viva, to pass and so on.. The fourth
layer is medical terminology words: to complain ward rounds, hood, old don,
anatomic, tetanus, to gain weight, gown. The last layer is the layer of sport terms:
fighting spirit, contest, eight-round fight, supporters of a home team, cup tip. These
words are used to create an atmosphere.:
The author widely uses different stylistic devices. Alliteration «waiting-room
with hard wooden table, and windows that wouldn`t open». The sound w is repeated
here and it adds some rhythm to the description. Metaphors like «touch off fighting
spirit, unpleasant inevitability» are used to illustrate the narrator’s point of view.
The metaphor «little shreds of success» is used to show how desperate the students
were at the end of their exam. Among the other stylistic devices, we should also
mark the use of epithets: “tiny waiting-room, desperate farewell embrace, a burly,
elderly man” they make the story more vivid and reveal the narrator’s emotional
attitude. The cases of oxymoron are also used: “with an awkward expression of
self-consciousness and superiority in their faces, the impression of frustrated
brilliance” they add some irony to the text. Periphrasis «poor victims» is used instead
of students, it also shows their condition and state during final examinations. «My
heart leaped hopefully» is a case of personification that illustrates how excited the
narrator was when he heard easy question on his oral examination.
I enjoyed reading this story because I am also a student and the narrator`s
feelings towards his final examinations are very familiar for me.