The analyzed text is the short story called ‘Waiting for the Police’ by J. Jefferson Farjeon.
He was an English crime and mystery novelist, playwright and screenwriter.
The mood that is prevalent in the story is involving. The story told by characters
and the author, in the first and third person. It’s the beginning of the 20 th century. We can
guess the time period, because of a modern invention which is present in the story: a
Telephone. The story is set in a boarding house.
In this story we’ve got six main characters: Mrs Mayton the owner of the boarding
house, Monty Smith a polite man, Miss Wicks an old lady who loves knitting, Bella
Randall a young lovely lady, Mr Calthrop the middle-aged man who has problems with
his sleep and Mr Penbury the smartest of them all, but really cold.
The story consists of four different parts: the first part begins with the inquiry about
Mr Wainwright, the second with the entrance of the Mr Penbury and his message that Mr.
Wainwright is dead, the third with the different alibis of all the characters and the final
part where Miss Wicks admits that she killed Mr Wainwright.
The story opens with idle discussion about where Mr. Wainwright has gone and at
the same time author introduces the main characters. “But life - and particularly evening
life -was notoriously dull in her boarding-house, and every now and again one tried to
whip up a little interest.” The last phrase is used here as a foreshadowing for the future
events in this story. The author continues to present new characters and at the same time
he describes them in third person narration, and uses a lot of interesting stylistic devices.
For instance, in the part where Monty Smith is introduced the author uses a simile: “he
was as polite as he was pale”, and right after that “and he always did his best to keep any ball
rolling”. Here the metaphor is used to show that despite the fact that he is not really
interested in that discussion, he tried his best to show some interest. If we speak about
Mrs Wicks, the hyperbole is used for humorous effect: She had knitted for seventy years,
and looked good for another seventy. Bella is introduced here as a young lovely lady, the
beauty of the boarding house, but, as the author describes “no one had taken advantage
of the fact”. This way author shows us that no one is really interested in her. Next Mr
Calthrop “joined in the thinking without any idea what he was thinking” here is a paradox
used to create humorous effect and characterise this middle aged man.
Further on, the author present us Mr Penbury. Hyperbole is used to show us the
difference between him and other people in the boarding house: “He possessed a brain,
and since no one understood it when he used it, it was resented.” Not long afterwards,
Mr Penbury tells all the people in the room that Mr Wainwright is dead.
Sure enough, the effect was instantaneous and galvanic. Mrs Mayton’s eyes
became two startled glass marbles – here a metaphor is used, Mr Calthrop, in a split
second, lost all inclination to doze – here a hyperbole and finally in Miss Wicks’ case yet
another hyperbole “She had promised to knit at her funeral.” All these stylistic devices
are used here to indicate the force of that event.
To make the situation even more dreadful, the author used another hyperbole in the
Penbury’s answer: “He is rather a nasty mess.”. After that long pause, they begin to think
about what to do next and what to tell the police.
From this point on, Mr Penbury begins to retell all the events in his alibi, and here
author uses first person narration. That alibi did not satisfy Mr Calthrop and the author
indicates that with personification: “Well, I call that a rotten alibi!”
Then everyone starts giving their alibis and reasons why they cannot be the killer.
Miss Wicks' turn comes and she tells it like it is. In her monologue, the author uses
foreshadowing: Oh, that irritating cough! How it gets on one's nerves, doesn't it?
Her mood changed drastically during the story, when Mr Penbury asked her to continue.
Here, author used a lot of hyperboles.
“Monty felt perspiration dripping down his neck. Bella twined her fingers together
to prevent herself from shrieking.” And after that a personification
“the steel points of the needles making the only sound in the room. They seemed
to be doing a venomous dance.” She told how she killed Mr Wainwright. At this point the
story gets creepy, until the author adds the cough of Mr. Wainwright.
And with that the reader should understand everything.