“Andrina” Additional Notes
Page 327
Paragraphs 1– 5
Effective Opening
First person narrative allows the reader inside Torvald’s head
“Andrina”
Story begins with the focus firmly on Andrina herself
“every afternoon”
Conscientious aspect of Andrina is stressed early
“before it gets dark” As above – Andrina somehow knows when to arrive in order to
be needed – element of the supernatural? Heightening of
tension.
“lights . . . sets the peat . . . sees . . . fusses . . . puts . .
Series of active verbs – present tense allows the reader to
follow her activities - Andrina is always solicitous in caring for
Torvald / administering to his needs.
“me . . . my . . . I”
Hints at Torvald’s introspection – self absorption – Andrina
may be the one doing the work but he is of main concern
“That good Andrina” Adjective is slightly patronising in tone – Torvald quite willing
to exploit Andrina’s ministrations
“Every afternoon in Winter”
Early reference to seasons / annual calendar – begins with
Winter and its connotations of death / darkness / lack of hope
etc
“I throw”
Again emphasis on the first person – active verb – violent
even? - Torvald is quick to undo any good Andrina has done
Mix myself . .”
Quick to see to his own needs – capable of doing so? – Less
concerned with health and wellbeing than pandering to his
weaknesses and/or sense of personal enjoyment – selfish given
Andrina’s earlier efforts? Alliteration for emphasis – suggests
forcefulness
. . . chapters of Conrad”
Keen to impress reader with his intellectual tastes? – Travel
writer – reference perhaps to his love of travel – the sea
“very bad cold”
(Not . . . appetite)
Pathetic? Self pitying?
Use of parenthesis used as a thin disguise for his careful
insertion of detail – wants to enlist the reader’s sympathy
“Shuddering . . crawled”
Over dramatic picture of his suffering – verbs suggest a near
death experience that appears to far outweigh the common cold.
Language has unsavoury connotations – sense of fear?
“Towards the end of February”
Early identification of theme of rebirth / regeneration –
February still dark / cold but moving towards the end of the
month hints at the inevitable moving on of the seasons.
“forced . .
drank hot, ugly tea”
Again both verb and adjectives highlight his self-pitying
tendencies. Deliberate poisoning of a perfectly pleasant
exercise – always with Torvald there is a need to see the
negative and paint his circumstances as worse than they are.
“Well . .Andrina”
“Still . . . the girl”
Lack of enthusiasm although clearly it is the event he looks
forward to most – “well” in particular demeaning / patronising
– he accepts her visits in a somewhat lordly way – already there
is a question in the reader’s mind as to why she comes –
George Mackay Brown gift of the storyteller evident in the
opening paragraphs.
As above “the girl” suggests Andrina is there to serve his ends
and minister to him rather than a human being in her own right.
Opening section ends, as it started, with the emphasis firmly on
Andrina herself.
* * * *
Paragraphs 6 – 11
*
Non Appearance of Andrina – Heightening of Tension
“Andrina did not come that afternoon”
Monosyllabic / negative – early stirrings of tension – why has
Andrina not arrived?
“I expected . . . accepted”
Verbs again show Torvald’s lack of sensitivity towards Andrina
– he is the one who expects and accepts – realistic picture of
character is being built up.
Page 328
“head throbbingly wooden . . feet flashing with cold pain . . . teeth actually clacked”
Again melodramatic / over the top / adjective and verbs build
up picture of drama / tension.
“She did not come.” Monosyllabic – terse / dramatic – something is wrong –
carefully the seeds of tension / suspense are built up
“She did not come again on the third afternoon”
Single sentence paragraph – repetition of previous sentence –
build up of tension as above.
Illness and Recovery
“I, woke, tremblingly, like a ghost in a hollow stone”
Adverb / simile build up picture of heightened discomfort –
ghost-like imagery provides interesting hint of the supernatural.
“black night”
Again dark / unforgiving language, this time through use of
adjective
“Wind soughed in the chimney.”
Description effectively building up a picture of negative / harsh
/ unwelcoming external conditions – Torvald very much alone
(as he sees it!) in his illness – series of short sentences
heightens pace / drama. Scottish language contributes to
effectiveness of description
I experienced, over again, some of the dull and sordid events of my life”
Sense of guilt? Idea that the Past cannot be escaped – Torvald
haunted by things he has been responsible for years earlier –
sense of mystery – what could they have been?
“Stanley the postman . . . I have never liked that postman – a servile lickspittle”
Unfriendly / quick to judge – postman is simply doing his job
(I am a person of small consequence)
(He would not, as I had briefly hoped)
Again the pretence at asides via parenthesis
“I imagined . . .Captain Scott . . few last words”
Parallel to Conrad reference earlier – links himself to famous
explorers – a need to impress – dissatisfaction with the way his
life has gone.
“It was as if I had been betrayed – deliberately kicked when I was down . . . Why had
my friend left me in my bad time?”
Ironic – feels betrayed – significant given his treatment of
Sigrid all these years ago.
Page 329
“I knew nothing about Andrina at all. I had never asked and she had said nothing.
What . . .? Had she . . .?
Sense of mystery surrounding Andrina and her non-appearance
subtly built up – reader very keen to know more.
“I presented to her character somewhere between Captain Cook and Captain Hook”
See earlier comment on Conrad / Captain Scott – always keen
to over glamorise himself / present himself as a brave explorer.
“She had put a white look and a cold kiss on my cheek, and gone out at the door”
Cold / ghostlike adjectives a clear contrast to earlier reference
to light and warmth used to describe Andrina / her actions – a
clear hint that things are about to be very different – again
effective development of mystery / suspense.
Page 330
The Love Story
Third Person Narration – clear distancing in terms of time and
place. Appears frivolous / unrealistic / silly even – language
contributes to this picture of events.
“In the island, fifty years ago, a young man and a young
woman came together”
Nostalgic / sentimentalised / distant – echo of the fairytale –
Once upon a time . . .
“early summer”
Connotations of romance / hope / young love
“soaked in the light of a single brief summer”
Excessive / gushing / unconvincing?
“once this idyll of a summer was ended”
Again reference to dream / lack of reality etc
“towards the end of that summer”
Hope dying out – sense of the end?
Thereafter . .cruel and pathetic . .Canada or Australia or South Africa – anywhere”
Nature of the betrayal by Torvald made clear – need to escape /
no desire to stand by Sigrid – harsh language a stark contrast
with the whimsical opening.
Page 331
“Tina Stewart the postmistress knew everybody and everything: all the shifting subtle
web of relationship in the island”
Gentle reminder of shared experience of island life with which
GMB would have been familiar – real sense of collective
responsibility and shared interests and goal – genuine sense of
community which is being lost – and which Torvald betrayed?
“There was nobody of that name – woman or girl or child” – Tina convinced – and
she would know! – no such woman exists – again sense of mystery heightened
further.
“Isaac Irving knows the island and its people, if anything, even better than Tina
Stewart”
Again sense of community stressed and again a local character
rejects Andrina’s existence.
* * * * *
Page 332/333
Concluding Paragraphs
“March airs were moving over the island”
Beginning of Spring – sense of rebirth / renewal – not yet
complete but emerging – the seasons will always move on –
Life really does continue, no matter how difficult one’s
circumstances
The Letter
Traces Sigrid’s life and the birth of Andrina who according to the letter died mid
October, prior to her visiting Torvald – significantly she died “in the first stirrings of
Spring” suggesting hope and renewal as they settled in Australia – a clever twist.
Page 333
Final Paragraph
“Later, over the fire” Comforting image – we leave Torvald in a more positive frame
of mind, rather that surrounded by cold / illness as we saw
earlier.
“Brightness and burgeoning”
Andrina explicitly associated with hope / regeneration
“latest winter, night after night”
Again consistent care of Andrina is stressed, as in the early
paragraphs of the short story.
“always come with the first shadows and the first star”
Reference to “shadows” perhaps a suggestion of the
supernatural and star likewise.
“where she was dust, a new time was brightening earth and sea”
Very positive / optimistic final sentence – Andrina may have
gone but her memory “brightens” – reference to light a positive
use of the very a “new” time with associations of newbirth,
regeneration and life inevitably moving on. The final
reference to “earth and sea” leaves the short story with a sense
of nature moving on and controlling in a positive way our lives
and and our futures.