“Cal” by Bernard MacLaverty
Key Quotes (in reverse)
Central Concerns: the affect of
sectarianism on the individual AND guilt
(these are also connected)
“The next morning, Christmas Eve,
almost as if he expected it, the police
arrived to arrest him and he stood in a
dead-man’s Y-fronts listening to the
charge, grateful that at last someone
was going to beat him to within an
inch of his life”
CONTEXT
This is the last paragraph of the novel.
Crilly and Skeffington will have
informed the police of Cal’s involvement
in Robert Morton’s murder (in revenge
for informing on them for the bomb in
the library).
THEME 1 – he has been drawn into
violence and is now in trouble.
THEME 2 – he is “grateful” – which
seems ironic - but we know that CAL
had difficulty dealing with his guilt.
CHARACTER – this is a final pathetic
image of CAL. He is wearing the
underwear of his victim. You can see
how this would appear to Marcella and
the police. We, the readers, understand
that he does feel remorse for his
involvement – but it look as if he has
capitalized on the murder by moving in
on a vulnerable widow.
“And they made love in an absolute
and intense silence”
CONTEXT – Just before his arrest the
following morning.
THEME2 – This shows that Cal and
Marcella can be together – but only
when things are left unsaid. If he
confesses, or the truth is known, their
relationship is over.
CHARACTER – throughout, Cal struggles
to articulate his thoughts and feelings.
Because of MacLaverty’s narrative
stance (third person, but from Cal’s
point of view), the reader knows what is
in Cal’s mind – even though no other
character in the novel has that
privilege.
“He wanted to share his guilt with the
person he had wronged. To commune
with her and be forgiven” p143
CONTEXT – we are told this just after
Cal has realised that Marcella’s
marriage to Robert Morton was not
completely happy.
THEME 2 – This is the closest he comes
to confessing – the reader suspects he
may then he says:
“I would like – another drink”. The
potential climax of a confession is an
anticlimax of silence.
CHARACTER – Cal is inarticulate
therefore cannot be forgiven.
“Sometimes in her presence he felt like
Quasimodo – as if the ugliness he had
done showed in his face. The brand in
the middle of his forehead would
never disappear and seemed to throb
when she was near.”
CONTEXT
This is just before he goes into her
room and violates her personal
possessions.
THEME 2 – “brand” His guilt is
permanent – it marks him out. He feels
as if his guilt is visible to others.
Compares himself with Quasimodo –
deformed and outcast.
CHARACTER – It seems ironic that the
nearer he is to Marcella – the more he
is aware of his guilt. The more it is
tangible – “throbs”. And still he is drawn
to her. This shows the root of his
confusion between guilt and love.
These were the quotes on Chapter 5.
Chapter 5 is the resolution of the plot.
It includes the anti-climax – when he
does not confess. We are denied the
opportunity of seeing how Marcella
would react.
Instead of a confession and its
aftermath, we return to the theme of
sectarianism and its effects. By the end
of the novel, Cal foils a bomb plot that
Crilly has planned – and has been finally
arrested. Cal never took control of his
own life – but was relieved when the
truth was known – as he would be able
to pay for his wrongdoing – so to deal
with is guilt.
Chapter 4
The chapter ends with a romantic
moment ruined. Marcella and Cal are
friendly - “the air is ripped apart by an
explosion”
“It was half a cow- udders, hindquarters
with muscles red-raw and still jigging”
Cal then vomits.
This quote links in with the imagery of
the abattoir. Death and violence in NI
were random, sudden and sickening. For
Cal, we know that the death of animals
reminds him of Robert Morton’s “animal
roar” when he died. The cow in this
quote was destroyed suddenly and
without warning.
Theme 1- random acts of violence
Senselessness.
“The happier Cal felt, the sadder he
became. He wanted to confess to her,
to weep and be forgiven. He saw the
scene in his mind of her holding him,
comforting him; he saw the scene as he
knew it would be in reality and it
horrified him.”
Theme 2: As they get closer Cal is
faced with a dilemma about confession.
He needs to, but cannot. This is Cal’s
main problem concerning his guilt.
“The minute Cal saw his father, he know
there had been a terrible change in him.
The man had aged twenty years in a
couple of weeks.”
Theme1 – sectarianism affects Shamie
by breaking his spirit and driving him
into a depression.
Page 106
“He got a sense of a new life, a new
start now that he had officially moved
into the cottage, He would discipline
himself. He felt a surge of power to
direct his life into whatever path he
wanted.”
PLOT – this could have been a turning
point for Cal. He gets away from the
oppression in his neighbourhood. He has
a job and a new home.
SETTING – of all the places to go to –
he chooses to go to the scene of the
crime.
CHARACTER – Cal does not manage to
change – because of Theme 1 and 2.
“He got the feeling that the house was
the earth and the cottage the moon
orbiting it.”
“Although she was light years away
from him, he felt the enormous pull of
her. And yet, like the moon and the
earth, he knew that, because of what
he had done they could never come
together. His sin kept them apart as
surely as cold space.”
This is cosmic imagery. The house like
the earth is where she is – and the
image associates her with life and
purpose. He is isolated in the cottage –
as lonely a place as the moon. He will
always “orbit” her – go round and round
at a distance – never able to touch.
There is too much space to cover – this
distance was created through his
actions.
Theme 2 – his guilt has isolated him.
The distance between them seems
insurmountable.
Character – he is obsessed –bound to
her permanently and separate from her.
This was when he was living there
secretly. As we know, he does make
surprising progress towards her, as she
allows and encourages him, unaware of
the “cold space” created by his actions
during the murder of her husband.
So that was chapter 4 – when Cal moves
from being a secret squatter to a
legitimate tenant on the farm. It is a
positive time for Cal – but the cow
exploding at the end of the chapter
brings home the reality of his situation.
Chapter 3 ends with the flashback to
the murder of Robert Morton.
“He felt that he had a brand stamped in
blood in the middle of his forehead
which would take him the rest of his
life to purge.”
Both THEMES, CHARACTER,
SYMBOLISM
Straight after the murder, Cal is
already haunted by what he saw:
“He saw the man genuflect again, his
heel coming away from his slipper, the
astonishment in his eyes. Marcella.”
Cal is reliving the incident, seeing the
suddenness of the murder from RM’s
perspective. He relives this moment
several times in the book, particularly
when he is being intimate with Marcella.
Her name seems to resonate with this
memory, as that is what he shouted as
he died.
This echoes the opening of the novel –
when Cal first hears her name, it is not
until chapter three that we see the
murder, and understand his reaction to
hearing her name.
“ ‘ Mar-cell-a.’
It was an animal roar.”
This is the moment of the murder. The
reader now sees why Cal cannot stomach
the abattoir – as the animals in the
novel symbolise the people and the
people are described in terms of animals
(roar / brand stamped).
P78 “Suddenly Cal thought of a place. If
he stayed there it might save a lot of
problems.”
Once he has been burned out of his
home, he decides to move to the farm.
Theme sectarianism: He has had to
move because he as suffered some
sectarian violence.
Theme guilt: This allows him to follow
his obsession.
The move to the cottage is a TURNING
POINT in the novel.
Because he moves there: relationship
with Marcella possible. Freedom from
Crily / Skeffington. Increases intensity
of guilt.
p74“The gun. They’ll find it afterwards”
When they are burned out, they worry
that the gun Crilly gave them will be
found. Theme: sectarianism – that
people are so afraid that they are
drawn into “protection” – and therefore
compromised. Crilly used their house as
a safe house for storage.
“If you are not part of the solution, you
are part of the problem.”
Crilly warns Cal that his desire to be
“out” of extremist activities is not
acceptable. Theme: sectarianism
“Oh, big Crilly says you’ve to call down
after tea.” 55
At the start of chapter 3, Cal is in a
good mood having accepted work at
Morton’s farm. His mood is soured when
his father says this. (Sectarianism /
guilt)
Chapter 2.
“Cal kicked hard with his boots… It was
all in his head. Pain was for later. His
fear had become a kind of
anaesthetic…”
This is an incident when Cal suffers
sectarian violence. He is so afraid, he
cannot feel what is happening.
“He knew the road, had travelled it
many times in his mind, hating every
twist and turn of it.”
P40
Theme guilt – this is when he is on the
way to sell wood at Morton’s farm – we
know he has an obsession with the route
– but at this point we are uncertain.
Chapter 1 – Sectarianism.
“GET OUT YOU FENYAN SCUM OR
WE’LL BURN YOU OUT. THIS IS
YOUR SECOND WARNING, THERE
WILL BE NO OTHER. UVF”
Cal and his father Shamie are a Catholic
minority in a protestant area. As well
has Crilly and Skeffington making Cal’s
life difficult, he has nameless
adversaries. They eventuallu do follow
through with this threat. This created
the turning point.
“Your wanting to withdraw, Cahal, would
make things very awkward.”
Sectarianism – Cal wants out, but Crilly
and Skeffington are pressuring. him to
remain active for the cause.
Page 15 “If it was all to start again he
would have to face up to Crilly; tell him
he wanted nothing more to do with it. It
was Crilly who was largely responsible
for Cal’s stomach having felt like a
washboard over the past year”
Crilly is the antagonist. Even although
they are friends and on the same side,
Crillly works against Cal. Cal blames
Crilly for his involvement with
sectarianism.
“He could not take his eyes off her, not
because who she was but because or
what he might have done to her.”
This is a key quote in demonstrating
that from the very beginning – Cal
confused his emotions of guilt and love.
It is the guilt which generated the
obsession.
“He knew the sweet, warm nauseating
smell of the place and he had had no
breakfast… At intervals the crack of
the humane killer echoed round the
glass roof. Queuing beasts bellowed in
the distance as if they knew.”
It is not initially apparent to the reader
that this is a symbolic setting. It is only
later, when we have heard RM yell his
wife’s name like an animal that we
associate Cal’s response to the abattoir
with his feelings towards the wider
setting of Northern Ireland.