Going Beyond the Pale with William Trevor Essay -- Essays Papers

dismission beyond the Pale with William TrevorIn William Trevors short bol oney Beyond the Pale, the reader is presented with a text that seethes with the angst of a writer whose pastorals Colonial past has been gnawing on his bones. Although there is nix erratic in this (especially in Irish writing), Trevor manages to fumble the ball in the feast of his didactic strategy and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory what should have been a successful indictment of British Colonial Rule in Ireland becomes nothing more than the grumbling of an intelligent writer who cannot negotiate his patriotic feelings.The invention is presented as a first-person narrative by one of four side vacationmakers who regularly visit a small hotel, Glencorn Lodge, in County Antrim (see the Map of Ireland). all(a) the details the narrator, Milly, supplies the reader with in the introductory paragraphs indicates a lack of Irishness in the whole make-up of this groups holiday Glencorn Lodge is a Georgian building, the driveway of which is lined with rhododendrons (a non-indigenous species of plant) the couple who run Glencorn Lodge - the trickily named Malseeds - are English the garden has figs, the greenhouse has apricots and peaches - and the greenhouse is presided over by old Mr Saxton, another aptronymous character. Essentially the reader is given a photograph not of Ireland, but of the remnants of Imperial supremacy.So far, so good. Trevor is in control, and he has created a good backdrop for his humbug. Where does it all go wrong? preferably simply, Milly, the narrator is not up to the task of telling the story Trevor wishes to diffuse for subtlety she is fine, but it is when events become more action-oriented that Milly fails to prove herself the correct storytelling thingamajig for this narrative.As the story progresses, we learn much of the four characters past, both in concert and apart - Milly is ideal as a teller of the more perplexing or purely speculative eleme nts of a characters past. but details indicate a lack of Irishness in this ritualized holiday along the way - for example, Strafe, one of the male characters, drinks whisky rather than whiskey, the spring indicating Scotch, the latter indicating an Irish or American distillation. In the midst of their holiday world, it is noticed that an intrusion has occurred a red-haired man, uncouth-looking, has appeared, ... ...ard because, essentially, he is trying too rocky to make the reader feel sympathy not for the English conscience (Cynthia), but for Ireland itself. Having a an admission of guilt (albeit on behalf of a nation) from one English conscience described by an English consciousness that is consumed by its obliviousness towards any reason for feeling guilt (both at a personal and national level) is an ambitious idea - one which Trevor should have pulled off. The revolutionise to preach (which can only be regarded as some attempt to justify guilt that Cynthia feels, and, by extension, Britain should feel) should have been stifled, completely repressed. The subtle flesh out of the early part of the narrative displays Trevors ability to deftly draw the particulars of a scene without descending to caricature, and to embed his agenda while doing so. The firing of subtlety in the final pages (and Cynthias monologue does cover a number of pages) is actually a loss for the reader, because whether a reader of this story is British, Irish or otherwise, one can only leave the tale wondering who Trevor had in mind when he wrote it, and who ultimately would gain in the way he obviously intends for the reader.