The Eye in the Door Literary Elements

The Eye in the Door Literary Elements

Genre

Fiction, Historical Fiction

Setting and Context

England, 1917-18 during World War One

Narrator and Point of View

Third person narrator telling the story from Billy Prior's point of view

Tone and Mood

General tone of both the main characters and the nation as a whole is frightened and almost paranoid

Protagonist and Antagonist

Billy Prior is the protagonist, Spragge the antagonist

Major Conflict

The major conflict is the war but there is also extreme conflict within the main characters, particularly Billy who is conflicted about betraying his roots, and Manning who suffers inner conflict regarding his sexuality

Climax

The climax of Prior's hardwork in investigating Beattie Roper is reached when his department is forced to send case files to the war office, thereby enabling him to see all of the paperwork on Spragge that had hitherto been hidden

Foreshadowing

Spragge's visit to Beattie foreshadows her being arrested for attempted murder

Understatement

Prior feels that he is prone to violence, which is an understatement as his dreams show him to be a person who enjoys masochism

Allusions

Prior alludes to the Victorian serial killer Jack the Ripper when he tells Rivers that he "nipped to Whitechapel and ripped up a couple of prostitutes"

Imagery

Vivid imagery painted of bombed out London, for example in chapter one "the pavement became gritty beneath their feet, pallid with the white dust that flowed so copiously from stricken houses and never seemed to clear, no matter how carefully the ruin was fenced off".

Paradox

Prior is opposed to the "Conchies" yet is on their side when it comes to revealing the plot to frame Beattie Roper

Parallelism

Prior draws a parallel between himself in his youth when he was paid for sex and the female prpstitutes he meets in France

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The nation is angry and looking for someone to blame; because a nation cannot itself be angry or seek anything for itself, it is used to represent its citizens in this context

Personification

Rivers dreams that an eyeball is after him and chasing him down the street, giving the eyeball the ability to move freely on its own and to decide its own intent

Update this section!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section.

Update this section

After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.

Cite this page