Essay Questions

What makes the “The Young Man with the Carnation” such a figure of tragic irony?

The protagonist, Charlie Despard is picture in this story as being at a point of—as his name implies—great despair. The young man with the carnation is at first sight endowed with an exuberant happiness that is the complete opposite of the darkness enveloping Charlie. More than that, the young man becomes the very iconic embodiment of a kind of happiness that is incredibly difficult to experience but:

“The young man with the carnation had it. That infinite happiness which beamed on the face of the young man with the carnation was to be found somewhere in the world.”

By the end, Charlie has managed to overcome the gut-punch of realizing the man with the carnation is so happy because he is the lover of Charlie’s very wife because, of course, he learns that this is not the case. That, in fact, the man with the carnation now wrongly believes the very same of him since Charlie was in the wrong with the wrong woman without knowing. In the end, Charlie gets everything: a happy marriage and a new lease on his stalled writing career. But what of the man with the carnation? Does he ever learn the truth himself?

What elements can be found in “Sorrow-Acre” which give the story the feeling of being a kind of fairy tale?

The first few paragraphs uses extensive imagery to delineate that the story takes place in a land dense with history yet with a mysterious quality that also lends it a certain feeling of being disjointed and out of time. In other words, imagery is used construct a solid foundation of setting that is the equivalent of being told it takes place once upon a time in a sort of fantasy world. This world is characterized and defined by a starkly define monarchical and feudal separation of classes familiar to those who’ve heard fairy tales about kings and princesses and poor oppress peasants. References to chivalry and dragons, Odin and Mt. Olympus also serve to create the idea of the story taking place within a fantasyland populated by a powerful force for malevolence—the uncle—and young prince-type (Adam) who has come to challenge the forces of that evil power. Into this background is dropped the story which are is engines of narrative: a ridiculous bargain which becomes a life-or-death struggle which must be accomplished against all odds.

The plot of “The Sailor-Boy’s Tale” is dependent upon the concept of a human being able to transform into an animal. How is this idea conveyed consistently throughout the story with imagery?

The falcon which the sailor boy saves in the opening scene of the story returns later as the old woman who returns the debt by saving the sailor boy. Throughout can be found examples of human compared to various animals which is suggestive of the fundamental nature of belief in the transformative properties of cross-species potential. The young girl Nora is initially described as being “thin as an eel.” Standing in stark contrast to the girl he wishes to kiss is the sailor who wishes to kiss him: “One of the Russians was a giant, as big as a bear; he told Simon that his name was Ivan. He got drunk at once, and then fell upon the boy with a bear-like affection.” Ivan also uses animal imagery when talking to the sailor boy: “I have found you, my little chicken… I have been seventeen years old myself, a little lamb of God.” The bulk of animal imagery is reserved, appropriately enough, for the falcon-lady, Sunniva. She is described as having “a high shrill voice, like a bird’s” and acting so furious that she “jerked her head like an angry bird of prey.”