Analysis Of Fleur And Sir Quentin

Both Fleur and Sir Quentin analyze and pore over each small nuance that everyone does; however, they analyze people for different reasons. Upon first meeting Sir Quentin, Fleur is immediately absorbed in his mannerism saying that “What gave me great happiness was [Sir Quentin’s] gift to me of the finger-tips of his hands touching each other” (11). Then, during her meeting, Fleur feels a strong “[longing] to be outside walking in the park and chewing over Sir Quentin’s character in [her] mind before even finding out any more about him” (13). Fleur notices that the youngest member of The Triad Press, “Leopold…gave a little jump in his chair when he has something to say which excited him” (160). Not only does Fleur notice the outward actions that

Fleur, as evident through the entire novel, sees life “poetically” (20). For instance, when Fleur had made the changes to autobiographies, the members could easily see the falsity within them. However, Fleur is an artist with words; she understands that she is not hurting anyone with these changes. She explains, “[she] found all their biographies so very dull to start with that [she] given them so light-hearted a turn…” (87) As she states, she has light-hearted intentions with her changes. She shows her perception of reality again when she reads Dottie one of her first drafts of Warrender Chase. Dottie states “Marjorie (a character within Warrender Chase) is evil.” Fleur replies that “Marjorie is fiction; she doesn’t exist” (53). She can easily see where fiction ends and where reality begins, unlike Sir Quentin. He, sees life fictionally and poetically like Fleur; however, he cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality, which is unlike Fleur. In a sense, Sir Quentin tries to bring fiction into the real world. For instance, Sir Quentin is able to persuade the members that the facts that Fleur has created in the biographies were true. For instance, Sir Finlay tells Sir Quentin that he thinks that “[his] memoirs have been tampered with”. In response, Sir Quentin says, “Are you sure? How can you be sure if you were locked in the pantry at the time? In your revised memoir, you found out about their prank from a footman. But if in reality…” (31). Sir Quentin himself believes that the false statements that Fleur had added are actually real. In fact, Fleur notices that Sir Quentin autobiography “sounded stiff and false, occurred at points where they strained themselves into a constancy and steadies that they evidently wished to possess but didn’t” (31).