Character Consciousness Anne Enright's Yesterday's Weather”

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The protagonist Hazel in ‘Yesterday’s Weather’ carries the insights of her slightly unhappy marriage and her motherhood. The story illustrates the occurrence of family gathering and how Hazel was affected by this particular trip. In this piece of the story, the readers will pick up on Hazel’s using the third person narration. “Third person limited point of view offers the thoughts and motivations of only one character” (Wilson, M & Clark, R. (n.d.)). That is to say, third person’s usage in the story is only able to give the set of emotion and actions. Therefore, limits the ability for the readers to see the insight of the other characters in the story. Firstly , in the beginning of the story shows Hazel’s motherhood effect on her daily life: “Hazel didn’t want to eat outside – the amount of suncream you had to put on a baby and the way he kept shaking the little hat off his head... – so not only would she have to do all the work, she would also have to apologise for doing all the work when she should be having a good time, sitting outside and watching blue-bottles put their shitty feet on the teat of the baby’s bottle while everyone else got drunk in the sun” (Enright, 2008, p.138). Not to mention, Hazel was exhausted from taking care of her baby instead of enjoying herself like the others did. Despite of that, she couldn’t because in Irish motherhood; a mother who is laid back and neglects the children is not considered as a divine role. “In place of the real mother, Enright had observed that Irish Writing traditionally either appointed ‘the iconised mother figure’, or posited an absence” (Mulhall, 2011, p. 69). Secondly, Enright uses the Irish motherhood as a very significant role in the story and the readers could relate to... ... middle of paper ... ... a glance of Hazel’s life whereby in the last two paragraphs of the story; when John reached out his hand, touching Hazel’s cheek shows their reconciliation, back in Lucan, their home. In fact, it is just the beginning of their story. To summarize, the story in ‘Yesterday’s Weather’ communicates well with readers as they can relate and sometimes identify their lives in the story. Works Cited Enright, A. (2008). Yesterday’s weather.New York: Grove Press. Mulhall, A. (2011). Anne Enright. Dublin: Irish Academic Press. Norris, P. (2014). Literary Review - Pamela Norris on Anne Enright's Taking Pictures. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.literaryreview.co.uk/norris_03_08.html [Accessed: 14 Apr 2014]. Wilson, M. & Clark, R. (n.d.). Analyzing the Short Story. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.limcollege.edu/Analyzing_the_Short_Story.pdf [Accessed: 12 Apr 2014].

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