Un extrait de The Black Tower by P.D. James

Résumé du document

Commentaire de texte anglais: Extrait d'une oeuvre de PD James, The Black Tower. 5 pages



The novel The Black Tower, written in 1975 by P.D. James, can be easily identified as a detective fiction thanks to the omnipresence in the extract studied here of Dalgliesh, a fictional character whose fame is owed to the fact he holds the high position of Commander at Scotland Yard in the well-known novels of P.D. James ? is it excessive to consider he is famous? Well, perhaps that people who consider him as famous are probably more interested in detective novels than in anything else... At first sight, the excerpt we are interested in here is composed for the most part of descriptions.

Extraits

[...] This opposition also evokes the particular way to see life through a disabled person's eyes, her way to see everyday life but also the life philosophy such a way of life can make her developing. Finally, without liberty, the way to see the life is totally different, reversed. [...]

[...] Is it the only one solution? This excerpt, without clearly answering that question, can make the reader think about that. The investigation does not achieve its goal in this excerpt don't know how Holroyd dies- but permits the reader to imagine an answer to that question. We can imagine that Dalgliesh committed suicide to achieve definitely the eternal freedom, to always feel as he felt at the top of the cliff. Accordingly, Holroyd did not consider like Dalgliesh and probably like everyone the plateau as a place of freedom, of life and the bottom of the cliff as a place characterised by death. [...]

[...] Besides, the “almost vertical wall” adverted at line 25 conveys the same idea. So this place looks threatening and dangerous, ideas reinforced by the dizzy height of the cliffs. Indeed, the cliffs are higher than hundred and fifty feet” as indicated at line 26 so their height is clearly difficult to imagine which is particularly disturbing. Contrasting with the matter and the colours respectively hard and dark, we can focus on an atmosphere of “disorder” -line 29- noticed owing to the use of words such as “littered” at line 28 which evokes an idea of as “amorphous” at line 28 which stays evasive. [...]

[...] It is very strange insofar as the instinct of investigation seems to be stronger than him, as strong as the violence of the memory thought of violent death broke disagreeably into his euphoria” as indicated on line 8. The apparition of the memory, linked to the affective memory insofar as its apparition is linked to the place where Dalgliesh is, forces Dalgliesh to doubt and to investigate. Moreover, he is alone and seems to be led by his instinct –“instinctively” at line 18. In addition, the official theory concerning the death of Holroyd seems to be the suicide, so Dalgliesh's questioning is based on a hypothesis . [...]

[...] Or to put it differently, we don't know about the nature of Holroyd's death yet. Nevertheless, we can consider that this investigation learns us more than in appearance . Let's make a link between the contrast which exists between the two places described and the informal investigation led by Dalgliesh ; we shall examine this link and realise that even if we don't really know if Holroyd committed suicide or if he has been assassinated, this kind of investigation highlights that as just as the contrast which exists between the places, Dalgliesh and Holroyd are the two entities of one antithesis. [...]