P1Q4 example answer

Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the source, from line 18 to the end.

A student said, “Dick’s anger towards Mary is really unfair. The writer makes it clear that Mary is totally powerless in this relationship.”

To what extent do you agree?

In this extract, it is clear that Dick is the dominant person in the relationship but not completely powerless and Mary is not powerless too. However, it may be an exaggeration to say that Dick’s anger towards Mary was unwarranted due to his frustration with her wasting money and water.

The writer clearly displays Dick’s anger with Mary by describing how "his face darkened". Here, the use of the verb “darkened” is from the semantic field of light and could also be part of the semantic field of horror. This connotes how all light, symbolically, was drained from his face which means all joy and understanding was drained. The verb also has negative connotations of evil which suggests that Dick became a frightening, malicious man. Through this, Lessing clearly demonstrates how unjust his anger is from Mary’s perspective as all she wanted was to cool herself from the excruciating heat. Furthermore, the writer previously described how Mary was not used to “body and mind” being “subservient to the slow movement of the seasons”. Here, the use of the verb “subservient” has connotations of a servant, which is a person who tends to the needs of their master and is powerless to take control over them. This suggests Mary’s discomfort with the heat as she feels helpless to its tyranny and unable to effectively relieve herself – the heat is in control.

Furthermore, Mary used to live in a town where “there had been no seasons” like there was on this farm. This illustrates how unfamiliarity with this level of heat and strangeness makes it understandable for her to use the water to cool herself. Through this, Lessing displays how unjust Dick’s anger was due to his unwillingness to understand her discomfort.

However, the writer does allow the reader to understand Dick’s anger due to the fact that “it costs money to fetch water”. To elucidate further, since Dick is only a poor farmer, he is bound to be frustrated with her for wasting the water as he cannot afford to continually replace it. Moreover, since Dick is willing to pay “a driver and two workers” and get “two oxen off other work” to fetch water for the house, it demonstrates his compassion for Mary as he was willing to do that to ease her comfort. The writer also shows how Dick offers a solution by saying Mary could “fill the bath with buckets and get into it”.

This poignantly demonstrates how Dick understands how unbearable the heat is but his anger is specifically with her wasting the water by draining it away rather than her using it which makes it understandable given their economic circumstances.

The writer clearly demonstrates Dick’s power in the relationship by displaying them fulfilling their traditional gender roles. Dick is a farmer who earns the living for the house whereas Mary spends her days at home watching “the implacable sky for signs of rain.” This clearly illustrates Dick’s power compared to Mary’s as she is not able to earn her own living. However, when Dick gets angry with Mary, the writer states that “this seemed the last straw.” The use of the metaphor and idiom of “last straw” suggests that Dick has been angry with her before and also emphasises her frustration with her lack of power – she must live on this farm “suffering these hardships” “uncomplainingly.” This also illustrates how Mary feels as though she does not have the power or right to voice her frustrations with Dick due to his controlling, verbally abrasive nature which suggests he lacks power.

However, the writer does suggest that she is not completely powerless as she has the ability and power to “forgive (Dick)” and Dick apologises to her. The fact that Dick must beg Mary for her forgiveness emphasises her sense of power in the relationship as Dick is not able to shout at her without repercussion or apology.

In this extract, the writer portrays Dick’s anger as unfair to Mary from Mary’s perspective but understandable from Dick’s. Overall, both parties aggravate each other equally so Dick is not completely unfair to Mary.