Wednesday, 16 April 2014

In The Theatre


Recounting a true story

the patient was still awake while the doctor was searching in his brain for a tumour/growth

"small voices, small lies" - making everything else seem insignificant - he's too a lie, he's not "fine"

"blink again and again" - every time he blinks he feels pain because of what Dr Lambert Rogers is doing to him only under general anaesthesia for brain surgery

"rash as blind's man" - doctor can't see what he's touching in his brain - violent language - he can't see the effects of what he's doing to the patient - he can only see "inside his soft brain"

"If items of horror can make a man laugh then laugh at this" - "horror" connotes violence and being terrified - if a man laughs at something horrible then this is another level of horror

irregular rhyme scheme could relate to the patient's in-and-out consciousness or the irregularity of the procedure he is undergoing

"ticking its own wild time" - under so much pressure - frantic - feeling so much pain

"more brain mashed" - violent - constantly played with - his brain being poked/pushed about

doctor is "desperate" - its already been an hour - he really wants to find the growth/mass

"probe's braille path" - broiled is something blind people use to read - the doctor is using his brain as path for his probe to find the tumour but he can't see - going in 'blind'

the doctor is in a rush and "thinking 'Christ!' Two more on the list" - he's been trying to fin this tumour for an hour and he has two ore patients to operate on after this

"the cracked record in the brain" - the patient has had enough - he can't take the pain of what the doctor's doing anymore

he says "leave my should alone" in a "ventriloquist voice" - he can't physically speak it because he's in so much pain so he's saying it to himself in his mind

"patient's dummy eyes" - could suggest a ventriloquist dummy or that the doctor is treating him as his own personal dummy to experiment on

"the patient's eyes too wide" - doctor's gone too far - he feels so much pain its unbearable - serious as the doctor is "shocked" by this

"nurses, students, sister petrified" - viewing gallery - loads of people are watching the horrible surgery - "petrified" - strong violent imagery - shocking

"that voice so arctic" - his blood turning cold - his body is shutting down - he's loosing his life - "that cry so odd" - he doesn't recognise himself anymore - no longer himself - dying

"the words began to blur and slow" - he's slowing dying/fading away - "leave my soul alone" repeated many times shows its importance to him and how the patient doesn't want the doctor to keep doing this to him that his soul breaks - wants his soul to remain intact - he needs it in order to go to heaven - religious imagery

"And silence matched the silence under snow" - he's finally gone after all he went through - his pain is over - "snow" connotes purity, innocence, angelic, heavenly - everything is clear now - he still has is soul - in heaven?

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