The light of day

Auger Phebe 2nde1 Critical Appreciation of The Light of Day The following passage is an extract of the novel The Light of Day published in 2003 by Graham Swift. This extract is notably about a relationship between a boss and his secretary, but implicitly we realize that it is also a romance between the two main characters Rita, the secretary, and George, the boss. We will see how Graham Swift presents the two main characters of his story through a critical analysis. Thus, we will be exploring the many positive points and the few negative points used to present and show us the different personalities of Rita and George. I will first talk about the presentation of Rita, then the presentation of George, and to finish the presentation of the relationship between Rita and George First of all, the name Rita appears to us in the very first line. We know nothing about her, but from the name we can guess that it is a female, but we have no idea how old she could be, nor do we know what she physically looks like. It is a bit frustrating to not know what kind of person to imagine, but at the same time it leaves some mystery for the reader. The narrator tells us that <<She doesn’t sleep these days>> followed by <<’These days’ have lasted years>>, meaning that Rita is probably someone who is stressed or disturbed by something in her life by pointing out her insomnia. When the narrator tells us that he is the boss we can guess that Rita is probably a secretary or an associate of his considering she is at the same work place as him. Rita is presented as someone who is very serious about their work and that spends most of her time at work rather than at home. Later on in the text, line 24, we now know that Rita is an adult and probably single because she says <<An empty bed, George, that’s all it is. If there was someone there…>> The three points of suspension could mean that she is waiting for a reaction from George, which could also implicitly mean that she wants to make George react as if he could make the problem go away. Rita seems to be someone very polite and that her intentions toward George are only to be nice as she kindly offers him a cup of tea or coffee. In lines 25 to 30 we finally get a physical description of Rita through the description of her clothes (<<pale pink top, soft wool, above a charcoal skirt>>), her favorite color, her scent, and even what she wears in her intimacy because George has apparently seen her wearing her <<fluffy bathrobe of the same soft pink color, loosely tied, tits nuzzling inside>>. In the lines 39 until the end we understand who Rita is; she is George’s <<assistant, partner, or not-quite partner>>. In the beginning we do not quite know who the narrator is, but he is talking in the first person so we rapidly understand that the narrator is the one living the story and that the story is told from his view point. Throughout the story we know his feelings and his thoughts about Rita. The thing that shocks us the most is his obsession with Rita in the repetition of <<she>> and his fascination by her every move, and we have the feeling that he analyzes carefully every word she says. For example line 10 and 11 <<She doesn’t sleep much these days, she says. ‘These days’ have lasted years>>, or lines 17 and 18 when she says <<Cold>> and he replies by <<But beautiful>>. We also experience with him his fright of being abandoned by Rita line 9 and 10 <<And soon, she’s going to leave me, any day now, I can tell. >> By this phrase we can feel that the narrator, who we later on find out is named George, is very attached to Rita and doesn’t want to lose her. Unfortunately, throughout this extract we don’t find any physical description so we do not have a clear picture of what he is like physically. We can clearly feel his fascination by the fact that Rita is always at work before him and why she doesn’t sleep much. In line 12 we find out that he is most likely the boss of the company but the way it is formulated isn’t very clear whether it is him the boss, or if it is just a boss’ privilege. Throughout the extract we don’t quite understand why he keeps coming back to Rita’s sleeping problem, it becomes almost an obsession to him to figure out why she isn’t sleeping much. George is presented as someone who must pay attention to details because he can describe Rita’s outfit, her favorite color, and the bathrobe he saw her in with precise details. He also points out very specific details when he talks about how she sips her tea, looks at him over the rim, and the way she <<steps through bars of bright light>>. At the end, we are touched by his declaration of needing Rita in his life line 44 <<Where would I be without her? >>. To conclude, I must say that the relationship between the two characters is a bit confusing. We first think it is just two adults, perhaps a boss and his secretary or associate working together. We could maybe think that the boss is very pleased to have her as an associate and that they just get along very well. This hypothesis seems pretty accurate throughout the text but half way through the text lines 29 to 30, <<I’ve seen her wearing a fluffy bathrobe of the same soft pink colour, loosely tied, tits nuzzling inside>>, we are a bit confused and start to realize that their relationship isn’t purely a labor relationship but more a sexual relationship. We then start realizing why the first sentence of the paragraph starts with <<Something’s come over you>>, leading us to think that the boss maybe started flirting with his secretary two years ago and it went a bit further then flirting. We know that in line 24 <<An empty bed, George, that’s all it is. If there was someone there…>> Rita is implying that she needs George to be with her to sleep well, that she has fallen in love and cannot bear being without him anymore.At the very end, we know that George is also falling in love with her when he says <<Where would I be without her? >> implying that he couldn’t live without her either. As a conclusion, Graham Swift presents very well his characters Rita and George despite the lack of physical description. Through the point of view of the narrator, George, we can truly understand his feelings and to be more precise, his love for Rita, his obsession with her, and his fright to lose her. Graham Swift makes us understand very well the love between the two characters and the fact that their relationship is not like any other ordinary relationship between a boss and his secretary. Words : 1 199