"Pale Horse, Pale Rider" is yet another example of how putting dialogue in quotes does not necessarily mean that it is more important. I was paying attention to when quotes were used and when they weren't, but there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. At least when we were reading "Rope" nothing was in quotation, so we didn't think something had a precedence over another. Sometimes the inner thoughts of Miranda are put in quotes, and other times they are simply stated. Sometimes her inner thoughts that aren't in quotes are in first person, other times they are in third person.
The only possibility for why this would be is because Miranda is sick. Her mind is not quite functioning and perhaps this jumple of thoughts and quotations is a way of showing structurally how confused Miranda was. I suppose that this confusion does not necessarily have to come from her illness; it could also just be that she was confused about everything: life, death, the war, Adam, etc. Perhaps this is a way to convey that confusion to the reader.
I like this "theory" of mine because it kind of goes along with what I was thinking was the reason for the confusing quotes in "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall." That story is told from the perspective of someone dying as well, so of course the confusion would go right along with it.
Does anyone else have any other "theories" on why the dialogue would be so random in these stories?
1 Comment:
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- Sara Katherine said...
February 12, 2008 at 7:02 PMAs far as the discontinuity between times when quotes are or aren't used, I have a hard time chalking it all up to Miranda being sick. I think it's part of the whole necessity of secrets, of not saying all the things one is thinking, in their time of war. To sound schmaltzy, it's sometimes so hard to say all the things you're thinking when you're in love, even under the best of circumstances, because the vulnerability factor is huge. Adam and Miranda are certainly not in the best of circumstances.