Birdsong: Is it possible for readers to feel any sympathy for Azaire in the novel as a whole?

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Dani Jones

English a-level Pre-course task Exam question:

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Is it possible for readers to feel any sympathy for Azaire in the novel as a whole?

In the book ‘Birdsong’ the author Sebastian Faulks narrates the story through the character Stephen Wraysford. In the first section of the novel, part one France 1910, Stephen is sent by his benefactor to work with the character Rene Azaire at his textile factory. All through part one, we learn of the Azaire family, some of their background and how they live. Furthermore throughout this chapter, Faulks challenges whether readers or characters from the book is able to feel compassion for him or not.

Early in the novel, we start to discover the secrets between Rene and his wife, Isabelle. We suss that Rene physically beats his wife and we first see signs of this on pages 16-17, “It turned to a gasp which, because of its sudden move into a higher register, was clearly one of pain.” Regardless that we comprehend this very early in the novel, we do not uncover the reason till later on in a conversation between Isabelle and Stephan, “To begin with it was to try to make him excited. Then I think it was out of frustration and shame.” We see that Rene has tried numerously to have a baby with Isabelle however seems to not be able to and blames this on Isabelle however deep down believes that it is because of him and his age. He evidently does not like this and tries to cover it up by blaming his wife and beats her up, implying he beats up her because of his insecurities. We also see that he is insecure about Isabelle loving him as there is an age gap between them and he might hit her to scare her into staying with him as he worries she will leave if she finds a man she could dote on. The readers now start to develop a dislike to this character because of his nasty actions to Isabelle. Part of this can make the reader feel remorse for him because of the amount of insecurities he has. On the other hand, people will not feel sorry him, as a character, as he is a wife-beater.

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Later in the chapter we find out that Isabelle provides food for Lucien Lebrun, one of Rene’s workers, to help feed the families of the workers. However she does not tell Rene she does this and keeps this from him, “I bring food to Monsieur Lebrun.” This shows that she keeps secrets from her husband and does this without feeling guilty. We see that she is a deceiving character as she appears to be a respectful woman at first but then we start to see cracks in this.  From this the readers may feel sorry for Rene, as his ...

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