To what extent is Graham Swift’s Shuttlecock a study of power ?

University Degree Linguistics, Classics and related subjects

LITERATURE ESSAY

If a reader considers the main plot of Shuttlecock from a very simple point of view, Prentis is an unhappy man untill he gets his boss’s job. Therefore power must be an important theme of the novel. However, after Prentis’s sudden change, his wife and his son appear not to be « satisfied by the power theory ». The great quality of Shuttlecock is the incredible suttlety used to portray human nature and the novel can not be resumed to a simple study of power.

Without a doubt, power is an important theme. From his childhood, Prentis desires to control his surounding and this is ovious in the hamster episode. His « mixed feelings of love and pity » explode into an urge to have absolute power over Sammy when the poor animal tries to escape. He needs to master nature and even his own nature. Indeed, he tries to hide his admiration and respect for his father. He also has an unatural sex-life because of its pointless, artificial sophistication. Marian bends to her husband’s will in this « preposterous, obsessive, pathetic affair » and is becoming a stranger to him.

Physically controlling a living being is a recurrent obsession all through the novel. The symbol of vulnerability is nakedness. Marian in her bath reminds Prentis of the time when he used to bathe his two boys. He remembers how defensless they were : « they were at my mercy ». Prentis’s father was also naked in the Chateau which makes him write about the feeling of being « absolutely in the power of another » in his book. Prentis envies the power that Marian had over her patients at the clinic. This painfull need to master everything ruins the main character’s life. This kind of ...

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Indeed, Prentis seeks truth, enlightement. He is in the dark. The fact that he works underground and that his main task is to find information seems very relevant. The language used in Chapter 2 to describe the office conveys strongly the sense of (enfermement) with terms such as « underground », « go down », « cavernous room ». Prentis envies Quinn his daylight and his ability to access information. « Quinn can » is repeated twice. This boss is not an ordinary man because he has knowledge and can choose to deliver or retain it. This explains why he radiates a sense of superiority, of real power. Prentis is desperate to acquire this knowledge. From Quinn or from his father. He often asks his father to explain. « Tell me, Dad. Enlighten me. » « Please Dad, please. Speak to me. Explain » Clearly his has not found his place in life ; the novel is full of question marks. He thinks that his father is strong because he has found a way to escape. A certain form of power is in knowledge. It partly explains Prentis’s sudden change.

But more important is the feeling that he hasn’t his place in his family and work. Because of his low self esteem, he probably still considers himself as « non descript and odorlous ». His difficult relation (devellopped in a previous essay) with his father is due to the fact that Prentis thinks that he cannot live up to him. After having learnt about his father’s double trahison, he breaks the perfect father image and he manages to settle.

Shuttlecock is a complex and intelligent analysis of different forms of power and strengh. Indeed it appears that true power lies not in physical control or factual knowledge but in the certainty that you have a place in the world.

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