In the second verse the interviewer says, ‘let us consider your application form,’ he is using a condescending tone, it is almost as if he is a teacher. He uses positive sarcasm when talking about the interviewee’s qualifications, ‘though impressive.’ The person is never going to live up to the high expectations. He talks to the interviewee as if they are in trial in court, ‘defend their relevance.’ The simple use of ‘indeed’ shows a disappointed or bad answer to the question.
The interviewer, I believe wrongly uses his authority. He makes the person answer the questions wrongly. He uses informal language when talking about the person’s age. They want someone who is immature; this is humorous because normally you want someone who is mature. He is suggesting that the person is too old for the job. When he says, ‘we are conscious’ he is using ‘we’ for the effect of him being in power. In the fourth verse the interviewer is sarcastic. ‘And now a delicate matter: your looks,’ to him it obviously is not important; he does not care about hurting the persons feelings. If it were such a delicate matter he would not have mentioned it in the first place. He uses cutting humour, to the point where it would actually hurt someone, ‘you do appreciate this work involves contact with the actual public?’ Fanthorpe put the word ‘disturbing’ by itself on the last line of that verse, making it stand out and making it even more hurtful to the interviewee. The interviewer is wrongly using his power, he is being ruthless and is being the worst kind of leader; a bully. He is a satire and his power had corrupted him, leaving him mean.
He picks up on everything to do with the interviewee; he also comments on the person’s accent, critizing it for being bad. He goes on about education saying, ‘were you educated?’ this was a purposeful mistake suggesting that the interviewee is dim and did not go to a very good school. Within verse five he is using many question concerning with the job in hand, but all the questions seem to be rude and purposely harsh, forcing the interviewee to go wrong. He says, ‘how much of a handicap was that to you?’ This is making the person diminished and small, making them insignificant; they might not have seen it as a handicap at all.
In the sixth verse a condescending tone is used again. The interviewer is speaking as if he has heard it all before. This time the lines are enjambment, this could reflect on the continuous boring life of this ‘dubious’ interviewee. He again uses sarcasm, ‘domestic disasters shimmer,’ the two alliterate words fall back to nothing when the word shimmer is used, which is opposite to what the person is.
‘And you were born -?’ suggests to the reader that it would have been better if the person had not have been born at all. ‘So glad we agree,’ shows this man’s sarcastic cutting humour biting back again, soulfully and purposely trying to hurt the interviewee. He does not actually agree he is just trying to quickly get rid of this person.
I think that Fanthorpe is trying to say that we always fall short of expectations, no matter what they are we cannot live up to them. Power diminishes people, making them seem worthless and inadequate.
‘Dictator’ is a comparison to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar was an emperor of Rome he controlled the people of Rome. The boss in the poem controls the people in the office. ‘He bestrides the wall-to wall carpeting’ this is sarcasm, making him seem straight away that he is boss that is not to be messed around with. He is described as a ‘colossus’ again reflecting him as being big and powerful. He does not wait to make sure that the typewriter is ready he commands and ‘surges’ straight from each comma to semicolon. This in a way is humorous because it is not war, like Julius Caesar but it is punctuation, the punctuation is described in the same way but is a lot less important than war.
Again, in verse two he seems big, ‘throes of passionate dictation’ when really he is not at all. He disturbs the typewriter by pacing up and down creating ‘draughts’ but he does not care if he knocks her ‘piles of flimsy paper’ because they mean nothing to him. The power he has, I think is making him lose his human identity, he does not have feelings for anyone anymore, his life now is all about work and how people feel does not matter.
When her phone rings he does not ask her permission to answer it he just goes straight on, using his power in the wrong way, assuming that he owns everything. He takes over one of her few duties that she has. ‘Assumed accent’ shows that she thinks that he false, trying to be nice when really he is not at all. I get the impression that he does not care if the phone call is private, to him it is just business and he can control other people’s lives.
‘Flexing’ shows that he has to think to get the precise word out for full effect, making him seem clever and big when in reality he is not at all. ‘Rides in triumph’ is a reference to Caesar riding one of his chariots, he is happy with his letters and reports. Area and District Management Committees’ shows that there is a really big fuss over an office job that is boring and small, and that he is only in real control of a boring life.
‘Aborting’ shows that there is finality to the letter. ‘Flick’ shows that he is pedantic and wants every detail to be right. Fanthorpe uses big words, ‘laurelled and glossy’ making it sound like he is being crowned in an important victory. She uses the word ‘colonnades’ these are pillars used to hold up important buildings, it seems like he holds the whole business up, if he were gone it would collapse, which probably is not true! ‘With all his enemies liquidated’ he has destroyed everything, and has used his power like he is in the military. He fires people like it as easy as a full stop.
The most important thing he forgets to do, he forgets to sign the letters. Without his signature they are useless and mean nothing and it would have been a waste of time. This just shows even if people are in power they cannot escape vulnerability. He was made out to be amazing and the best when in reality he was not as great as thought to have been. He is quite alright to organise other people and make sure that they do their jobs but when it comes to his own organisation he is useless, as it does not involve bossing somebody else about. Power can lead people to become vulnerable, they get so wrapped up in their big heads they forget simple things. Power also ruins other people lives making them feel ever small and worthless. The two poems suggest that we should not judge other people by their status or looks but by their inside, the real person.