To what extent is Graham Swifts Shuttlecock a study of power ?
LITERATURE ESSAY
To what extent is Graham Swift’s Shuttlecock a study of power ?
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.