Darkness and Humour in Selected Short Stories by Roald Dahl Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Martina Šimková Darkness and Humour in Selected Short Stories by Roald Dahl Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph. D. 2014 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………… Author’s signature I would like to thank my supervisor, Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D., for his professional advice and encouragement. TABLE OF CONTENTS General Introduction ......................................................................................................... 5 Chapter I: Roald Dahl – Life and Inspiration ................................................................. 10 Chapter II: Darkness and Humour in Literature and Drama .......................................... 13 Chapter III: Analysis of Selected Short Stories .............................................................. 16 “Man from the South” ................................................................................................ 16 “Lamb to the Slaughter” ............................................................................................. 23 “Pig” ........................................................................................................................... 29 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 37 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 41 English Resume .............................................................................................................. 43 Czech Resume ................................................................................................................. 44 GENERAL INTRODUCTION Darkness and humour are reoccurring and underlying elements of Roald Dahl‟s writing style. Darkness was part of his life since early childhood, but despite its frequent recurrence, be it during war, or in the form of illness, or even death, he managed to maintain positive outlook towards life. Given the fact that darkness and humour accompanied Dahl for the most part of his life, they were consequently incorporated into his writing, which critics nowadays tend to divide into his books for children, which made him very popular and sought after author, and his less famous fiction for adults. What his children books and his adult fiction have in common is the author‟s interest in dark themes and their humorous treatment. This thesis is focused on Roald Dahl‟s selected short stories, primarily because his short fiction has not been a subject of as many analyses as his literary pieces for children, secondarily because dark humour, which is foremost considered an interesting aspect of his writing for children, is present in many of his short stories, thus making them an equally interesting subject to study. The thesis‟ focal point is an analysis of three short stories by Roald Dahl, specifically “Man from the South”, “Lamb to the Slaughter”, and “Pig”, all of which can be found in the book The Best of Roald Dahl (2000), a collection of Dahl‟s short stories that were first published between 1945 and 1965. The particular short narratives have been selected for analysis because they were written at different points in the author‟s professional career as well as because of his rich work with the two seemingly irreconcilable aspects of darkness and humour, which form the underlying dynamic of Roald Dahl‟s narrative style. The author is versatile in his employment of the two 5 elements, which allows him to play with the reader‟s perception and understanding of the themes of his writing, which is very enthralling. However, it is necessary to point out that his short stories are aimed at experienced adult audiences that have developed a sense of what is real and what is unreal, a sense which, in return, has an effect on their reading and understanding of the stories. Therefore, although the thesis will provide an insight into various ways in which the author employs the two elements in his storytelling and suggest their influences on the reader, the subjectivity of each and every one will not allow exploring all possible effects the stories might create. The paper‟s goal is to deal with the questions connected with the author‟s unconventional treatment of the macabre themes dealing with, for instance, danger, vengeance, murder, or death, and thus determine the purpose of his narratives either as a mere way to shock and disgust the reader, or as an enthralling way to challenge conventional frame of mind, which can inspire discussion. Answers to these questions will depend on the fact whether the stories and their protagonists manage to engage the reader emotionally. In order to find out about the extent to which Dahl‟s stories may captivate the reader, darkness and humour will be examined on textual as well as thematical levels. The principal secondary sources used in analysis of Roald Dahl‟s short stories include Mieke Bal‟s Narratology: Introduction to the Theory of Narrative (1985) and various books on humour by authors Henri Bergson, Harold Bloom and James Morreall. Mieke Bal‟s study of narratives is a vital source of information on narrative technique as it provides an outline of numerous ways in which narratives are structured and in which they achieve certain effects on the reader. Narratives‟ ability to influence the reader is primarily conditioned by the narrators and the modes in which stories are told, therefore these aspects of narratives are looked into in the thesis on Roald Dahl‟s short fiction writing as well. The books concerned with humour are especially important 6 for their explanations of functions and different types of humour. Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, written by Bergson, Comic Relief : A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humour by John Morreall and Bloom’s Literary Themes: Dark Humour by Harold Bloom which provide the inevitable basis for study of humour in Dahl‟s short fiction. The sources generally agree on an emotional distance that is necessary for the functioning of humour since it is based on incongruity or juxtaposition, which requires rational decoding. Incongruity is the source of emotional shifts that humour evokes in people and while Bergson is mostly focused on the comic aspects of humour, Morreall‟s focus is broader as it points out types of humour that do not necessarily provide a happy cognitive shift, for instance, dark humour, which employs dark, macabre, and grotesque elements. Dark humour in literature is the focal point of Bloom‟s book, which provides an outline and general idea of what could be considered fiction of dark humour. The secondary sources derive their concepts of humour from differences between two major genres of drama – comedy and tragedy – and because dark humour employs aspects of both, they are explored in the three selected short stories by Roald Dahl as well. This thesis‟ analysis is focused on the texts, themes, characters and their levels of tragic and comic elements in order to determine the author‟s unique work with darkness and humour. An analysis like this will invite discussion of the stories‟ possible effects on the reader and their potential to evoke positive or negative feelings should help determine the reader‟s interpretations of the stories that should lead us to the purpose and meaning of the stories, which at first glance only seem to shock and terrify. Chapter I of this thesis, which is divided into three chapters and a conclusion, introduces life of Roald Dahl and concentrates on those major life experiences that shaped his view and thinking that were later expressed in his literary work explored in this paper. The chapter provides insight into Dahl‟s early childhood 7 that was marked with family tragedy and strong inspiration he found in his mother. Then it focuses on the impact the various boarding schools the author attended had on him, the phase in his life that primarily became an inspiration for his children‟s fiction. The last section of the chapter describes Dahl‟s active role in the Second World War and a plane crash he was involved in that had a profound effect on his life, because of the immense health problems it caused him. Chapter II briefly introduces darkness and humour and their place in literature using the concepts of Bergson, Cuddon, Morreall and Bloom, which will help to define the two terms and give the reader a basic idea and understanding of what the thesis deals with and how it grasps the problem. The chapter introduces an insight into literary concepts that are employed in the analysis of Dahl‟s short stories. Particularly, the chapter mentions the horror story, which is marked by a distinct level of darkness, and explains the importance of defining humour within the dramatic genres of comedy and tragedy. After pointing out specific characteristics of the two dramatic genres, the chapter moves on to the result of the combination of those distinct elements, that is black comedy, a genre in which the tragic and the comic or humorous elements mingle by the means of dark humour. Dark humour is introduced through specific examples provided in Bloom‟s book that lists several literary works that employ dark humour. The core of the thesis is represented by Chapter III which is focused on analysis of the selected short stories

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