Doctor in the House by R. Gordon Essay Example

then the hero imagines what would happen in the case he passes or fails.

The story ends with the detailed description of the emotional state of the main character before the announcing of the results and then his success: he passes the exam and “goes upstairs”. The text presents an extremely topical subject of final examinations and it is constructed around this single theme. The main idea conveyed by the author is to show how they are emotionally difficult and depressing for students. If to look at the text from the other point, speaking about its general definition, we should note that the text is written in the 1st person narrative.

The story is interlaced with the great number of descriptive passages and a few dialogues of the personages. The author makes use of the long and complicated sentences as well as the short and simple ones. An account of events interweaves with a humorous portrayal of different types of students waiting in the room for the exam itself. So, the prevailing mood of the story sometimes is rather humorous, cheerful and optimistic and sometimes is strained, ironical and pessimistic in a way. The author thoroughly describes the personages, their thoughts and environment.

The plot is ordered chronologically and the action is slow moving. The text is easily divided into complete parts. In the exposition the author describes what the final examination for medical students is. The complication of the narration is showing the process of exam. The moment of anticipating the results and excitement of the hero is the climax of the story, and the outcome of it is the only word “Pass” and the blind stumbling

upstairs of the main character. To achieve desired effect in describing character’s appearance and environment the author uses different stylistic devices.

The most frequent are similes, the most significant of which are next three: “final examinations are something like death: an unpleasant inevitability to be faced sooner or later”. Using this devise the author wanted to show that it is impossible to escape from this event, one day it will surely come; besides, this simile is especially appropriate because the story is about medical students, who would often see deaths in view of their professional occupation. The second important simile in the text: “the days after the viva were…like having a severe accident”, emphasizes the extremely depressed condition of the main character after exam.

The third simile is comparing the oral examination and the building in which it takes place with the prison. We can understand this through the next lexical means: “poor victims”, “policemen that flank the dock at the Old Bailey”, condemned cell, furnished with hard chairs, a wooden table, and windows that wouldn’t open”. The author effectively uses the allusion in his text. He refers to a biblical fact of “judgment day” in the description of oral examination, which creates the effect of additional fear in the emotional state of the students and increases the importance of this event.

Here is also a sustained metaphor in the text: this “judgment day” is decisive for the students’ future existence: whether they would pass and “go upstairs”, which means go to heaven in this context, or they would fail and “slink miserably out of the exit to seek the opiate oblivion”, which means in its turn go

to hell. To stress the extreme agitation of the main character the author uses the next exaggeration in his story: “My palms were as wet as sponges… The windows were rattling… My pulse shot in my ears… The world stood still”.

All in all, this story tempts the reader. Although it is written in humorous way, it makes us sympathize with the characters and remember our exams and feeling of intense excitement. As for me, every time the examinations require from me much effort and nerves for preparation and passing them. So, heaving read this story, I found that Richard Gordon is a master of witty descriptions of serious and important events in people’s life. Not many authors are able to achieve this effect in his or her works, but Richard Gordon made this perfectly.