Thinks…
David
Lodge
Chapter 11
Short denotative analysis

Ralph Messenger is talking about his collegue and he criticizes him

Reflection on the meanng of winning a Nobel Prize

He remembers the moment when he kissed Helen and when he descovered
Emily in the bathroom
Characters

Ralph Messenger

Helen Reed

Duggers, a Ralph’s collegue

Emily Carrie’s daughter
Narrative technique

Stream of consciuosness
Setting

Thursday, March 12°

17:30

Ralph is in his car
New Words

Ahead = avanti

Flashy = sgargiante

To begrudges = invidiare qualche cosa a qualcuno

To Screw up = accartocciare

To Gang up on = fare comunella contro qualcuno

Broomstick = scopa

To ditch= abbandonare, mollare
Chapter 12
Short denotative analysis



The female protagonist talks to Sandra Pickering because the protagonists of
their books are the same
Sandra says that she wrote her book before reading hers and they discuss about
the matter
Helen Reed goes to Cheltenham to buy a present for Ralph and a dress.
Characters

The female protagonist: Helen Reed

Sandra Pickering: a Helen’s student

Simon Bellamy: a Helen’s student

Martin:Helen’s dead husband

Ralph Messenger: a male protagonist
Setting

Thursday 13th March: University of Gloucester

Friday 14th March: Cheltenham and Richmonds’ house
Narrative technique

Journal

Direct and indirect style

Comparison between the protagonists of the two books : Burnt and The Eye of
the Storm
The protagonist of two book. A comparison
Burnt and The eye of the storm
Alastair and Sebastian:

Tall

Gangly
They have the

Absent-minded

Untidy

Odd socks
same features
New words

To glimpse = intravvedere

Subdue = sottomettere

Sharpish = pungente

To bang into = sbattere contro
Chapter 13
Short denotative analysis

At the party the guests chat about topical problems (DNA, dolly the cloned
sheep and elections)

Ralph has a lot of lovers (Marianne is one of them) and he takes them to a
cottage

Ralph tries to kiss Helen
Characters

Ralph Messenger: the male protagonist

Helen Reed: the female protagonist

Carrie: Mr. Messenger’s Wife

Prof. Douglass: a party guest

Laetitia Glover: a further party guest

Jasper Richmond: Helen’s friend

Sir Stanley and Lady Hibberd: vice-director and his wife

Colin Riverdale: one more party guest

Marianne: Richmond’s wife and Messenger’s lover
Setting

Messenger’s house
EVENT
He celebrates his birthday
Narrative technique

Direct style

Description
Particular features

Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist . He advanced the Theory of
evolution

T. O. M: Theory of the mind

AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
New words

Poll =sondaggio

To wink = fare l’occhiolino

Cheerfully = allegramente

To feed = dare da mangiare
Chapter 14
Short denotative analysis

Helen passed another weekend to the Messengers

Ralph tried to kiss her, but she doesn’t want to have an affair with him

She has new neighbours, a young couple

She doesn’t see or hear much of the neighbours
Characters

Helen

Ralph

Carrie

Ross and Jackie

Annabelle Riverdale
Setting

Messenger’s house

Helen’s house

Library
Narrative technique

Journal
Message

Convey the idea of embarassment of telling something which crossed our mind,
but we don’t really want to say it (opposition between say what we want and what
we think)
Chapter 15
Short denotative analysis

Ralph Messenger is in tailback

Flashback of Ralph: Isabel Hotchkiss, their sexual intercourse and San Diego

Come back to present: sexual intercourse between Ralph and his wife
Characters

Ralph Messenger (the main
character, a professor at Cheltenham’s University)

Isabel Hotchkiss ( works with Ralph, she is his lover)

Carrie (Ralph’s wife)
Setting

Inner Ring (the street where Ralph is in tailback)

Hotel in San Diego

Ralph and Carrie’s house (their bedroom)
Narrative technique

Stream of consciousness

Flashback

Direct speech

Free direct speech
Message

Remembering the past we can try to improve our present
New Words

Trap = boccaccia

Purdah = reclusione donne società musulmana e indù

Bloke = tizio, vecchione

To have a bit of time in hand = avere un po’ di tempo a disposizione

To dim = affievolire

To nod =f are un cenno col capo

To frow = disapprovare

To truant = marinare la scuola

Hem = orlo
Chapter 16
Chapter XVI is organized into three stories about the same
theme: SCIENCE vs PHILOSOPHY
 Mary Comes Out
 Mary’s Rose
 Mary Sees Red
Short denotative analysis
Mary Comes Out

Mary, a grown woman, sees colours for the first time

she lives into a kind of prison in which only white, black and grey exist

a masked man teaches her a lot of things about a wide range of subject everyday
how do humans react when they
see colours for the first time and
what happen in their brains?
FINAL TEST: A RED BUDROSE
Mary dies for the intensity of her
sensations and thrills
Short denotative analysis
Mary’s Rose
guinea pig: Mary
scientists
− is colour the same
for everybody?
− does it happen just
in your brain?
VS
philosophers
− is colour
different for
everybody?
− does it exist on
its own?
Short denotative analysis
Mary Sees Red

Philosophers and scientists jailed Mary from the day of her birth

Her books taught her everything about everything
FINAL TEST: At the age of thirty-one they take her into a white room with a red
rose

Unfortunately they forgot Mary is a woman and has got her period
BLOOD IS RED!
Characters












1.
Mary Willingdon
Lucy
Hubert Dearing, the masked man
Miss Calcutt
2.
Mary
Scientists and philosophers
3.
Mary
Giles Dickinson, philosopher
Mr. Stigwood, neuroscientist
Setting
TIME
We don’t have any temporal reference signalling the first two stories but the
third is set in the future, in year 2031
SPACE
- secret house
- colourless house’s underground
- white room
Narrative technique


Lodge uses the third-person narration which provides the reader with a full
view of the characters and their feelings and he speaks directly to the reader
(‘she did not see color when she was a baby like you and I’)
there are also dialogues between characters which complete our knowledge
about what is happening
From the Reader’s Point of View
1. Human beings are fragile in front of thrills
2. Senses are more important than mental knowledge
3. The reason why Mary already knew red colour
concerns body structure and scientific notions
are colours merely brain’s reactions
or are they a part of us that exists
on their own?
Mary dies and his
jailer won’t ever
have his answers
philosophy beats
science
science beats
philosophy
through her death Mary
will keep this secret for
her own
New Words
1
2
3
minute/hour – hand
lancetta minuti/ore
rosebud
bocciolo di rosa
to kneel
inginocchiarsi
to feel blue
essere triste
to be red with anger
essere rosso di rabbia
to be green with envy
essere verde d’invidia
to rise the stake
alzare la posta
to nourish
nutrire
dungeon
prigione sotterranea
Mary’s name
symbolic choice:
innocent
Mary
pure
= Jesus’ mother
uncontaminated
she can be turned into whatever her jailers
want
‘Willing’don
: volunteer
she’s glad to do it
Chapter 17
Short denotative analysis

Discussion about fantasy and science

Ralph goes to Helen’s maisonette to install the modem
Characters

Ralph Messenger

Helen Reed
Narrative technique

Dialog

Third person narrator
Setting

Late morning on Friday, March 21st

Ralph’s office

Helen’s maisonette
New Words

Ceiling = soffitto

To Shrug = scrollare

To dial = fare (il numero)

Swirl = mulinello

Glance = occhiata

To stack = impilare
Chapter 18
Short denotative analysis
 Helen is getting ready for Ralph: she has a shower, she changes clothes and puts
a careful attention in choosing them.
After that she cleans all her house even the bathroom but she forgets a pair of
knickers in the shape of an accident and changes the sheets of the bed.
While she is waiting for Ralph she thinks about having sex with him.
Characters

Ralph Messenger: Professor and director of the prestigious Holt Belling Centre
for Cognitive Science

Helen Reed: A novelist writer

Carrie Messenger: Ralph’s wife

Martin: Helen’s husband
Setting

Helen’s house
Narrative technique

Helen is writing her journal in the first person ”I”
Message

Helen is wondering whether it is right to have sex with Ralph because he would
be the first man after Martin.
She feels guilty and feels it would dishonour Martin’s memory or of their
marriage.
She seems to believe the soul lives after death even if she agrees with Ralph
that soul does not exist: what we call “soul” is our consciousness.
Probably it isn’t Martin’s consciousness.
It has just ceased to exist, except in Helen’s mind and in her memories.
But this is only a mind construction, a fiction.
New words

Inkling = sentore
Heel = tallone
Cheddar = formaggio mezzo stagionato
To dash = uscire di corsa
Tore = passato di to tear, strappare

To tidy = ordinare

Simmering = bollire lentamente

Knickers = mutandine

Joint = comune

Burglars = svaligiatore, ladro







Karamàzovs: lultimo romanzo scritto da Fëdor Michajlovič Dostoevskij, è ritenuto
il vertice della sua produzione letteraria e la sintesi delle su concezioni filosofiche.
La trama del romanzo si sviluppa attorno alle vicende dei membri della famiglia
Karamàzov, al contesto in cui matura l'assassinio di Fëdor, il capofamiglia e al
conseguente processo nei confronti di Dmitrij, il figlio primogenito accusato di
parricidio.
Ad un livello più profondo è il dramma spirituale scaturito dal conflitto morale tra
fede, dubbio, ragione e libero arbitrio.
Chapter 19
Short denotative analysis

Ralph is thinking about his date with Helen: he has realized Helen has prepared
all for best and thinks also she did not accidentally loose her knickers.
He is unsure too and thinks that it maybe a genuine oversight and didn’t have
sex with her.
The main point is Ralph wonderings whether Helen wanted to have sex with him:
very strange for him because he had sex with some women without paranoia.
Characters

Ralph Messenger: professor and director of the prestigious Holt Belling Centre
for Cognitive Science

Helen Reed: a novelist writer

Carrie Messenger: Ralph’s wife
Setting

Ralph does not mention the place where he is thinking, but we can suppose he
is at home or in his office.
Narrative technique

Stream of consciousness.
Message

Ralph is a science man, he is sure and has many certainties but in front of Helen
he has so many paranoias.
He makes so many conjectures and tries to understand if she wants to have sex
with him: he wants to kwon what she is thinking to act consequently.
This is the first time Ralph makes some paranoia, before he does what he feels.
In front of love even science men have not certainties.
New words

Spectrophotometer: spettrofotometro, strumento usato nella spettrofotometria,
ovvero la scienza che designa lo studio degli spettri elettromagnetici

Hanky-panky: qualcosa di losco, imbroglio

Boredom: noia

Niche: nicchia

Wire: fil di ferro

to swap: fare scambio

tit-for-tat: rendere pan per focaccia, occhio per occhio, dente per dente
Chapter 20
Short denotative analysis

Ralph invites Helen to eat something together

Helen does not meet Ralph

Ralph suggests Helen to
exchange their journals
 Helen does not exchange her journal
he wants to understand the
structure of women’s thought
Characters

Ralph Messenger

Helen Reed
Narrative technique

Journal:use by Helen

E-mail:used by Ralph
Setting
Maybe in their house
unknown
aspect of technology
New Words

Ahead = avanti

Flashy = sgargiante

To begrudges = invidiare qualche cosa a qualcuno

To Screw up = accartocciare

To Gang up on = fare comunella contro qualcuno

Broomstick = scopa

To ditch= abbandonare, mollare