I denne study guide kan du få hjælp til at analysere Jane McLaughlins novelle “Trio for Four Voices”, som indgik i den skriftlige eksamen i Engelsk B på STX fra d. 3 december 2019. Udover analysehjælpen kan du finde et summary af teksten samt hjælp til fortolkning.
Hvis du har brug for hjælp til Assignment 1-4 fra den skriftlig eksamen på STX B den 3. december 2019, kan du læse vores vejledning her.
Præsentation af teksten
Titel: “Trio for Four Voices” (2018)
Forfatter: Jane McLaughlin
Genre: Short story
Jane McLaughlin er en engelsk forfatter og digter. Hun skriver typisk psykologiske spændingsromaner med fokus på emner som identitet og vold. Novellen “Trio for Four Voices” blev udgivet i 2018 i novellesamlingen Best British Short Stories.
Uddrag
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Title
The title of the story “Trio for Four Voices” by Jane McLaughlin is intriguing and suggestive, but does not immediately indicate what the story is going to be about. A trio is a composition written for three musicians. Therefore, a trio would be sung only by three voices, not four. The fourth voice suggested by the title would imply that there is someone out of place, who should not be involved.
The narrative of the story suggests that the fourth voice is the narrator, who becomes an unwilling and unknowing participant in Amelia’s game, which her parents seem to encourage. Because Amelia gets “bored to tears being hauled around Europe” (l. 145), she is allowed to invent disturbing scenarios and involve strangers, without any consideration for how they might feel.
The title also hints at a performance. In the text, the word “counterpoint” (l. 119), which is also linked to a music composition, points that everything that is happening is staged. By the end of the story, readers discover that Amelia’s plans to kill ...
