The given passage presents ‘Donald’, the narrator as a caring, troubled and concerned husband who is in

an dismal situation where his wife ‘Janet’ is severely ill. In this passage Donald, in first person describes
his experience of supporting a sick spouse.

Donald throughout the text is presented as a concerned melancholic husband, from during the surgery,
through Janet’s recovery and her time back at home, he is portrayed as continually worried and sadly
never as hopeful or cheery.

Donald’s tone and neutral narration creates a tense and heavy atmosphere. Janet’s disease, the risk of
her death and its possible impact on Donald occupy our thoughts from donalds descriptions from before
the surgery.

The mood in the text continually hopeless as Donald detachedly narrates the complications of janets
disease and the statistical possibilities of her death during the operation. Donald’s description of death
seems to make the audience believe that Janet’s death is likely. It seems as though janet has been sick
for long and Donald is now ‘used it it’, it suggests that his neutral and detached tone is a technique to
cope with watching his wife suffer and the possibility of losing her. It portrays Donald as sad and
despairing.

As Donald describes the time he spends waiting during the surgery, we see him imagining spending time
with janet and holding on to memories. He says he held her in different ways, he remembers the playful
ways he had carried her, he danced with janet and ‘dressed he in a floaty dress’. His thoughts slowly
move backwards in time from when janet was sick but still could be playful to when she was not sick at
all. Here we see don’t see Donald grieving, lamenting, praying, spiraling or hoping, he only cherishes his
memories with janet. He seems to be reminiscing in a way where he prepares to lose her. This too
indicates his hopeless attitude which later in the text is emphasized by his desolate narration even after
her successful surgery and complete absence of hope, joy and cheerfulness. The way he grasps on to
memories of her suggest not only his fear of losing her due to death, but also missing the time where
she was healthy and youthful. Despite the lack of explicitly expressed emotion in his narration and
thoughts it is very obvious that he is in immense pain.

Due to janets serious disease donalds role seems to have changed from that of a loving husband to a
guardian and caretaker of his spouse. He cannot think of having fun with her as the only thing he can
think of is keeping her safe and healthy. Even when Donald describes janets enthusiasm it is obvious he
is not in sync with her and doesn’t feel any excitement. He despite janets improvement is hopeless and
appears to be waiting for her to ‘slip back’ as if it is inevitable. Janet too seems to be holding on to
memories of the past when she says “lets dance and fool around like we did before”, while she tries to
recreate memories of the past and tries to make the most of her time left on the other hand Donald
holds on to memories as if they are gone forever and is only concerned for her safety, rather than
happiness.

The order of events and varying number of details in each event reflects on donald’s feelings and
relationship with his wife.

donalds detailed thoughts from during the operation allows the audience to step in shoes and feel in the
way in which he deals with sadness and restlessness during the operation. His narration until the
operation creates no suspense and is completely neutral. The news of janets successful surgery is not
emotional, and though the audience feels relief on reading this line, Donald does not bother to narrate
his thoughts on this. Her successful surgery does not seem to fill him with gratitude or hope, on the
contrary his unchanging worry continues especially indicated in “they kept her in the hospital quite a
long while” Donald only describes his concerns and the tediousness he experiences reflecting on his
state of mind and his relationship with janet, where love is overpowered by concern and care by
tediousness. Right after this donald skips to narrate the next of events- taking her home. Here the tone
changes from factual to suspenseful. The last set of dialogues and descriptions form the rising action,
where readers anticipate for ‘something’ to happen. Donalds tone suddenly changes from his general
concern to nervousness and fear. This highlights his role as her guardian and appears to be very close to
a guardian- child relationship rather than husband-wife. This is in dramatic contrast to janet trying to go
back to the life she used to have, and her dialogue “lets dance and fool around like we did before” that
perhaps suggests her desire to be with her previously playful and loving husband again.

The tone and structure of the text seem to suggest the situation will only worsen and it appears to be
unlikely that donalds and janets relationship will change. In case janet is not hurt following the last line,
Donald will probably remain cautious and continue to care for her like he did before, and in the case she
does get hurt, donalds role as caretaker will only grow larger and his grief will increase.

Donalds portrayal is complex, where he is depicted as consumed with worry yet detached, caring for
janet but not necessarily making her happy. He is rightfully worried but not equally relieved or hopeful
during her recovery.

Donalds state of mind and his relationship with his wife draws pity and induces sorrow in the audience.
His hopeless attitude, the despair of the situation and their changed relationship appear to be unfixable.