Early 20th Century

ENGLISH LITERATURE
BY : GROUP 1
 The Trout

The Doll’s House

Topics for Ambition

today: When I was One-and-Twenty

God’s Gift

The Highwayman
The Trout
ANALYSIS
 Story
One of the first places Julia always ran to when they arrived in G--- was The Dark Walk. It is a
laurel walk, very old, almost gone wild, a lofty midnight tunnel of smooth, sinewy branches.
Underfoot the tough brown leaves are never dry enough to crackle: there is always a suggestion of
damp and cool trickle. She raced right into it. For the first few yards she always had the memory
of the sun behind her, then she felt the dusk closing swiftly down on her so that she screamed
with pleasure and raced on to reach the light at the far end; and it was always just a little too long
in coming so that she emerged gasping, clasping her hands, laughing, drinking in the sun. When
she was filled with the heat and glare she would turn and consider the ordeal again. This year she
had the extra joy of showing it to her small brother, and of terrifying him as well as herself. And
for him the fear lasted longer because his legs were so short and she had gone out at the far end
while he was still screaming and racing. When they had done this many times they came back to
the house to tell everybody that they had done it. He boasted. She mocked. They squabbled.
 Story
`Cry babby!'
`You were afraid yourself, so there!'
I won't take you any more.'
`You're a big pig.'
`I hate you.'
Tears were threatening so somebody said, `Did you see the well?' She opened her eyes at that and held
up her long lovely neck suspiciously and decided to be incredulous. She was twelve and at that age little
girls are beginning to suspect most stories: they have already found out too many, from Santa Claus to
the Stork. How could there be a well! In The Dark Walk! That she had visited year after year? Haughtily
she said, `Nonsense.' But she went back, pretending to be going somewhere else, and she found a hole
scooped in the rock at the side of the walk, choked with damp leaves, so shrouded by ferns that she only
uncovered it after much searching. At the back of this little cavern there was about a quart of water. In
the water she suddenly perceived a panting trout. She rushed for Stephen and dragged him to see, and
they were both so excited that they were no longer afraid of the darkness as they hunched down and
peered in at the fish panting in his tiny prison, his silver stomach going up and down like an engine.
 Story
Nobody knew how the trout got there. Even Old Martin in the kitchen-garden laughed and
refused to believe that it was there, or pretended not to believe, until she forced him to come
down and see. Kneeling and pushing back his tattered old cap he peered in. `Be cripes, you're
right. How the divil in hell did that fella get there?' She stared at him suspiciously. `You knew?'
she accused; but he said, `The divil a know;' and reached down to lift it out. Convinced she hauled
him back. If she had found it then it was her trout. Her mother suggested that a bird had carried
the spawn. Her father thought that in the winter a small streamlet might have carried it down
there as a baby, and it had been safe until the summer came and the water began to dry up. She
said, `I see,' and went back to look again and consider the matter in private. Her brother remained
behind, wanting to hear the whole story of the trout, not really interested in the actual trout but
much interested in the story which his mummy began to make up for him on the lines of, `So one
day Daddy Trout and Mammy Trout . . . .' When he retailed it to her she said, `Pooh.
 Summary
Sean O'Faolain's short story of childhood exploration and imagination begins as with a
description of one of twelve-year-old Julia's favorite places, the Dark Walk. This overgrown path
always fills Julia with a scary sense of delight as she runs from the warm sunshine through the
dark damp tunnel of overgrowth. This particular year, she introduces her younger brother
Stephen to the Dark Walk. Julia takes extra delight in her brother's excitement and joyful terror
as they run back and forth on the path. When they get back to the house, the children share their
experiences with the adults. As often happens with competitive siblings, they devolve into name-
calling and arguing.
To put an end to the squabbling, one of the grown-ups asks, "Did you see the well?" At first, Julia
expects this to be yet another made-up story that adults tell to kids. However, her curiosity gets
the better of her, and she returns to the Dark Walk in search of the well. Sure enough, Julia finds a
small well carved into the rock, hidden under ferns and fallen leaves. Incredibly, she finds a
panting trout in the water. Julia rushes back and retrieves her brother. The trout is so interesting
that the two children forget their fear of the place.
 Summary
The presence of the fish amazes the adults as well. They are all at a loss to come up with a rational
explanation of how it came to be trapped in the tiny well. They posit several theories, but nobody
is too convinced. Julia goes back to the well to examine the trout further while Stephen stays
behind to hear his mother's fantastical tall tale she makes up explaining how the fish came to its
place on the Dark Walk.
Julia feels a great deal of sympathy for the trout. Its prison in the rock is so small that it doesn't
even have room to turn around. Wondering what it must eat, she brings it food but the fish does
not eat.
As the long summer days continue, Julia and Stephen's mother continues to tell them bedtime
stories, involving moral lessons and fairy godmothers, to explain the presence of the trout.
Stephen is fascinated by them, but Julia refuses to entertain such nonsense.
Unable to sleep, Julia slips out the window with an ewer and heads over to the trout. In a frantic
moment of fright, Julia reaches into the watery hole, picks up the fish and puts it into the ewer.
Julia runs down to the river and places the fish into the water. In a sense, she has become the
trout's fairy godmother.
The next morning, Stephen comes to her announcing that the fish is gone. Instead of explaining
what she did the previous night, Julia simply says that it must have been a fairy godmother.
 The Trout
Moral of the Story
“The Trout,” a short story written by Sean O'Faolain, shows how
hard it can be to realize that nobody knows everything. Although
there are many people who may be knowledgeable, nobody can
explain everything because there are always; however, that is not a
problem.
The Doll’s House
ANALYSIS
Ambition
ANALYSIS
When I was One-and-
Twenty
ANALYSIS
God’s Gift
ANALYSIS
The Highwayman
ANALYSIS