MASTERCLASS
Image matters
Helen M Walters uses a short story by Lucy Caldwell to explore the significance of props and accessories in creating fictional characters
Helen M Walters
In Poison by Lucy Caldwell we find our main character observing other people’s lives, inserting herself into parts of the narrative and filling some of the gaps in for herself. It’s at times as though she is observing characters in a play, and intermittently trying to writing their parts for them whilst creating a cameo role for herself. We’re going to look at how this effect is created throughout the story, and as always, you’ll get the most out of this masterclass if you read the story for yourself: https://writ.rs/poison
In the opening scene, our main character is observing two people in a bar and realises that one of them is a face she recognises from the past. Mr Knox was a significant presence in her teenage years; he was her teacher and also someone she had a major crush on.
Let’s look at how the props and accessories surrounding Mr Knox help us to build up a picture of him.
First of all, the way he dresses is different from the other teachers. He wears brightly coloured shirts, rather than the dull neutrals favoured by his colleagues, and loafers or Chelsea boots. He has floppy hair and stubble, and he smokes Camels and wears mirrored sunglasses. Notice how the narrator describes him as being like an off duty film star. Then there is the fact that he is a teacher of French and Spanish, addressing his students in those languages, and that also adds an air of the exotic that perhaps wouldn’t have been there if he had been a Physics or Maths teacher.