Comment 1 of 5, added on April 17th, 2005 at 4:49 PM.
Schema Theory: An analysis of ‘Death in Leamington’ by John Betjeman
Schema – ‘an internal [cognitive] model of the world built of units which correspond, roughly, to domains of interaction [including the] sophisticated domain of […] linguistic interaction for purposeful beings. [A schema is] the unit of knowledge [or] the internal representation of a domain of interaction in the brain’ (Gregory 1987:696)
When we begin to analyse a poem we seek to comprehend what the poem evokes in us and what the implications of the sensations derived from the poem mean. The interpretation of literary texts is dependant to responses to linguistic devices within a poem but how does this process occur? Semino (1997) offers the following suggestion:
‘It is one of the basic tenets of cognitive psychology that comprehension crucially depends upon the availability and activation of relevant prior knowledge. We make sense of new experiences – and of texts in particular – by relating the current input to pre-existing mental representations of similar entities, situations and events (1997:123) Italics added.
From this claim, it should be possible to demonstrate how conventional poetic metaphor offers the activation of one particular schema in terms of another by activating recognisable characteristics that are transferable or mappable between two separate schemas.
In this assignment I will apply aspects of schema theory to the poem ‘Death in Leamington’ (1978:15) by John Betjeman. The poem will be analysed to show how the metaphors in the poem implicitly refer to death and decay and how an active schema can simultaneously activate additional schema through ambiguity and implicit reference.
The study will investigate the ‘claim[s]that literary texts tend to challenge and modify the reader’s existing schemata’ (Semino 1997:152). The application of schema theory to a literary text may well be beneficial in offering an insightful level of interpretation. It proposes an interesting relationship between pre existing knowledge and a stimulus text; the text possesses the potential for creating a new level of interpretation between lexical features within it and previous reader schema knowledge. In terms of schema theory and the effects of accessing prior knowledge, Semino offers two key conditions which are as follows:
• Schema refreshment – ‘[…] deviations at the level of language and text pose a challenge to the reader’s schemata […] resulting in schema change (1997:153)
• Schema reinforcement – ‘[language and text] strengthen existing schemata’ (1997:153)
The ‘increased interest in the [cognitive] process[es] of literary interpretation’ (1997:152) lead Semino to begin a validation of schema theory by applying it to various poems. The present analysis will use elements of Semino’s analysis, where relevant, to highlight the effects it has on schema activation. The poem ‘Death in Leamington’ was chosen because it contains examples of schemas that are not necessarily associated with death and decay, but in the context of the poem’s inner text world, they appear to contribute toward an omnipresent DEATH schema. The poem was also chosen because it represents what Semino identifies as ‘[a] world [.] that, in possible world terms, [is] fully compatible with the world we live in’ (1997:160).
‘Death in Leamington’ presents a narrative that occurs, for the main, in a bedroom setting. The poem offers a narrative discourse environment in which a third person omniscient narrator begins the poem by conveying the narrative event of the death of a woman. The narration consists of the activation of multiple schemas including: HOUSE, STARS, DECAY, FURNISHINGS, BODILY PARTS, LIGHT, LONELINESS, CARE, SICKNESS, EVENING and DEATH. The diversity of schema present in the poem can be defined as what Cook (Semino 1997) calls ‘open-ended schemata’ (1997:153). Cook states
‘Literary texts typically evoke conflicting and open-ended schemata, and establish complex and novel relationships between them’ (Semino 1997:153)
Semino notes that Cook’s reading of Blake’s ‘The Tyger’ contains the following schemata: TIGER, FOREST, NIGHT, BLACKSMITH, ARTIST, GOD, SPEAR THROWER, TEARS (1997:153). These schemas are connected in the text through ‘deviations, patterns and ambiguities in the language of the text’ (1997:154). The poem ‘Death in Leamington’ creates similar effects by focusing aspects of one schema i.e. LIGHT, and creates subtle nuances that reflect similarities through the use of metaphor, to imply a different schema i.e. DEATH. Cook’s definition of the effects of open-ended schema contained within a text shows how an analysis of this kind might well begin to benefit from an application of the activated schema present within ‘Death in Leamington’:
‘The overall effect of [a] poem, then, is to bring together these schemata either by choosing elements which they already have in common or by establishing new links between them (1997:154) my emphasis
The possibility of creating new links between two separate schemas is a mechanism that operates at the level of metaphoric language. As one example of how this kind of analysis may begin, the possibility of conceptualising a human eye from a BODYPART schema in terms of it being an open or closed window from a HOUSE or FIXTURES schema shows a correlation of similarity between two separate schematic domains. For example, a window may be opened or closed, just as an eye can be; the implications of the initially shared quality between two schemas allows for an additional mapping of supplementary domains. Open eyes link with the physical state of being awake and alive, closed eyes signifies sleep which shares metaphoric associations with death (See Marìn-Arrese 1996). Open eyes enable light to enter the field of vision and closed eyes are connected with darkness, darkness and light have close semantic relationships with daytime and night time, which in turn has a direct association with Lakoff and Turner’s claims regarding the metaphor A LIFETIME IS A DAY (1996:6). From these suggestions there is adequate room to speculate the practicality of conducting an analysis of the schema active in ‘Death in Leamington’ ; it would seem that there is evidence to suggest that the combination of open ended schema present in the poem conveys the overall effect of creating an omnipresent sense of death. With reference to the use of imagery associated with windows, ‘Death in Leamington’ offers two significant inclusions, both marked with the use of definite reference – ‘the plate glass window’ (line 3), and ‘the big round window’ (line 13). Because the reference to ‘the plate glass window’ activates numerous additional schema i.e. LIGHT, DARKNESS, WEAKNESS, it will be analysed in further detail in a later part of the analysis; for now, it will be necessary to look closely at the effects caused by the use of ‘the big round window’. Betjeman uses the nurse as a narrative device to represent the closing of ‘the big round window’ in such a way to metaphorically suggest death. Consider the following:
‘She bolted the big round window
She let the blinds unroll’ (lines 13 – 14)
It is noticeable that the symbolic ‘bolting’ of the window acts as a procedure of conclusiveness. Because the woman is dead, the poem creates the impression that in a metaphoric sense, the window, like the eyes of the dead woman, will not open again. This is further strengthened by the unrolled blind of line 14 as it too activates a DARKNESS schema. The nurse unrolls the blinds before she ignites any of the artificial sources of light in the poem. The entire scene is lit by the weak and pale light of the evening star. The effect of this ‘reinforces’ the schemas of DARKNESS and DEATH as it plunges the narrative into ominous gloom.
In ‘Death in Leamington’ the particularised narrative technique observes characters and events from a conventional, external position which gives a sense of unrestricted knowledge as expected from an omniscient point of view. The knowledge available to this kind of narrator assists Betjeman’s construction of the hints and nuances associated with death using the activated schemas present in the poem. These linguistic tones are created by Betjeman symbolising death and decay implicitly and using non related schemas in correlation with explicitly referred to examples of death i.e. ‘she died’ (line 1), ‘dead as the spoken word’ (line 8), and ‘the grey decaying face’ (line 26).
In her analysis of ‘A Pillowed Head’ by Seamus Heaney, Semino (1997) includes a section that details the use of ‘definite reference and schema activation’ (1997:164). It is useful to elaborate upon how the definite references made in ‘Death in Leamington’ help to create a text world in which inferences about death can be made through indirect metaphoric reference. Semino states the following:
‘Definite reference is made to a number of central components of the narrated event, which can be regarded as default, or at least highly predictable elements of [an active] schema […]’ (1997:164)
This is true of ‘Death in Leamington’ where we can observe components of a HOUSE schema with ‘the upstairs bedroom’ (line 1), ‘the […] window’ (lines 3 and 12), ‘the stairs’ (line 31) and ‘the hall’ (line 32). The referents of the HOUSE schema initially appear as unrelated to a DEATH schema, but as the analysis will show, Betjeman uses the active HOUSE schema to implicitly refer to death and decay. ‘[T]he stucco is peeling’ (line 21) signifies a house in ill repair, ‘yellow Italianate arches’ (line 23) activate a decrepit and stale SICKNESS or DECAY schema, and ‘do you hear the plaster drop?’ (line 24), adds further significance to the overall sense of decline and decomposition. It is arguable that the correlation of a HOUSE or FURNISHINGS schema ‘refreshes’ existing schemata, as it asks the reader to interpret otherwise non associated elements of a death with features of a house. The initial effect of the active schema HOUSE and FURNISHINGS works on the level of representing objects in a way that may be seen as a narrative technique which creates the components of the projected text world. Semino claims that ‘the cumulative effect of […] definite noun phrases, indicates that a schema containing their referents is currently active for the poetic persona, and that readers need to activate such a schema in order to interpret the text […]. Once the schema is activated, it will justify any further definite reference to its component elements’ (1997:165). I would like to argue that this is the case with ‘Death in Leamington’, but the definite references contribute to a different schema activation that operates on an extra-linguistic level.
The imagery associated with light in the poem creates interesting effects that relate to death. The only ‘natural’ light referred to in the poem is ‘the light of the evening star’ (line 2). Every other reference made towards light by Betjeman, is implicit, artificial, tainted or smothered in someway as in ‘she let the blinds unroll’ (line 14), ‘match to the mantle’ (line 15), covered the fire with coal (line 16), and ‘turned down the gas in the hall’ (line 32). The initial reference of light i.e. the starlight, is filtered through the refracting qualities of ‘the plate glass window’ creating an effect of a possible cataract or at least an obscure cognitive representation of something natural1. What is significant here is the active LIGHT schema contributes meaning to the text in such a way as to ‘reinforce’ (Stockwell 2002:79) the schema of DEATH. There are major associations to be made with Lakoff and Turner’s basic metaphor A LIFETIME IS A DAY (1989:6). Consider the following: ‘in this metaphor, birth is dawn, maturity is noon, old age is twilight, the moment of death is sunset, and the state of death is night’ (Lakoff and Turner 1989:6). With reference to the EVENING and LIGHT schemas activated in ‘Death in Leamington’, by ‘the light of the evening star’ (line 2), creates associations with a pallid, weak light and old age. In this context the LIGHT and EVENING schemas combine to enforce the age and the likelihood of death for the woman in the narrative; the implication appears to be a natural transition. The use of LIGHT and EVENING schemas in poetry to signify death are highly conventional; consider the following excerpts from selected poems: ‘do not go gently into that good night […] / rage, rage against the dying of the light ‘(Dylan Thomas in Lakoff and Turner 1989:12), or Catallus ‘[…] when our brief light goes out, there’s a perpetual night to be slept through (1989:12) italics added. Betjeman uses deviant forms of the LIGHT schema to create a subtlety of meaning that is relevant to a DEATH schema. Because the connection between death and darkness is conventional, the effects Betjeman creates can be seen as ‘schema reinforcing’ (Semino 1997:153). The focus of conventional metaphors is part of the normal conceptual system of the users of a particular
1 – There is also a religious connotation associated with the inclusion of the plate glass window which adopts an air of cynicism. The imagery is concerned with the soul leaving the body on a beam of light and traversing heavenwards; the pallid qualities of a weak light such as starlight when refracted through the plate glass window displays the possibilities of a criticism of religious belief.
language and is culturally significant, and associations between domains such as LIFETIME [or DEATH], and DAY [or NIGHT] are therefore stored as units in the mind (Semino 1997:214). Stockwell states ‘schema reinforcement [is] where incoming facts are new, but strengthen and confirm schematic knowledge’ (2002:79). Because metaphor acts as part of our conceptual system and is ‘embodied in grounded experience’ (see Gibbs, Lenz and Francozo 2004), we have no difficulty in perceiving one schema in terms of another. The most effective depiction of light/darkness in the poem in terms of darkness signifying death, is to be found in ‘she […]/Turned down the gas in the hall’ (lines 29-32). The schemas of LIGHT and DARK are depicted here as a sequence of events moving from light to darkness. Because of the relationship between light, daytime and life, and darkness, night time and death, a parallel position between the dying of the ‘gaslight’ and the negative connotations associated with darkness add to the pervasive qualities of death and finality in the poem.
carl
I'm not quite sure how the theory of schema that Carl draws on differs from analysis of symbols, but he does make interesting points about the use of light in the poem and of the life=day symbolism. However, I tend to agree with Dan's comment. I particularly like the appropriately inappropriate jauntiness of the poem's metre and the (rather cruel) satire of "Chintzy, chintzy cheeriness,/Hald dead and half alive."
I'm a bit puzzled about the final line, though: "Turned down the gass in the hall". My thoughts on this are, why is this turned down and the gas still left on in the upstairs bedroom? Is it some sort of mark of respect (echoing the snuffing out of the old lady's life?) or an economy measure? Does "turn down" mean that some light was left on or is it equivalent to what in modern English would be "turn off"? But it's a terrifically executed poem.
Peter Keeble from United Kingdom