Re: RARA-AVIS: Woolrich's "Fright" - 1st vs 3rd person narration

From: harry.lerner@mail.mcgill.ca
Date: 21 Feb 2008


I don't feel sorry for Marshall, I was just trying to contextualize his actions in terms of his perception of reality as gleaned through the lens of his internal struggle. Obviously one can easily argue against the validity of his perceptions and therefore call into question Marshall's intelligence or obvious lack of it.

Best, Harry

Quoting Patrick King < abrasax93@yahoo.com>:

> --- harry.lerner@mail.mcgill.ca wrote:
>>
>> I also agree Marshall's choices are less than
>> logical but remember his
>> conscience and his sense of self-preservation are in
>> constant conflict.
>> In this context, what seems irrational and even
>> illogical often is
>> the only thing that makes any sense. If you view
>> Marshall in this
>> light he isn't quite as dimwitted as he otherwise
>> may appear. Anyway,
>> just my take on it.
> ******************************************************
> But these choices depend on the fact that Marshall
> suffers from low self-esteem and cowardice. Marshall
> is a sociopath as opposed to a psychotic. A psychotic
> has a severe mental problem, disassociated from
> reality. A sociopath has a severe personality problem.
> Marshall can never own up to any mistake and goes to
> extreme measures to cover up a murder than never
> happened because he's too cowardly to even check what
> happened. Sure, if I were a sociopath maybe I'd make
> the same kind of mistakes starting giving the girl
> money in the first place. But excusing Marshall's
> stupidity like that avoids Woolrich's point in writing
> the novel in the first place. We're supposed to learn
> something from Marshall's mistakes, not feel sorry for
> him.
>
> Patrick King
>
>
>
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