The Nine Tailors Commentary free essay sample

In this passage from The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers, Wimsey, the main character, climbs up a bell- ­? tower and endures the deafening vexatious shrills of the bells. The clangor from the bells causes him extreme amounts of pain and suffering. Throughout the passage, Wimsey struggles to keep the noise from harming him as he tries to climb up the belfry. Sayers portrays Wimsey’s painful situation with the use of vivid auditory imagery regarding the deafening noise of the bells and with the use of personification to amplify the magnitude of the destructive force of the bells. She is as well able to create an apprehensive and menacing  mood in the passage with enumeration to mimic the incessant violent nature of the bells and with an uneven paragraph structure to convey tension and to slow down the narrative of the story. All throughout the passage, Sayers adds life and substance to the bellicose sounds using vivid auditory imagery to create a chaotic and violent scene while portraying Wimsey’s state of pain as he climbs the ladder using. We will write a custom essay sample on The Nine Tailors Commentary or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The use of personification enlivens the violent sound making way for its devastating toll on Wimsey. The bell- ­? tower reaches and exceeds its limit and becomes supersaturated, â€Å"drenched and drunken with noise. † Sayers  personifies the tower as the noise makes it â€Å"stagger like a drunken man†(Sayers 6- ­? 7) turning into a completely mindless belligerent being far off from its normal state. Sayers writes of the â€Å"brazen fury of the bells† (Sayers 4- ­? 5) assaulting Wimsey’s ears as he first enters the bell- ­? chamber. An impudent chaotic barrage of noise stuns Wimsey before he even begins climbing the last ladder. The â€Å"unendurable shrill clangour†(l. 16) creates the auditory image of an unrelenting high- ­? pitched resonating sound. The sound then escapes the realm of simple noise and crosses into the category of shear pain as wimsey’s â€Å"ear- ­? drums were  cracking. †(l. 14) Any attempt to block the pain proves futile as the clamor overpowers Wimsey rendering him weak against such violent forces. Sayers compares the noise to a â€Å"sword in the brain†(l. 10), as though the poignant noise slowly pierces his skull. Whether â€Å"pieced through and buffeted† (l. 8) or â€Å"head dizzy[ing] and stomach retch[ing]†(l. 21), Wimsey succumbs and falls victim to the noise. In addition, the pain has a psychological effect on the character as his â€Å"senses swam away†(l. 14- ­? Michael Abushacra English SL 15) and he seems lost in time on the ladder barraged by pure incessant noise. One sense, his hearing, receives so much information, that all other senses seem to dull away and leave him incapacitated. The noise and pain also causes a loss of understanding when Wimsey â€Å"felt rather than stepped†(l. 25) onto the roof. Stunned, he cannot distinguish his actions rather he just feels with one of his last conscious senses. Wimsey’s exposure to the noise simply underlines his weakness in the passage proving how an inanimate force causes him so much pain and suffering. It is also worthy to note the significance of the last sentence in the passage. Originally, the â€Å"demoniac clangor†(l. 26) and torment fill the bell tower yet externally, the noise â€Å"transmute[s]†Ã‚  into a harmony. The idea of ambiguity of external beauty arises in sound or aesthetics and whether that beauty mimics internally. What sounds or looks beautiful on the exterior may be infinitely worse on the interior. Since the effect of the noise takes such a toll on Wimsey, Sayers builds tension in and leading up to the torment while also slowing down the narrative during his painful endeavor using progression of events, enumeration and an uneven paragraph structure. Tensions build before and after Wimsey enters the bell chamber creating a constant crescendo of events. As Wimsey makes his way to the bell chamber, he â€Å"pass[es] sweating  ringers†(l. 2- ­? 3) or the mechanisms of the bell- ­? chamber. The idea of â€Å"sweat† builds tension and foreshadows the impending entrance into the bell- ­? chamber. Sayers creates a sense of escalation before Wimsey enters the bell- ­? chamber through the mention of sweat or anxiety and then the rapid â€Å"brazen fury of the bells†(l. 4- ­? 5) that falls onto his ears as soon as his head rises into the chamber. Once Wimsey enters the chamber, tensions build as he â€Å"clings desperately to the ladder†(l. 8) and then feels the blood â€Å"swelling†(l. 11) in his head to a â€Å"bursting- ­? point†(l. 11) until he finally feels his â€Å"ear- ­? drums†(l. 14) cracking. The obvious crescendo of events unfolds as Sayers goes on to depicts the shear pain Wimsey endures. Moreover, the effect of the noise slows down the narrative as Sayers puts more emphasis on Wimsey’s physical and psychological torment. Sayers breaks down the moment when Wimsey climbs the ladder and elaborately expresses the chaos and violence. An uneven paragraph structure causes and Michael Abushacra English SL emphasized this breakdown in narrative. In the first shorter paragraph, the narrative is more fluid as Wimsey makes his way past the sweating ringers, â€Å"climb[s] again†(l. 3) and the noise falls upon him yet not to its full effect. On the contrary, in the second paragraph Sayer’s expresses the full effects of the noise on Wimsey which translates into a larger section of text containing and taking advantage of the multiple auditory images and personifications mentioned earlier. In this paragraph, Sayers utilizes the idea of enumeration or the listing of multiple effects the sound has on the poor boy while writing: â€Å"a grinding, bludgeoning, ran- ­? dan, crazy, intolerable torment. † (l. 13) This enumeration elongates the narrative and adds a sense of redundancy tying into the fact that the bells ring at such a repetitive manner, much like the high pitched sustained  shrill mentioned earlier. The consequential effect the bells have on Wimsey makes him unable to move and incapacitated by their loud violent nature, therefore slowing down the narrative and extending the paragraph size. After the ordeal, Wimsey exits the chamber onto the roof and the pace of the narrative picks up although remnants of the torment linger and are still present. Sayers clearly portrays Wimsey’s dire and painful situation climbing the bell tower through vivid auditory imagery and personification. Not only do the bells stun Wimsey but they also break down the narrative and extend the paragraph structure. A single moment  freezes as Sayers elongates and dissects it to reveal the multiple effects the bells have on Wimsey. The idea of a religious undertone to this passage also exists. The mentioning of â€Å"demoniac†(l. 26), â€Å"assault of devils†(l. 16) and â€Å"sank back into the pit†(l. 26) ironically refers to hell when many bell towers are located on churches or places of worship. The sound retreats back into the tower resembling the devil retreating back into hell. Although religion is not prevalent throughout the entire passage, the idea of the sound becoming a physical force and harming somebody depicts a divine connection between the inanimate and the living.