The problem of solitude as shown by Priestley.
“Angel Pavement” is a desolate, gloomy and lonely place, located somewhere on the outskirts of London, where not a single sensible well-to-do Englishman would ever set his foot. Rich people do not care at all whether this street exists or not, and, actually they do not have to, as all the entertainments, business interprises and other important luxurious things are to be found in the glamorous dazzling city centers. That is why places like Angel Pavement seem to be a dull unnecessary part of London, the domain of paupers, grey drudges and losers like Smeeth, Dersingham, Turgis, Stanley Poole, Ms. Matfield, Poppy sellers and others. In Priestley’s novel the image of the street inseparably connected with the lives and destinies of the main characters. This place itself is as miserable and unprepossessing as the people who work there. It is put in isolation from the whole city enjoying its complete solitude so that it scares most people away. And only such drudges like the ones from Twigg & Dersingham seem to be quite indifferent to that, simply because all of them to some extent lonesome themselves. They are all different in their troubles, fears, desires, and ambitious and in the same way they differ in their solitude.
At first glance Mr. Dersingham, the owner of this tiny company, dealing with inlays and veneers, seems to be a typical specimen of the smart younger City man. He looks much too good for such a place like Angel Pavement, so as he has got a nice big apartment, a pretty lady for a wife and a lot of friends. Besides, unlike the other people working here he didn’t have to break his back to found this kind of business, he simply inherited from his uncle, that is why nothing seems to bother this man, he has got everything that on in this place can only dream about. But all this is just a mask that helps him to conceal his real feelings. So in reality Dersingham is just a simple loser having achieved nothing worthy in his life. The only thing he can boast of is a few years spent in a private school. He was also deprived of a chance to get an Oxford or Cambridge career, and everything that he tried his hand at has not worked out. Even this business, in which he has been compelled to stroll, does not seem to be his cup of tea. It all has turned for him into a dull routine. And that is what makes him feel lonely and unhappy, he suffers from unfulfillment of his desires and ambitions, and he has nobody to talk about it, so as everybody around (his wife and friends) wants to see him a successful, well-to-do businessman, owner of T & D.
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Mr. Smeeth, the company’s clerk also seems to be quite satisfied with his life and his position in the society. He has got a job which means everything to him and it is not merely a place to earn money, but a place that brings happiness and pleasure. His own family adds the full picture of Mr. Smeeth’s happy life. Having lived for so many years together with his wife Eddie and having two already grown-up children they are still passionately in love with each other. And it seems that thee is nothing else in the whole world that can make this man even happier than he is now. But even within his own family Mr. Smeeth still feels lonely; lonely because, he can not find mutual understanding with his beloved people. He is working all day long devoting himself entirely to what he is doing, but neither his wife nor the kids appreciate that. They all take the money that he earns and are always ready to spend another pound on unnecessary trifles. Of course he is not a miser at all, he has only good intentions trying to save a little bit in order to provide a future life of the whole family. That is why he feels solitary as nobody can understand him and nobody even tries to do that.
The most lonesome person in T&D is the junior clerk Turgis who lives alone and there is nobody to take care of him, nobody to love him. Even his work doesn’t seem to please him much. The only joy that this unprepossessing young man has in life is the cinema, where he has a chance to forget for a while about his miserable reality and to plunge into the world of wonders and glamour, romantic adventures and beautiful young ladies loving and kissing handsome guys. He always tries to escape from this terrible solitude in his imaginary world where he is a successful and prominent figure enjoying all the pleasures of life. But when he comes home he is again that miserable lonely Turgis. He is longing to have a friend, somebody to talk to, share his troubles with. When he meets such a person (Lena Golspie), she becomes almost an obsession for him. His life seems t be divided into two parts: the solitary and miserable life before meeting Lena and the happy life after that. And the fear to be lonely again makes Turgis do crazy things that even ruin his own life.
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The secretary Miss Matfield is a smart and quite an educated woman of her time, she as well as Mr. Dersingham looks much too good for such a place like AP. She comes from a middle-class family and can boast of having received a proper upbringing, but at the same time she is not as happy as she could be. Being almost 30 years old she lives in a boarding house all by herself, still having no family of her own. Miss Matfield feels lonely in this strange place, she doesn’t seem to belong in here at all. She obviously has a mental advantage over the other girls living in the boarding house who are interested only in dances and romantic affairs. And the only person who appreciates her intelligence and who interrupts her loneliness for a while is Mr. Golspie who is actually far from being the romantic type of a man she has always dreamt to meet.
Stanley Poole, the messenger-boy working for the company, and Poppy Sellers, the other secretary, are two more lonesome creatures in AP. Stanley, though still being a young boy, has already experienced what it is like to earn money and support the family. And unlike all the other boys of his age learning at schools and enjoying their freedom, he has been deprived of his happy childhood. Poppy Sellers is just a poor girl who also knows what it is like to be a breadwinner, and this position that she occupies in T&D is her greatest achievement in life. But she also fees lonely in her own way with all the troubles of this life, unfulfilled dreams and desires.
All these people are so different but at the same time they are united by the feeling of solitude that penetrates their lives making them miserable and unhappy. And thus, being preoccupied with their own problems they all have failed to notice that they have been taken in and robbed by a skillful rogue Mr. Golspie. T&D went bankrupt and all of them lost their jobs. But paradoxical as it may seem this tragic and terrible event doesn’t make them suffer as much as we have expected. Their lives are no longer meaningless and there is no place for solitude in them.
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They say, “We always lose and find” and the destinies of Priestley’s characters partially justify the proverb. The bankruptcy of the firm helped Mr. Dersingham to find support and understanding in his family, besides, he has never been good at this kind of business and there is now an opportunity for him to try something else in is life. The family of Mr. Smeeth finally appreciates the good intentions of their father. Turgis and Poppy Sellers have found so much in common between them. Stanley has found an interesting job. And only Miss Matfield is still alone but she doesn’t feel desperate, as she knows that there is so much ahead of her. Thus, having lost their jobs they all had to leave that gloomy, desolate and lonely AP that had been their cage for a long time. The end of the tiny company T&D symbolizes the end of solitude and the beginning of a new life.
26. The character sketch of Mr.Golspie
James Golspie is the most mysterious character in the novel “Angel Pavement” which opens with his arrival & ends with his departure. Priestly endows (наделять ) him with a key role. It is Mr.Golspie who determines the fate of the other characters.
Mr.Golspie is the first to appear in the novel & the author provides us with a detailed description of his appearance. Priestly is a master of description which is usually used to present deep psychological analysis of the characters, to create gloomy reality showing their life conditions. Mr.Golspie is a strong massive figure. He has a formidable(чудовищный) appearance. His distinguishing feature is a tremendous moustache. It is not only huge & long but also horrible & looks like a harbinger (предвестник) of evil & smth ominous (угрожающий). Mr.Golspie resembles Devil who has come down to earth. He is a negative character who causes all the troubles. He never uses his strong character positively, he deliberately hurts others. His inner world is hidden from the reader. We get to know him either from the words of other characters or from his words & behavior. Mr.Golspie frequently uses short abrupt sentences, a great deal of elliptical constructions, vulgarisms & slang expressions that is why he sounds rude & vulgar. He constantly uses such words as ‘hell, devil, bloody, damn’. The only person he really cares for is his daughter Lena.
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Mr.Golspie appears in the Twigg & Dersingham firm & saves their business. He has brought great changes into a boring life of its office workers. Golspie’s arrival breeds many rumors about his personality. He remains a mystery throughout the story. The opinions of other characters of the novel help us to understand his personality better in spite of the fact that their estimations are different.
Mr.Dersingham perceives Golspie as his business partner, as the source of improvement of his business. But he dislikes him as a personality. Golspie’s rude manners repel Dersingham. At the end of the novel he confesses that Golspie was getting on his nerves, he considered him to be an outsider. Moreover, Golspie behaves like a boss in the office.
Ms.Matfield has a kind of affair with Mr.Golspie. She is even in love with him. She finds him unusual & showy (эффектный). He differs from the other men she knows. With his appearance Ms.Matfield’s life becomes full of events. Mr.Golspie invites her to parties, expensive restaurants. He defends her from a drunken man. These deeds impress her greatly. She would even agree to marry him if he proposed. Ms.Matfield treats him as a hero of a play who can manage everything. He makes her feel a real woman.
Turgis is terribly afraid of Mr.Golspie & tries to avoid him. Mr.Smith is also suspicious about him & doesn’t trust him. He is waiting for a dirty trick from him.
Mr.Golspie is too confident, determined & always knows how to act. There are no barriers for him. He is firm & persistent, cruel & merciless, strong morally & physically. He ruins lives of other people. He is a bit impudent (нахальный). But his impudence mixes up with the ability to impress people. He is a very straightforward person.
27. The character sketch of Smith
Herbert Norman Smeeth is one of the main characters of the novel”Angel Pavement” by J.B.Prestley. This novel is realistic and describes the years of economic depression in Great Britain. Smeeth is one of the typical office workers in the City, the business center of London.
He wasn’t young, near his fifties. “His appearance was deceptive. He looked what he ought to have been, and what he was not-a grey drudge. Angel Pavement had thinned his hair and turned it grey, wrinkled his forehead and the space of each side of his short grey moustache, put eye-glasses at one end of his nose and slightly sharpened and reddened the other end, and given him a prominent Adam’s apple. Nevertheless, he wasn’t a grey drudge”.
He was the only one in the office who really liked his job. He was a man of figures. “He had gratitude, a zest, an eagerness that couldn’t be found in the others. They merely came to earn their money. Mr. Smeeth came to work.” He was more himself in the office, than he was in the street outside. He was eager and industrious at work. He felt proud of doing his job and loved the importance, the dignity of his position.
It took years before he became an accountant, he actually started as an office boy 35 years ago. Then he got a position of a junior clerk. For the last 10 years he had been working at Twigg and Dersingham. As he called it, triumphantly arrived. He thought he achieved great hights in his profession and admired it when bank cashiers greeted him in a respectful manner. He felt himself a man of real importance.
Smeeth had a so called fobia of loosing his job, going back to the streets and ending up in a working house. “His days at the office were filled with important and exciting events, all the more important and exciting because they were there in the light, for just beyond them was the darkness in which lurked one great fear, the fear that he might lose his job. Once he stopped being Twigg and Dersingham cashier, what was he?”. This fear could easily be explained as it was the time of the Great Economic Depression and it was not so easy to find a job. There were long queues of the unemployed who were desperate.
Sometimes “he felt queerly insecure, not at all happy with his books, his neat little figures, now that he no longer knew what was happening to the firm”.
When Goldspie arrived, he was careful and suspicious about him. But when he talked to him, Smeeth felt that the business was getting right.
It should be mentioned that nobody in the office really liked his personality. Miss Matfield found him a “ vaguely pathetic creature who loved a grey life in some grey suburb”. The pleasure he got from the job sometimes irritated her. Stainey sometimes wished that in the future he might help Mr. Smeeth when he was in danger. Mr. Dersingham trusted Smeeth.
Prosperity for Smeeth was extra working hours which he didn’t mind at all. Priestley calls him “a man of business and a careful householder”. When he got a rise, he was planning to save money or buy a house. But he knew that he couldn’t keep the secret from his wife, who was quite extravagant.
He was fond of his children, but he couldn’t understand them. He didn’t understand the whole younger generation. He thought that young girls didn’t have “ a scrap of sense”. His son George was both a disappointment.
The bankruptcy of the company was surely a shock for him. “He was shaking a little, not with fear, but with indignation. For years there had been a great shadow haunting and terrifying him.” But it wasn’t such a stroke for him as he had expected it to be. He understood that life goes on, and one needs to live. His family was quite supportive and understanding. So he accepted the idea that he had to join the lines and start looking for a job, quite calmly.
“It was a world that could play all manner of tricks with Herbert Norman Smeeth but could never capture, swallow, and digest the whole of him.”
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