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ChapterPlotCharacterKey Quotations1Stephen struggles to place a scent that prompts a strange feeling. His daughter tells him that it's just the smell of privet using its German name: Liguster. Stephen reveals that an event happened years prior which is the reason for his feelings towards the smell. Stephen decides to revisit his old house in London: "...take a walk down memory lane...Stephen WheatleyThe narrator. Majority of the novel is him looking back on his childhood. He seems to have been a shy boy, something of an outsider. He grows up across the text. Keith HaywardHe seems to leads Stephen astray. He is of a higher class than Stephen or Barbara. He has a vivid imagination and a vicious streak. Thinks his mum is a spy.Barbara BerrillStephen has a crush on her. She spies on the boys. She encourages Stephen to break free from Keith and be more independent.Mrs HaywardKeith’s mother. Mystery of novel surrounds her: is she a German spy? Mr HaywardA sinister man – spends much of his time locked away in his shed. He is capable of unpleasant violence.Mr WheatleyStephen’s attitude to his father changes over the text – he is not, perhaps, the timid man first seen.Uncle PeterAuntie Dee’s husband – fighting abroad and seems to be a war hero.Auntie DeeMrs Hayward’s sister – she visits her regularly and seems to ‘disappear’ there.The third week of?June?and there it is againThere were things that no one ever explained. Things that no one even said. There were secretsThose six simple words . . . 'My mother is a German spy'He was the leader and I was the ledOur house was made even more shameful by the partner it’s yoked toShe’s a stranger in our midst, watching us with alien eyesEven the untidiness itself glowed with a kind of sacred light … because they reflected the glory of Uncle Peter.”Stephen Wheatley has become this old man who seems to be meLike Keith’s mother he’s putting on a performance; he’s trying to conceal his true natureKeith’s eyelids have come down. His face is set and pitiless. He looks like his fatherThe dark of the moon’s coming, and it’s going to be more frightening than we thoughtThere’s something sad about our life, and I can’t quite put my finger on what it isThe game’s not over. It’s simply become a more terrible kind of gameNow she’s trying to supplant Keith as the one who makes the plans and projects!Lamorna. A distant land across the sea, blue on the blue horizon. He smiles his father’s thin smileThe game’s finally over-3619526352500Everything in the Close is as it was; and everything has changed(If you scan in this QR code, you will see an interview with Michael Frayn discussing the writing of this text.)2Stephen returns to the Close he grew up. He recollects his past. We are introduced to some of the characters he remembers from his past: Keith and his parents, Aunty Dee and Stephen's own family. As Stephen remembers things he begins to realise he might not be able to quite trust his memory and it's accuracy3Stephen and Keith begin to spy on Keith's mother as part of one of their games. They read her diary and discover marks which they believe to contain secret meanings. She then discovers the two and send them outside Stephen and Keith retire to their hideout in the bushes. Keith makes Stephen swear that won't reveal the details they were uncovering. Keith then makes a sign for their hideout saying 'Privet' which they think says 'Private'4During school time, Stephen and Keith are unable to spy on Mrs Hayward successfully. On Saturday, they follow Mrs Hayward to Aunty Dee's but she leaves and ‘disappears’. For days, the boys follow Mrs Hayward but nothing sees out of the ordinary until she varnishes again.5Stephen and Keith realise that Mrs Hayward has not been disappearing but going through a tunnel in the embankment. There they find a box with a packet of cigarettes in it. Stephen is visited by Barbara Berrill who shocks Stephen by telling him that she has seen Aunty Dee kissing her boyfriend by the tunnelMrs Hayward finds Stephen in the hideout and asks him to stop spying on people and leading Keith astray.6At night, Stephen goes to the railway embankment in the light of the full moon and discovers clothes inside the box that he and Keith had originally discovered cigarettes. He is discovered by someone and, terrified, grabs a sock and runs away. When he returns with Keith the metal box has gone. They follow Mrs Hayward to the wasteland but lose her. The boys amuse themselves by throwing stones and realise that someone is hiding in a disused cellar. 7 Stephen goes to Keith's house only for Keith to ignore him. Mr Hayward demands his thermos flask which he believes Keith has taken: he canes his hands. Stephen tells Keith’s mum.8 Stephen is on his own for days: apart from Barbara. Mrs Hayward comes to the hideout to give Stephen a letter. Stephen follows a policeman from Auntie Dee's to the Haywards. Barbara visits the hideout yet again and this time she and Stephen smoke a cigarette. Stephen decides that Mrs Hayward has fallen in love with a German Airman that has been shot down9Mrs Hayward convinces Stephen to take a basket of provisions and a letter to the man in hiding. Barbara comes to the hideout before Stephen has had time to leave. They smoke, she kisses him and insists on seeing the contents of the basket. They begin to fight when she opens the letter. Mr Hayward calls Stephen and makes him surrender the basket. Plagued by all that has happened, Stephen begins having nightmares He takes supplies from his own house but as he approaches, a voice calls his name.10Stephen listens to the man under the corrugated iron. He takes a silk scarf, to Mrs Hayward: he finds that the scarf is a map of the German countryside. He is discovered by Keith who wounds Stephen with a butter knife because he believes he has broken their oath. Stephen goes the railway embankment to hide the scarf but he finds the place full of men.11Back in the present, Stephen looks at the Close and wonders what has become of the silk scarf. He fills in brief details of the rest of his childhood and what became of some of the characters. He reflects on when he realised who the man in hiding was. He feels homesick as he turns to leave the CloseStylistic/ Language FeaturesThemesContextMultiple narrators – Stephen as a child. Stephen as a man. He is a self-confessed ‘unreliable’ narrator. Likewise, the third person narrative voice here is slipperly.Bildungsroman – this is a novel of Stephen’s growth into adulthood and greater understandingMystery novel – as well as the characters, the reader is likewise trying to solve the mysteryUse of humour – sarcasm, military time, naivety of kids – dramatic irony as reader knows moreSensory details – Stephen’s memories are filled with sensory details – smell is especially importantSymbolism – privet hedge, tunnel, cigarette, bayonet, different coloured belts, scarves, photograph, Lamorna, Summertime vs AutumnForeshadowing – the reader is constantly alert that something terrible happens. Kept guessing until the end. Disquieting mood of doom lies over the textLeadership and PowerAwakeningChildhood vs AdulthoodLoyalty and BetrayalClass and social background -Description of different housesNarrative UncertaintyTruth and LiesWar and ConflictRole of the imaginationAutobiography? – the world around Stephen is from Frayn’s personal experience. He was likewise twelve at end of the war. He lived in Ewell and had a friend like KeithWW2 – RAF crucial to Britain’s safety in war: hence, Uncle Peter is viewed as a hero. 55’000 Bomber Command airman killed. Bombing raids were controversial though.Men and Women – husbands seem to have complete control over wives on the surface, but both Mrs Hayward and Barbara seem to fight against this worldview. ................
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