Topic 8 - Discourse structure and point of view > Discourse structure and point of view > Task C

Discourse structure and point of view

Task C - Viewpoints in Comeclose and Sleepnow by Roger McGough

Although most poems have one level of discourse, some, like plays, have two, and a few may even have three.

Consider the poem 'Comeclose and Sleepnow', which we have already examined in some detail in the 'analysing a whole poem' page of the poetry self assessment tool, and draw a discourse structure diagram for it. When you have done so, compare your diagram with ours.

Our diagram

Variations from the prototypical two-level discourse structure of drama

We can see from the example in Task C that although poetry is prototypically a genre involving one level of discourse, some poems can actually have the 'doubled' discourse more typical of drama. Similarly, drama can sometimes have an extra (in this case a third) level of discourse. A famous play that has three discourse levels is A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt . This play is about Sir Thomas More, the head of the Catholic church in England during the reign of Henry VIII. Henry wants More to agree with his wish to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, so that he can take another wife. But the Pope in Rome has not agreed to the divorce and so More can't either. History tells us that Henry eventually got his way, but at the price of a schism with the Catholic church which began the Reformation and the establishment of the Church of England. And at the end of the play More is imprisoned in the Tower of London, awaiting his execution. At the beginning of this play, one of the minor characters, the Common Man talks directly to the audience and comments on what is going on in the play. This is something which he does from time to time throughout the play. Whenever he does this, he is effectively acting as a narrator. But the same actor also plays the role of More's servant, his steward. He steps out of his narrator role to do this, putting on the hat and coat of the steward, and Bolt's name for him changes in the text from 'Common Man' to 'Steward' and back again, as his role changes back and forth. Thus, to represent the discourse structure of A Man for all Seasons adequately we would need three abstract levels of discourse structure. Imagine that in the play More is having a conversation with Henry VIII and the Common Man, unobserved, is commenting to us on what they are saying:

Addresser 1 (Robert Bolt)		Message		Addressee 1 (Audience/Reader)
Addresser 2 (Common Man: Narrator)		Message		Addressee 2 (Audience/Reader)
Addresser 3 (More)		Message		Addressee 2 (Henry VIII)

Although we need three levels of discourse structure to account for this play, it is also important to notice that the play's 'discourse architecture' changes from one point to another. When the Common Man is present we need to take account of the middle level, the narrator level. But when the Common Man narrator is not present the play reverts to the standard two-level discourse architecture prototypically associated with plays.

On the next page, The discourse structure of the novel, we're going to look at the discourse architecture of several well-known novels, some of which are 1st person and some of which are 3rd person.

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