EL VALOR JURÍDICO DEL TIEMPO EN LA EVOLUCIÓN DE LA DISCIPLINA SOBRE EL SILENCIO-INCUMPLIMIENTO

The discussion above has suggested that the implied reader is invited to question the reliability o f Rosalind’s perceptions. However, the story also emphasises the distinction between external and internal appearances in the following ways;

a) Rosalind’s perception of Ernest by external appearances;

b) Rosalind’s perception of other members of the family by external appearances;

c) Rosalind’s perception of her own external appearance contrasted with her inner feelings.

As noted, Rosalind’s perception of Ernest’s ‘personality’ is based on his physical appearance. O f crucial importance for understanding Rosalind’s viewpoint is an incident involving the golden wedding anniversary dinner of Ernest’s parents. The incident relates Rosalind’s dawning realisation that Ernest is, after all, a Thorbum and therefore part of the real world of his family that she finds so alien.

No, she was not happy. Not at all happy. She looked at Ernest, straight as a ramrod with a nose like all the noses in the family portraits; a nose that never twitched at all. (p.73)

The dinner party episode is narrated in B (R) mode, and Rosalind’s opinions about her husband’s family, her feelings of isolation from them and their lifestyle, illustrate the positive shading of the B (R) + ve form, yet beginning with the negativity of the lexical verb of perception ‘wondered’ in the above example. The foregrounding of Rosalind’s feelings at the necessity of attending the dinner party (‘She dreaded that party’) is followed by her recognition that Ernest’s nose has never twitched, and her realisation that her identity is threatened by her marriage into the Thorbum family. This realisation is narrated in a way which contrasts her external appearance, both how she might appear to others and how she appears to herself in a mirror, with her inner feelings.

She was half-hidden by the great chrysanthemums that curled their red and gold petals into large, tight balls. Everything was gold [...]

The raw white fog outside had been turned into a golden mesh that blurred the edges of the plates and gave the pineapples a rough golden skin. Only she herself in her white wedding dress peering ahead of her with her prominent eyes seemed insoluble as an icicle, (pp.73/4)

Initially, the ‘external’ effect produced by ‘seemed’ to describe her appearance suggests an ‘outside’ view o f Rosalind, the distancing effect of B (N) - ve categorised by such words of estrangement. However, this can be re-categorised as B(R) - ve as a result of the following ;-

She felt that her icicle was being turned to water. She was being melted; dispersed; dissolved into nothingness; and would soon faint, (p.74)

The reference to her ‘seeming’ to be ‘insoluble as an icicle’ is an insight into Rosalind’s perception o f herself, and emphasises the potential for appearances to be deceptive. The wedding dress, an external symbol o f marriage, should offer her protection, but inwardly she feels that she is being ‘melted; dispersed; dissolved’ in the midst o f Ernest’s family. Again, the use of FIT allows both an impression of Rosalind’s outward appearance, (her ‘prominent eyes’), and her inner feelings,

particularly with reference to her being ‘half-hidden’ which can refer either to her own perception, or to a view o f her from an external perspective. The reader is thus given a double perspective: Rosalind's vision is obstructed by the flowers, and Rosalind is half hidden from the view of the others. These factors, combined with the references to fog, the ‘blurring’ of the plates and the fact that Rosalind has to ‘peer’ forward, reinforce the impression that her dependence on visual perception is unreliable. In addition, the external view symbolises the apparent security of her position from an outside view, including the trappings of wealth which are shown to be illusory; Rosalind feels anything but secure, and her distorted vision causes her to perceive Ernest’s family as ‘larger’ than they are.

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[...] the round red faces [...] seemed doubled in the giddiness that overcame her; and magnified in the gold mist that enhaloed them. (p. 74)

In these surroundings, Rosalind’s vision is ‘blurred’, and renders her powerless against the ‘doubled’ and ‘magnified’ Thorbum family, until ‘rescued’ by Ernest. The 'fog' which blurs Rosalind's perception of the dinner table is reinforced by the other references to distorted vision (blurred, doubled, magnified) which reflect Rosalind's distorted vision of the real world. The Thorbum's wealth as symbolised by the gold imagery which 'blinds' Rosalind, threatens her with a loss of her own identity.

However, from the perception o f Ernest as a Thorbum like all the others, the introduction of the subject of rabbits into the dinner party conversation causes

Rosalind to ‘peep’ at Ernest, perceiving the return of his nose-twitching. Yet to ‘peep’ at something is not to look at it properly, reinforcing her faulty perception suggesting that she may not see Ernest correctly, and that the transformation in his facial

appearance may actually be only in her imagination. It is worth quoting the whole of this transformation in order to show how great an effect this perception has on Rosalind’s attitude to the Thorbums.

Peeping between the chrysanthemums she saw Ernest's nose twitch. It rippled, it ran with successive twitches. And at that a mysterious catastrophe befell the Thorbums. The golden table became a moor with the gorse in full bloom; the din of voices turned to one peal of lark's laughter ringing down from the sky. It was a blue sky - clouds passed slowly. And they had all been changed - the Thorbums. She looked at her father-in-law, a furtive little man with dyed moustaches. His foible was collecting things - seals, enamel boxes, trifles from eighteenth- century dressing tables which he hid in the drawers of his study from his wife. Now she saw him as he was - a poacher, stealing off with his coat bulging with pheasants and partridges to drop them stealthily into a three- legged pot in his smoky little cottage. That was her real father-in-law - a poacher. And Celia, the unmarried daughter, who always nosed out other people's secrets, the little things they wished to hide - she was a white ferret with pink eyes, and a nose clotted with earth from her horrid underground nosings and pokings. Slung round men's shoulders in a net, and thrust down a hole - it was a pitiable life - Celia's; it was none of her fault. So she saw Celia. And then she looked at her mother-in-law- whom they dubbed The Squire. Flushed, coarse, a bully - she was all that, as she stood returning thanks, but

now that Rosalind - that is Lapinova - saw her, she saw behind her the decayed family mansion, the plaster peeling off the walls, and heard her, with a sob in her voice, giving thanks to her children (who hated her) for a world that had ceased to exist, (p.75)

The vision which appears to Rosalind on her perception that Ernest’s nose twitches allows her to escape from the real world of the Thorbums into the more appealing rabbit kingdom, and symbolises the double perspective that Rosalind is given due to her other identity as Lapinova. Only from the safety of her 'other self can Rosalind contemplate the reality o f the position of the female members of the family. The double perspective o f hiding and being hidden suggests that the ‘protection’ afforded by marriage may be confining, yet may be preferable to a single life. As

‘Lapinova’, Rosalind realises that the unlikeable Celia, the 'unmarried daughter', (i.e. one who lacks a favourable identity) is struggling for survival; 'Slung round men's shoulders, in a net, and thrust down a hole - it was a pitiable life - Celia's; it was none o f her fault.'. Similarly, she is able to see that her apparently powerful mother-in-law is also living an imaginary life; her 'real' life consists of a 'decayed mansion' and children who hate her, yet still she gives thanks '...for a world that had ceased to exist.'. Faced with a horrible reality, Ernest's mother pretends that nothing is wrong. Given the grim picture of entrapment and sadness of the real world for these women, the world o f Lapinova seems preferable, with the freedom that this identity implies. Rosalind can only escape from the real world through the transforming power of her imagination, drawing her more firmly into fantasy. The fact that she is half hidden by the flowers symbolises the way in which she has only seen half the picture, and is improperly perceived by others. She recognises the entrapment of the other women but initially fails to relate this to her own position. Her happiness depends on seeing Ernest’s nose twitch, transforming him into King Lappin, and herself into Queen

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Lapinova, his equal; her unhappiness results from the recognition that perhaps his nose has never twitched, and that therefore he is Ernest Thorbum, and that as his wife, she must accept the role expected of her. No objective narration confirms that Ernest’s nose does actually twitch, but the fact that this is what Rosalind ‘sees’ is enough to allow her to ‘see’ his family as they really are, and to be less intimidated by them as a consequence. Whether or not Ernest consciously twitches his nose, or whether his nose twitches unconsciously, or if in fact it twitches at a ll, are all matters which are left to the reader to decide. Significantly however, the impression is given that

Ernest’s nose-twitching is something which is not controlled by him: unlike the earlier episode in which Ernest twitches his nose on purpose to amuse Rosalind, the emphasis is now on Rosalind’s visual perception, which appears to be faulty. The ‘fact’ that she ‘saw his nose twitch’ is undermined by the hyperbolic descriptions, (‘It rippled, it ran with successive twitches’), suggesting that her imagination causes her to see

something which is less believable than simple twitching. The narration which follows this episode is a mixture of B(N) Neutral, reporting the direct speech between the couple after leaving the party, and B(R) mode.

"Oh, King Lappin!... if your nose hadn't twitched just at that moment, I should have been trapped!"

"But you're safe," said King Lappin, pressing her paw. (p.75)

The phrase ‘pressing her paw’ confirms that this is narration which is still mediated through Rosalind’s consciousness, since it is she who experienced the vision of the imaginary world, and she who is presumably still affected by it. Ernest’s non- commital ‘But you’re safe’ declines to corroborate or contradict Rosalind’s viewpoint. The blending of the two modes has the advantage of illustrating the way that the fantasy world is beginning to permeate Rosalind’s real world; the phrase ‘pressing her paw’ is a reflection o f her increasing inability to discriminate between fantasy and

reality. Similarly, the vision of the moor is more real to her than the dinner party, as is evident in the factive verbs in the description e.g., ‘the golden table became a moor’ and ‘they had all been changed’. Everything in the imaginary world is described as a fact, and the verbs reflect this, whereas the real world is less distinct, portraying Rosalind’s imperfect perceptions.

The story now moves on a period o f two years, and again is situated spatially and temporally from Rosalind’s point of view, on ‘a winter’s night’, (p. 75) when Ernest ‘came home’ from the office. This is still B(R) mode, and again the narration moves from a report o f direct speech, to a narration coloured by Rosalind’s thoughts. as she realises that Ernest is no longer as involved in the fantasy.

“What do you think happened to me to-day?” she began as soon as he had settled himself down with his legs stretched to the blaze. “I was crossing the stream when-”

“What stream?” Ernest interrupted her.

“The stream at the bottom, where our wood meets the black wood,” she explained.

Ernest looked completely blank for a moment. “What the deuce are you talking about?” he asked.

“My dear Ernest!” she cried in dismay. “King Lappin,” she added, dangling her little front paws in the firelight. But his nose did not twitch. Her hands - they turned to hands - clutched the stuff she was holding; her eyes popped half out of her head. It took him five minutes at least to change from Ernest Thorbum to King Lappin; and while she waited she felt a load on the back o f her neck, as if somebody were about to wring it. (p. 76)

The oscillation between the B (R) and B (N) modes again produces a dual vision; Rosalind’s inner feelings, ‘she felt’, and her visual perception are highlighted, including the perception of her hands as ‘paws’. The external view of her (‘her eyes popped half out of her head’) is combined with an internal insight into her feelings and suggests the reason for her appearance, i.e., ‘she felt a load on the back of her neck, as if somebody were about to wring it’. Rosalind relies on Ernest's collusion in the imaginary world, and when this is denied, the fantasy evaporates, (they changed to