ROBYN'S CHARACTERISATION

The writer organizes Robyn's description into two main sections: the first one (paragraph 1,2 and 3) regards Robyn's way of thinking, her opinions and her thoughts, while the second one (paragraph 4) is about her morning activities or , better to say, her routine.

First, the novelist puts Robyn in contrast to Vic, e.g.: ‘let us leave Vic Wilcox to meet a very different character' (line 3, chapter 2), then, gives the reader some information about her occupation and finally, provides a second piece of information about her way of thinking. In addition to this, her own name " Robyn" reminds of Robyn Hood, who robbed the rich to help the poor and her surname "Penrose" recalls the images of a pen and a very feminine flower, the rose.

Davis Lodge introduces Robyn's ideas of literature and society. He writes about her disbelief for the concept of character because it is the result of a Capitalistic view of the World. This means that the novelist is a capitalist of imagination. Furthermore, she does not believe in the "self" or in the figure of the author, but she feels very strongly about texts being a product of intertextuality. And as you read on, Robyn is described as a woman who has always much more to say, even when she says she has not.  

The last piece of information in paragraph 4 concerns her feelings. The writer might realizes that the information he has just given makes the reader inclined to imagine Robyn as an inhuman person. That is why he then underlines that Robyn is not inhuman. He does this by showing that not only does she have all the natural human feelings, but also a spontaneous inclination to try and make the world a better place.

Also in the second section, which deals with actions Robyn does, the writer puts Robyn and Vic in opposition: she sleeps until woken while Vic does not.

Then, Lodge starts describing Robyn's actions in a January Monday morning. The time information is important because it is related to her particular feelings in that morning. She is a little bit anxious as she always is at the beginning of a new term, even if she has been teaching for some eight years. To calm herself she does some yoga exercises so the reader can understand that she practices a yoga course.

At the end the last information given to the reader is about a certain Charles, who, it can be understood, is a person closed to Robyn and he is a little sceptical about her yoga exercises.