DAVID LODGE – NICE WORK

Analysis of Part 2,Chapter 2

The plot of this part of the novel is announced with the quotation that precedes the chapter, taken from "North and South" by Elizabeth Gaskell: here the writer introduces Robyn's visit to Vic's work environment, the “J. Pringle and Sons”, in order to analyze this setting in the dress of a "shadow" of the Managing Director, to accomplish the project proposed by the university of Rummidge where she works as a Lecturer in English Literature.

To read this chapter with awareness, the intelligent reader should not forget that Robyn is not glad to have to participate in this project, but she is forced to accept it to be able, in the future, to put it in her curriculum when she will looking for a new job in case her chair at the university of Rummidge won't be renewed.
So her impact with the factory environment turns out to be immediately negative.

The part that I'm going to analyze in this text is the following one to the "peek" Vic and his collaborators, his secretary Shirley and his Marketing employee Brian Everthorpe, gave to Robyn through an insight into a window that had been previously painted but which someone had scraped a piece of paint from. Lodge tells this scene by ridiculing the trio, who climbs on the furniture out of curiosity, as if they were children, before, and then the coward Vic, who anxiously does not know what to expect from his shadow, who is not only a woman ,in contrast with what had been announced to him, but who is also an educated one.

As Vic did with her during the "espionage", so Robyn does with Vic when the two meet in his office. Robyn's arrival is once again mocked by Brian Everthorpe, who fully embodies the ideals of a sexist man. Despite the elegant desk behind which he hides, Vic appears immediately to Robyn not like she had imagined, a man who typifies the term "managing director" in accordance with general standards (an imposing figure, gray-haired, a bit in flesh, with striking jewelry and a cigar in his hands) but a little pale and drawn man in front of the slender figure of the girl who feels reassured by the lack charm of Vic.
David Lodge makes us understand, through the narrative technique of the telling with which he describes the physical aspects of the characters, that even a woman with principles like those of Robyn can initially stop at appearances, just as would do an average male, like Vic. The distinction is given later, when the two protagonists shake their hands and look into each others' eyes to introduce themselves: it is at that moment that Robyn sensed by such a simple action, that behind the tense face of that "funny man" could actually hides an interesting person.

During the discussions between Vic and Brian, the first attempts to prove his superiority over the other but this element, although it is slightly swaggering by Vic, it describes the truth of things: in fact, when Everthorpe leaves Robyn and Vic talk alone and takes off from the disorder, ends with the umpteenth sexist phrase (although in a more formal way than the one he used when he met the girl at the store), while Vic turns out to be a gentleman in the act of taking her coat off and offer her a coffee.
When Vic lights the cigarette it seems as if he has read in the girl's mind. This gesture triggers reluctance in Robyn who feel no longer confortable in having to observe Vic through the cloud of smoke that now separates them. From his part, Vic does not waste time to weigh to the girl the fact that, because of her delay, he had to postpone a meeting.
On the other hand, Robyn is compelled to recognize her lack of respect ... but not entirely! She, in fact, feels rather pleased to have participated in the picketing at the university and therefore to have postponed for a week the "Project Shadow" because it is part of university's projects. Despite her personal satisfaction, she apologizes to Vic explaining the causes of her postponement and he, emphasizing the distance between the university environment and the one of the factory, opposes to the strikes, actually referring to those of his factory workers, that they do when they feel not to get paid enough, and they are also victims of the cuts.
Here starts the debate between Robyn and Vic and then the discount between the ideals of their respective working environments.

The issue opens on the money coming by England's purse and, according to Robyn, are used for defense instead of be used to fund peace projects (such as universities).As a factory man, Vic defends his environment by stating that, if the production of parts for weapons should cease, the ones facing the cuts would be them .
Now Robyn moves the focus point of the discussion on the factory asking Vic if, also there, took place strikes. Vic replied, proudly, that his men do not go on strike, showing an air of superiority and concreteness in relation to the university environment.

Moving on to the "Shadow Scheme", that is the only thing that seems to connect the two environments momentarily, the characters turn back to the university environment and, once again, Vic proves reluctance saying "We did Julius Caesar for O-Level (. ..). Hated it, I did. "
His surly ways increase when Robyn claims to be a teacher of women's studies and thus to support the feminist principles; Vic is shown in disbelief at the fact that one can graduate in this discipline, adding that he thinks it's "trinkets recently" and increasing his sexist theories wondering if only girls attend her course, but, as if it is not enough, he engages in defining "nancy boys" males who follow it. Therefore, in addition to the difference between the two working environments, and between the two individuals of Vic and Robyn, there is also a difference between men and women, where the first still feels domineering father of capitalist society and struggle to break away from this stereotype.
The factory is defined by a purely practical mentality and in fact Vic proposes to Robyn feminist studies, the mechanical engineering faculty alternative as this would create youth human intended to produce work but no ideas, money but no feelings. In Robyn's opinion, money is not the only way to happiness and she takes herself as an example (perhaps she will lose her job, but she likes to teach that matter anyway).

Another item of discussion between the two different mindset is the relationship between balance and insecurity: Vic, who is a factory man and then used to replace men with men or men with machines constantly, thinks it is unacceptable that a teacher can have a fixed chair but when Robyn tries to explain that the fault is of the cuts if she does not have a permanent office, the Managing Director comes back again to earnings speech demonstrating his closed and compartmented-minded (just like a factory!).

The meeting will temporarily ends in a fool by Robyn who, when Vic gets up to go to the toilet, makes for follow him using as an excuse the phrase "Are not I supposed to follow you everywhere?" with which she resumes the aim of the "Shadow Project". To reduce the embarrassment, she admits to have to carry to the bathroom and then the two will come together in the following five minutes.