Analysis of the extract “Metaphor and Metonymy” from David Lodge’s Nice Work

In the extract from Nice Work, the narrator focuses on the relationship between signifier and signify, a central problem for semiotic, which is Robyn’s subject at the university.

In particular, she and Vic discuss about an ad for Silk Cut, a brand of cigarettes, which represents an expanse of purple silk with a slash in it. As in the extract from the 2^nd chapter, David Lodge uses a third person, omniscient and intrusive narrator, alternating the “showing” and the “telling” technique throughout the narration. It is interesting to notice that, after the description of the ad, Robyn’s semiotic analysis is neither reported through a direct speech (there are no inverted commas), nor through a reported speech (there is no introductive verb); Robyn’s words are reported as if they were the narrator’s ones, and the reader is introduced to her analysis without any filter. Thus it seems that her interpretation comes naturally, and this is reinforced by the repetitive use of the adverb “obviously”. In particular, Robyn interprets the ad as a reference to the female body, and the slit as a symbolic representation of a vagina.

Vic Wilcox’s reaction to such an interpretation is a negative one, since the narrator uses the verb “to splutter”, which does not only convey his repulsion towards Robyn’s words, since “to splutter” means “to babble”, and this is a reference to Vic’s use of language, which is a messy one, instead of Robyn’s awareness in the use of words.

Through Vic and Robyn’s dialogue there is no direct intervention of the narrator, who prefers the “showing” technique. However, the reader is led to sympathize with Robyn’s point of view, as Vic is depicted as incapable of effectively contrasting Robyn’s view. As a matter of fact, he is said to be “embarrassed”, and he forces a laugh, and when he realizes he cannot confront Robyn’s theories any longer, he recovers to a general critic to intellectuals, who “always try to find hidden meanings in things”.

Challenged by Vic, Robyn explains to him the origin of the ad, saying that silk first referred to smoothness, suggesting a cigarette which would not cause sore throat or cancer, but, since the public got used of it, someone in the advertising agency decided to create an ad with an expanse of silk and a cut, thus arriving to the complete and final metaphor. Vic rejects this interpretation, and he challenges her by questioning why women smoke “Silk Cut” cigarettes too. After Robyn’s answer, he seems to be even more embarrassed. This effect is achieved by the construction of the dialogue, where Robyn’s observations are always prevalent and Vic’s interventions seem to be pathetic, fragmented and ineffectual.

In the second part of the dialogue, Vic states that he smokes Marlboros, and Robyn takes the occasion to discuss about the relationship between metaphor and metonymy. Robyn draws the distinction directly from Vic’s job and the industrial activity, thus showing that semiotic is not a subject of “dirty minds”, but it is actually a matter which copes with several aspects of everyday life. Robyn’s affirmation “I thought you were interested in how things work” is a very ironic one, since Vic, who is a man devoted to pragmatism, is revealed to be a total ignorant about the real, deeper functioning of items: he is an expert of the surface, but he is unaware of the true meaning hidden beneath.

Robyn ironic attack towards Vic becomes clear in the final par of the dialogue, where she says he smokes Marlboros as a consequence of his metonymic approach to things, which shows a simply mind, not able to make the more complex and subtle connection required for a metaphor.

Indeed, at the end of the dialogue, it seems that Vic has not understood Robyn’s short lesson at all, since his last words (“a plain, ordinary cigarette”) show his complete refusal towards such theories, but this also sarcastically contributes to reinforce Robyn’s analysis of Vic’s simple metonymic mind.