BANFORD'S CHARACTERIZATION

In the present text, I am going to discuss why I think the narrator has characterized Banford in opposition with March. They are two of the protagonists of D.H. Lawrence’s short story, “The Fox”. In order with my argumentation, I want to begin with analysing characters’ names.

NAMES

First of all, the narrator resorts to the choose of the proper name. In the case of Banford, her name reminds to the verb “to band” which means to tie together. The name is suitable because Banford always wants to make decisions for March. In fact, when Harry asked March to marry, Banford did not agree, so she gave her a lot of point of view in order not to marry him.

The name underlines that Banford wants to tie everybody to her point of view. A good example is when she insists for March to kill the fox. Besides, she tried to convince her not to marry Harry.

In the case of March, her name recalls the third month of the year, which represents birth and fertility, it also recalls to the verb “to march”, meaning a strong personality.

PHISICAL APPAREANCE

The narrator characterized them physically opposite. Banford is exteriorly a “small, tiny and delicate person with a pair of glasses”, so she cannot do heavy works; those takes care March, which looks more robust and her body looks like a man body because she worked in a carpentry and in a joinery. She had crisp dark hair, two big, wild, dark eyes, her mouth was pinched and she has a strong pair of shoulders. They are not too young, but also not too old; they are both about 30.

USUAL ACTIVITIES

The narrator characterized Banford preferring womanly characteristics such as doing housework, cooking, reading, knitting and feeding the ducks while March privileges doing outwork like looking for the farm, cutting trees, bringing home wood, doing heavy works and killing the fox, for example.

BEHAVIOUR

A further category to analyse characters is their behaviour. Banford always wants to control people’s choices, for example, she wants March to kill the fox and she does not want March to marry Henry. She wants to live with March without Henry, because she wants to take care of her, what generally happens in families.

Banford has a stronger character, she wants to dominate March and she is headstrong on her ideas, indeed she died at the bottom of the novel exactly because she strongly believed that she has the right and Henry is wrong.

March is fragile under the mental viewpoint; she cannot take decisions by herself, so Banford can influence her decisions, for example, she forced March not to marry with Henry.

CONCLUSION

From these arguments, I can conclude that the author characterized Banford and March to be one the opposite of the other regarding these categories of characterization: names, physical appearance, usual activities and behaviour.