The story is narrated in the 3d person. The third person point of view
is impersonal which fits the impersonal atmosphere of the household.
The text is full of
different stylistic devices. The extract may be divided into 4 logically
complete parts:
The exposition, in which we learn about little Nicholas, his
cousins and his strict aunt. Nicholas got into his aunt’s disgrace. So his
cousins were to be taken to Jagborough sands that afternoon and he was to stay
at home. The aunt was absolutely sure that the boy was determined to get into
the gooseberry garden because “I have told him he is not to”.
The complication, when Nicholas got into an unknown land of
lumber-room. Forbidden fruit is sweet and truly the lumber-room is described as
a storehouse of unimagined treasure. Every single item brings life and
imagination to Nicholas and is symbolic of what the adult of real world lacks.
He often pictured to himself what the lumber-room was like, since that was the
region that was so carefully sealed from youthful eyes. The tapestry brings to
life imagination and fantasy within Nicholas, the interesting pots and
candlesticks bring an aesthetic quality, visual beauty which stirs up his
creative mind; and lastly a large square book full of coloured pictures of
birds.
The climax of the text. While the boy was admiring the colouring
of a mandarin duck, the voice of his aunt came from the gooseberry garden. She
got slipped into the rain-water tank and couldn’t go out. She demanded from the
boy to bring her a ladder, but he said her voice didn’t sound like his aunt’s.
“You may be the Evil One tempting me to be disobedient” – said a little boy
desiding the Justice must be done. The Aunt tasted the fruit of her own
punishment on the children. She is accused of falling from grace, of lying to
Nicholas about jam and thus termed the Evil One. She feels what it is like to
be condemned.
The denouncement. The
Aunt is furious and enforces in the house. She maintained the frozen muteness
of one who has suffered undignified and unmerited detention in a rain-water
tank for thirty-five minutes. Nicholas was also silent, in the absorption of an
enchanting picture of a hunter and a stag.
The ending of the story reveals
the author’s social comment about the differences between the world of the
child and adult. Though the aunt is furious, Nicholas is thinking about the
hunter tricking the hounds by using the stag as a bait. It shows a great gap of
indifference between the aunt and Nicholas.
