Death by scrabble- aflevering PDF

Preview

Summary

Death by scrabble- aflevering...

Description

Death by Scrabble Most people have routines. This can be a benefit or be boring. In the story “Death by Scrabble” by Charlie Fish (2012), the routine in the marriage is to play scrabble and according to the husband this is boring. The theme in the short story is a marriage in dispute because we witness a married couple where the man’s hate and dissatisfaction with his wife appear. It is a hot day and the married couple are sitting and playing scrabble to occupy the time. Despite the hot weather they are sitting inside without speaking to each other. During the game the husband discovers a horrible secret that will have a fatal effect later on. “Death by scrabble” is an abstract crime fiction because there is not an actual crime, but rather a text that prepare the readers for a crime and then ends with an open ending. The story only focuses on one major character and leads up to a major transformative event. The short story only focuses on the husband's psychological approach through thoughts, feelings and angles, which gives the story a more modern approach throughout the text. “Death by scrabble” is about a marriage, where the couple is playing scrabble. The couple communicates through the words in scrabble. Towards the end of the story the man gets suspicious and thinks that the game may be jinxed, which he finds out is true. His plan about killing his wife unfortunately backfires, and before he knows his wife is a step ahead of him and he ends up getting killed by her. The story ends very surprisingly by the wife murders him instead of him murdering his wife, and therefore the story has a surprise ending. This could also be seen as a plot twist, because the woman’s action comes as a surprise to the readers. The words in the scrabble game are signs that lead to a dramatic event, which is called foreshadowing. The words the couple are playing, are clues to what might happen to one another. For example, when the wife plays SIGN, the husband starts chewing on the B. This is a sign for his death, because he eventually chokes on the letter B. Another sign could be when he plays QUAKE, and the ground starts to shake. These signs lead up to a suspense, which is when the man gets killed. The short story is told in first person narrator by the husband. For instance, this can be seen when the husband describes the current situation in the following quote, “I watch my wife’s smug expression as she rearranges her letters.” (p. 1, ll. 12-13). The narrator in the short story is quite unreliable, because the story is affected by his very strong opinions and pessimistic approach. The story is written from the man’s perspective and not third person point of view or the wife’s point of view. Throughout the story you get to know the man’s

feelings and thoughts. The story might have looked different if it was told from the wife’s point of view. The main character is a 42-year-old man, who is a complex character because we get more and more information about him through the story. He is very pessimistic about the game of scrabble he and his wife are playing. He is frustrated with his wife and their marriage. Furthermore, he is generally unsatisfied with his wife and her actions. During the story his hate for his wife grows, which can be seen in the following quotes, “It’s a hot day and I hate my wife.” (p. 1, l. 1), “She tells me she has lousy letters. For some reason, I hate her more.” (p. 2, ll. 9-10) and “I really, really hate her.” (p. 2, l. 38). The quotes show that the husband's hatred is increasing towards his wife. He thinks that if he was not married to the wife, he would be out doing exercise, spending money and meeting people. He uses her as an excuse for his miserable situation and blames her for not having the exciting and active life he dreams of. In reality he is scared and afraid, because he does not want to fail, and leave his comfort zone. We do not get any information about the wife’s thoughts in the story. The husband does not mention her by name, he only thinks of her as “she” or “my wife”, which indicates that the relationship between them is cold. In most of the story the man is moody but the wife is quiet and apparently in a good mood. After reading the story, we may interpret her mood differently and guess that she already knew from the beginning that the game was jinxed and she planned to kill him if she got the right letters. This can be seen in the following quotes, “I watch my wife’s smug expression” (p. l. 12) and “She plays JINXED” (p. 1, l. 19). After she plays “Jinxed” the words in the game come true. At the end of the story, the wife sits watching him as he dies, which shows that she probably wanted him dead throughout the whole story. It also shows how little she cares about him and their relationship. In conclusion, the hatred in the story ends with a murder, but the roles between wife and husband are switched so she becomes the criminal and he becomes the victim. From the beginning we get the impression that the husband is the unsatisfied part and the wife is content but actually they are both unsatisfied and planning to kill their partner....