358 SOUND

CHARLES DICKENS Great Expectations, 1861

Sound

In the quotations below the sound that is being described is human in origin, whether it is that of voices or applause. • See also Music, Oratory,

Silence, Speech.

Babel According to the Book of Genesis in the Bible, there was a time near the beginning of the world when all men lived in one place and all spoke the same language. They built a tall tower, the Tower of Babel, in an attempt to reach up to heaven. On seeing the tower, God was concerned that man was becoming too powerful and so decided to thwart him by introducing different languages. He therefore went down to 'confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech' (Gen. n : 7). Once different languages were introduced and men no longer understood one another, the building of the tower stopped. The Tower of Babel can be alluded to as a place where people disagree with each other in a noisy way, and a Babel or babel is a confused noise of many voices.

Discipline prevailed: in five minutes the confused throng was resolved into order, and comparative silence quelled the Babel clamour of tongues.

CHARLOTTE BRONTE Jane Eyre, 1847

He woke to a babel the next morning, and when he went down to the hall found the sisters getting their children ready for school,

v. s. NAIPAUL A House for Mr Biswas, 1961

Judgement Day In Christian tradition, the Day of Judgement is the day when God will judge all the living and the dead and reward or punish them accordingly. The quotation below refers to the sound of all the people gathered together to be judged by God.

At that there was a great outcry in the courtroom, like the uprush of voices at the Judgement Day; and I knew I was doomed.

MARCARET ATWOOD Alias Grace, 1996

Krakatoa Krakatoa is a small volcanic island in Indonesia. An eruption in 1883 destroyed most of the island.

He took the lectern to a Krakatoa of applause.

MARTIN AMIS The Information, 1995

SPEECH 3 5 9

Speech

This theme concentrates on distinctive ways of speaking. Examples of eloquence and oratory are dealt with in the theme Oratory.

Bluebottle Bluebottle was a character in The Goon Show, an extremely popular BBC radio comedy series which ran from 1952 to i960. Bluebottle, played by Peter Sellers, spoke in a comical high-pitched, whiny voice.

Lady Bracknell In Oscar Wilde's comedy The Importance of Being Earnest

(1895), Lady Bracknell is Gwendolen Fairfax's mother. In a famous scene Gwendolen's suitor, Jack Worthing, explains that he was discovered as a baby in a handbag, to which Lady Bracknell responds 'A handbag?' The incredulous, withering delivery of this line by Edith Evans in the 1952 film of Wilde's play is well known and often imitated.

'Why are you walking around with it in your handbag?' he demanded, giving Lady Bracknell a run for her money.

VAL MCDERMID Clean Break, 1995

Marlon Brando Marlon Brando (b. 1924) is an American actor whose films include A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), and The Godfather (1972). A leading exponent of method acting, he is particularly associated with a mumbling delivery of his lines.

Colin the Englishman is distrusted because he talks not too much but too well. Real

painters grunt, like Marlon Brando.

MARCARET ATWOOD Cat's Eye, 1988

Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark's novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, first published in 1961, tells the story of Miss Jean Brodie, an Edinburgh schoolmistress during the 1930s. She is a spinster with firm views on the education of young women, remembered for saying: 'I am putting old heads on your young shoulders . . . all my pupils are the crème de la crème'. She speaks in a distinctive polite, precise, and authoritative voice.

SARA PARETSKY Indemnity Only, 1982

Winston Churchill Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was a British politician and prime minister who led the coalition government during the Second World War. He is remembered for his leadership qualities and his gifts as an orator. During the war he made several now-famous speeches, broadcast over the radio in his deep, slightly rasping voice.

The last phrase he pronounced in the strange (man-sawing-wood) delivery of Churchill.

LAWRENCE DURRELL C/fifl, 1960

Donald Duck Donald Duck is a cartoon character created by Walt Disney

3 6 0 SPEECH

who has a distinctive high-pitched, quacking voice.

Besides, he was kind of a sweet kid and had a voice like Donald Duck.

JOSEPH WAMBAUCH The Glitter Dome, 1981

Eccles Eccles was a character in The Goon Show, an extremely popular BBC radio comedy series which ran from 1952 to i960. Eccles, played by Spike Milligan, spoke in a slow, foolish-sounding voice.

C od •See JEHOVAH.

Jehovah Jehovah is used as a name for God in the Old Testament. The voice of God or Jehovah is imagined to be loud and booming.

The thousand voices burst out with that almost supernatural sound which choral

singing always has. Enormous, like the voice of Jehovah.

ALDOUS HUXLEY Point Counter Point, 1928

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) was an American Republican statesman and the 16th president of the United States from 1861 to 1865. He was noted for his eloquent speeches, including the Gettysburg address of 1863, and the sincere tone of his voice.

What a technique that guy had. What he'd do was, he'd start snowing his date in this very quiet, sincere voice—like as if he wasn't only a very handsome guy but a nice, sincere guy, too. I damn near puked, listening to him. His date kept saying, 'No— please. Please, don't. Please'. But old Stradlater kept snowing on her in this Abraham Lincoln, sincere voice, and finally there'd be this terrific silence in the back of the car.

j . D. SALINGER The Catcher in the Rye, 1951

Mrs Malaprop In Sheridan's The Rivals (1775), Mrs Malaprop is the aunt and guardian of Lydia Languish. She is noted for her aptitude for misusing long words, responsible for such remarks as 'Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory' and 'She's as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile'. Solecisms of this kind are now of course known as malapropisms.

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse, a cartoon character created by Walt Disney, first appeared in 1928. He has a squeaky, high-pitched voice.

I began to repeat this sentence in a variety of tones, stresses and dialects, ranging

from a rapid Mickey Mouse squeak to a bass drawl.

KEITH WATERHOUSE Billy Liar, 1959

Punch and Judy Punch (also called Punchinello) and Judy are two characters in a traditional English seaside puppet-show. Punch, the quarrelsome and violent buffoon, and his wife Judy both talk in strained, high-pitched voices.

Yakimov's normal voice was thin, sad and unvarying, the voice of a cultured

Punchinello.

OLIVIA MANNING The Great Fortune, 1960