Arakin 4 kurs new 001 176. indd

14. Read the second part of the story “W.S.” by L.P. Hartley in part II:
Answer the following questions:
1) Why was Walter Streeter glad that he did not have to answer the 
postcard from Forfar? 2) What impression did the postcard from Ber-
wick-on-Tweed make on him? 3) What thoughts did the postcard from 
York provoke? 4) What did his friend say about the postcards? 5) How 
did Walter Streeter imagine his anonymous correspondent? 6) Why did 
a wave of panic surge up in him on reading the postcard from Coventry? 

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7) Why did Walter Streeter go to the police and what did they tell him? 
8) What did he recollect about the past, when he was younger and more 
inclined to see things as black or white? 9) Why did Walter Streeter 
decide to work after dinner? 10) What did his unwelcome guest say 
about himself? 11) What did the rouge policeman accuse him of? 
12) Why did William Stainsforth kill his creator?
15. Consult the “Guide to Literary Analysis” in part II, and:
1. Speak on the overall tone of the story
1) Does L.P. Hartley speak in his own voice or does he present the 
events from the point of view of Walter Streeter? 2) What makes the 
first part of the story slow-moving and ponderous and the second — 
dynamic and tense? 3) Does the character of W.S. look credible in 
the context of the story, “this dark creature, creeping about brimful 
of malevolence”? Find some more details characterizing his appear-
ance and speech. What was his grudge against Walter Streeter? 
4) Comment on the style and language of the letters. In what sense 
is the phrase “to come to grips” used in the first and the fourth letters? 
What is the hidden meaning of the phrase in the last letter? Observe 
how the word “handshake”, used in all five letters with a different 
adjective, is transformed into a verbal collocation “to shake hands” 
in the final paragraph of the story? 5) Is Walter Streeter characterized 
directly or indirectly? What sort of person is he? Isn’t he the “antith-
esis” of W.S.? Why are there so many interrogative and negative 
sentences in his inner speech? Why does he use the words “perhaps” 
and “but” so frequently? Walter Streeter is a timid, nervous man, what 
is it that makes him stand up to the “rouge policeman”, W.S., and 
shout: “Of all your dirty tricks this is the dirtiest!”? 6) What does the 
title of the story W.S. indicate about the theme of the story? What 
central idea is the author trying to bring into focus? 7) What is your 
personal response to the story?
2
. Analyse the contents of the postcards and bring out the message 
that they have in common. Comment on the specific intonation of 
the postcards (which are supposed to reveal the character of the 
anonymous correspondent and his attitude towards Walter Streeter): 
a) absence of greeting, b) the vocabulary and set expressions, 
c) lexical and syntactical repetition (chiasmus in the first postcard), 
d) negative and interrogative sentences, e) the play on words (in the 
second and fourth postcards).

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3
. Indicate the lexical and syntactical devices used to depict the 
character of Walter Streeter: a) which words and phrases help the 
reader to understand his character? Is the description a complete 
one? b) what does Walter Streeter himself feel about his own work? 
Enlarge on the function of inner reported speech and various repeti-
tions (anaphora, anadiplosis, synonym repetition), c) is there a lot of 
figurative language in the story? Give examples of the epithet, meta-
phor, simile, d) what is the author’s attitude towards Walter Streeter? 
Sympathetic? Indifferent? Unsympathetic? Justify your answer.