Analyse af short story 'Orphan'

‘’Orphan’’ is a short story about the silent boy William who grows up under tough conditions at the family named O’Hannlon. My main purpose in this essay is to get a better understanding of the two main characters William and Mary and furthermore analyse the settings and the narrator’s connection to the story. Additionally I am going to find an overall theme for the story.

The main character named William is an atypical boy compared to the other guys in the village; probably cause of his completely introspective personality. In general he is a very silent boy with a problematic and tough childhood cause of his parents early disappearing. The story takes place in a small village on the coast in County Mayo, near Leedarne where he grows up at the family named O’Hannlon cause of his parents young disappearing. The time passes by and he becomes even more silent. Actually the other guys in the village describe William as a ghost and claim that he always walks around with a stony facial expression. This might has something to do with the fact that the wife Mary O’Hannlon does not accept him from the beginning. Thus it is imaginably truly difficult to adapt him into the family completely. Suddenly Mr O’Hannlon dies, but inexplicably William does not show any feelings at the funeral - he reacts icy. This demonstrates that he finds it difficult to show emotions in public, which is usual for the enormously introvert persons. At the funeral Mary gets angry at William for being emotionless, so she confronts him with it, where William following responds ‘’ He wasn't my Da’’ (L. 27 P. 107) This quote proves that he does not stand for Mary’s rude behaviour. Nevertheless he is still a sensitive guy, which is seen in the quote where he cries after the episode where he got slapped by Mary ‘’That night he stayed in his room, crying’’ (L1 p.108) But after this episode he becomes older and still keep himself tidy, as he enters his teens. But still there is nothing much about him - the type you barely notice. But luckily for his point of view he further on gets a nice family and moves out from the small village.