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Varieties of speech presentation in the novel
Task A - David Lodge, How Far Can You Go?
In David Lodge's novel How Far Can You Go?, a novel about sexual
liberation and religious mores in the 1950s, the main characters, young
students, are called Edward and Tessa. Edward is a Catholic, and Tessa
a member of the Church of England. They have fallen in love and want to
get married, but are both still virgins. Tessa has agreed to convert to
Catholicism, and they go away in chapter 2 ('How They Lost their Virginities')
to what they think is a weekend Catholic conference for engaged couples
(clearly designed to help them keep themselves chaste). Actually they
have come a week early by mistake (this weekend's conference is for couples
who are already married, and is designed to help them keep on the marital
straight and narrow!). Indeed, they have arrived a day early for that
weekend's conference too. So, unbeknown to them, the nuns who manage the
conference centre assume that they are already married and have just arrived
a day early, not a week early. Tessa is shown to what she thinks is 'her
room', and it is only later, when Edward asks a nun where his room is,
that he discovers that it is being assumed that they are a married couple,
and so he is in the same room as Tessa:
Edward located the room and walked in to find Tessa in her slip, brushing
her hair. She dropped the brush in fright, and clasped her hand across
her bosom.
'Oh, heavens, Teddy, you did scare me, this place is so spooky, what
do you want? Have you come to kiss me goodnight? What will the nuns
think?'
Edward explained about the nun's mistake,
but gave her a goodnight kiss anyway, a proper one which went on for
some time.
(David Lodge  ,
How Far Can You Go?, chapter 2)
1. What form of speech presentation is used for
Tessa's speech in paragraph 2, and what form is used for Edward's speech
(highlighted for ease of reference) at the beginning of paragraph 3?
2. Why do you think these two different forms are used?
Don't forget you can refer to the speech presentation
scale (under useful links on the menu)
Our answer
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