It is possible for a reader to be surprised or shocked by aspects of a theme or issue found in texts.
The theme of a text can have a great impact on the reader's feelings and contain essential aspects of the narrative. When I studied the novel 'Circle of Friends' (COF) by Maeve Binchy, I was undoubtedly surprised by the complex relationships surrounding the text. In 'COF', there is a range of complex couples and friendships but I believe Benny and Jack's love story surpass all the other relations in terms of complexity.
Benny is portrayed as a kind-hearted but insecure overweight girl from a small fictitious town called Knockglen and Jack is depicted as a popular, good-looking boy who comes from a well-known family. They meet under tragic circumstances: a tragic accident on the first day of college takes the life of student Frank Hegarty and injures Benny's best friend Eve, but it also brings the girls together with fellow students Nan Mahon and Jack Foley. Benny immediately falls in love with Jack but at first, he had only eyes for the beautiful, graceful Nan and later describes Benny like 'just a nice girl' and 'not a girl in that sense'. I thought it was predictable that Nan and Jack would be together as it fitted perfectly the typical 'jock-and-cheerleader' mould, deeply adored by novelists and directors. As the story progressed, I witnessed many popular and beautiful girls dispute for Jack's attention and completely dismiss Benny as a potential girlfriend for him, because they thought she was too unattractive. He slowly starts to see her as a girlfriend - asking her for a tour of Knockglen, dancing with her more than with any other girl in the college dance and inviting her over to a party at his house - what left me very surprised. Benny was completely in love with him and unexpectedly enough, he was in love with her too.
For a while, Jack and Benny experienced the honeymoon stage of their relationship: he was respectful and affectionate* and they went on dates regularly during the day in Dublin, going to restaurants and meeting up with friends, always proudly holding hands with her. Suddenly, conflict arises when Benny's father dies and she has to spend most of her free time with her mother. Jack wants his girlfriend to spend nights and weekends with him despite the fact she needed to be with her family in that difficult time, and this really shocked me because this was an immature and selfish attitude that contradicted his seemingly loving and patient personality. When he had to go to Wales to play a rugby match, he wanted Benny to go with him and was upset when she refused to as she had to stay with her mother. He promised to call her every day - so Benny spent three days beside the phone afraid of missing his call, but Jack didn't call her at all. She assumed he just didn't have access to a telephone because she is very naive. In college, Jack avoided her - and then Benny learned from Eve that he apparently drunkenly kissed a 'blonde' while in Wales. I was perplexed once again as it didn't seem to fit his character to cheat.
On chapter sixteen, Jack declares his love for Benny but shortly after, he encounters himself in the moral dilemma of having a 'lover and a patient loving girlfriend' which was completely desultory. One night, he went to the cinema with Nan Mahon as per Benny's request: she didn't want her boyfriend to be alone while she had to go home and mind her grieving mother. The two girls are very good friends at this point and Benny trusts that Jack is blind to Nan's good charms. I was absolutely horrified when Jack and Nan kissed and even more when they processed to sleep together several times behind Benny's back - principally because they were two of the people closest to her. Nan then tells Jack that she is pregnant and that he is the father, which is a lie, forcing him to assume the child and break the heart-breaking news to Benny. Moreover, this betrayal was very sudden - making it even more shocking to me. The tension is visible in each line of their conversation in the St Stephen's Green park and it is a horror climatic moment in the novel when Jack tells her that he will marry Nan in three weeks, which baffled me because I didn't think Jack would marry her so soon.
At the end, Nan's lies were revealed and she miscarried. Jack tried to get back together with Benny but astonishingly she didn't think twice about rejecting him because after this very complicated and rough relationship, she built up a well-deserved self-confidence. Therefore, aspects of themes in texts can most definitely make a reader surprised and shocked.
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For my comparative study course, I also studied 'The King's Speech' (TKS) directed by Tom Cooper and 'A Doll's House' (ADH) by Henrik Ibsen. Both present the audiences with relationships that are very complex in nature. Their complexities and their conflicts add tension to text in several different occasions. Unlike 'A Doll's House' whose its main complex relationship is the married couple Nora and Torvald Helmer, the one in 'The King's Speech' I will be discussing is the friendship between Logue and Bertie.
In both texts, the first interaction between the characters was quite surprising. In 'TKS', we see a horribly arrogant Bertie who looks down upon the speech therapist Lionel Logue. Bertie is the prince of the British Commonwealth, and when Logue suggests that they should call each other by the first name and treat themselves as equals, Bertie throws a tantrum saying that it's absolutely ridiculous which appalled me because I expected him to be graceful with his response considering that he's royalty - he was blunt and conceited saying that if they were equals he would 'be home with his wife' and not at therapy. In a somewhat different manner, the first interaction between Nora and Torvald is quite bizarre and happens in the opening scene of the play, differently to Bertie and Logue's whose first interaction took place a few scenes after into the film. I was disconcerted when Torvald called his wife 'thoughtless', spoke to her as if she's a child and completely dismissed her when she said she would like money for Christmas rather than a present. He then asked if she hadn't 'nibbled macaroons' in a father-like manner Their interaction is in direct contrast with Logue and Bertie's - Bertie is brutally honest with Logue on his thoughts about they being treated as equals, but Torvald camouflages his discontent with concern when talking to his wife, which is stunning** because I would expect their attitudes to be the complete opposite - Bertie to be sensible and handle Logue's suggestion is a diplomatic manner and Torvald to be direct with Nora.
While in 'TKS' I saw Logue and Bertie's unlikely friendship progressing, the opposite is seen in 'ADH'. Nora is keeping a secret from her husband for many years - the fact that she forged the signature on a loan she took to pay for the treatment of Torvald's unknown illness - and now, Krogstad, a disgruntled employee, is blackmailing her with this secret to get his job back. Torvald and Nora don't have a mutual understanding like Logue and Bertie, because Torvald doesn't realise his wife's frenetic affliction when she begs him to give Krogstad's job back, what really surprised me as I thought it was odd how they were married for eight years but they clearly didn't understand each other. In contrast to the married couple, the men in 'TKS' develop a strong connection over a short span of time which left me stupefied after I witnessed how terribly awkward was their first meeting. He starts to work on his speech impediment after he listens to the tape recorded by Logue, where he pronounces each word perfectly and after that, they saw each other every day. It was surprising to see how strong Bertie's determination to overcome his stammer was - so strong that he grew out of his sense of superiority, somewhat similarly to how Nora was adamant about keeping her secret - so adamant that she almost humiliates herself so Krogstad doesn't tell her husband. fter Bertie's father's death, he goes to Logue's apartment and he tells Logue about the King's last words - Bertie's name. It is a crucial and unexpected moment when Bertie sits close to his speech therapist and reveals details of his rough childhood - how much of a strict disciplinarian his father was, that his brother used to bully him and how the family hid away his epileptic brother Johnny. I was amazed at the positive progress of their friendship. Nothing like this is evident in 'ADH': even though Nora and Helmer are married, they don't have any intimate moment that shows how much they trust one another, which was rather unanticipated for me.
What was most shocking to me was the conflicts of these complex relationships. The conflicts in the two texts are quite different: Bertie lashes out at Logue when he talks about how Bertie may be the next King and that he shouldn't be afraid and Torvald feels betrayed that Nora took the loan behind his back and forged the signature. In 'TKS' I was caught completely off guard because it happened so swiftly and they were so close that I didn't expect Bertie to storm out like he did and say such hurtful things to his friend, like calling him the 'disappointing son of a brewer'. In a different way in 'ADH', Torvald's reaction was easily predictable to an extent, but I hadn't expected him to be so extreme. His melodramatic attitude was astounding: he calls Nora a 'wretched woman', says that he will never trust her with their children again and that they will only pretend to be married, but will sleep in different beds. Bertie and Torvald act very similarly in these conflicts as both don't measure their words and seem to not consider how hurtful they can be.
Essentially, I found myself mouth-opened quite a few times while reading 'A Doll's House' and watching 'The King's Speech' as I witnessed their first interactions, the development of their relationships and their quarrels. Ergo, it is definitely possible for a reader to be astounded and/ or baffled by aspects of a theme.
