Doctor in The House

“Doctor in the house”
I ‘Doctor in the house’ is a novel written by a famous American writer

Richard Gordon. He is famous for a long series of comic novels on a
medical theme.
The novel ‘Doctor in the house’ belongs to the belles-lettres functional

style, the main aim of which is to give the readers aesthetic pleasure, to
make them think and to entertain them by appealing to their emotions.
The abstract under analysis dwells on the period of final examinations and
the way the students get through it, fighting their fear with humour and
irony.
II The text represents the first person entrusted narrative. Such type of
narration helps to reveal the protagonist’s emotional state and makes him
closer to the reader.
III As for the narrative compositional forms they are: narration,

description, argumentation. Narration represents the events happening in
the text; description is observed in the portraits of the students waiting in
the room for their oral examination; argumentation is observed in the
narrator’s thoughts during the whole process of taking exams and its
significance to the students.
IV,V The vocabulary of the passage is characterised by a great amount of

academic and bookish words such as examinations, examiners, cheating,
oral and written exams, textbook, examining Committee. They help to
create the atmosphere of the place where the action takes place, that is a
medical institution. The vocabulary abounds in medical terms: general
medicine, ward rounds, medical exams which add up to the authenticity of
the story. The reader also comes across a number of colloquial words and
phrases (‘How did you get on?’, ‘swotted up’, ‘Crammar’, don), that help
to recreate the atmosphere of the students’ life.
VI The passage is written in a vivid, humorous tone. The process of taking

exams is depicted by the narrator with irony and sympathy.
VII The humorous tone of the passage is achieved due to the wide use of
various stylistic devices. The device greatly favoured by the author is
simile: ’the final examinations are something like death’, ‘two or three
porters stood by the door and looked dispassionately at the victims, like
the policemen that flank the dock at the Old Bailey’, ’he will come to the
end of his interrogation struggling like a cow in a bog’.
Other stylistic devices which add up to the humorous effect of the passage
are allusion (‘But the viva is judgement day’), numerous epithets
(e.g.nonchalant air, well-trodden paths, awkward expression, frustrated
brilliance, battered textbook) and metaphors(‘the god’s brow threatens’, ‘
examinations touch off his fighting spirit’, ‘they ran a final breathless
sprint down the well-trodden paths of medicine.’)
In order to characterize different types of students in the waiting room the

author makes use of antonomasia: Nonchalant, Frankly Worried type,
Crammer, Old Stager. Antonomasia associates the name of the object with
the person, which contributes to the general ironical tone of the text. The
author resorts to different types of repetitions:
o Morphemic: cheating, learning
o Root repetition: medical, medicine;
o Ordinary repetition: of the word examination, which serves

as the key word of the text.
Due to the rich variety of stylistic devices the author managed to render
the atmosphere of the students’ life in the most vivid and true-to-life way.
Для студента-медика выпускные экзамены похожи на смерть:

неприятная неизбежность, с которой рано или поздно приходится
сталкиваться лицом к лицу, и состояние после которых определяется
тщательностью подготовки к этому событию. Экзамен – это ни что
иное как проверка знаний, проводимая таким образом, который
власти считают наиболее справедливым и удобных для обеих
сторон. Однако студент-медик так не считает. Экзамены вызывают в
нём дух борьбы, это открытое столкновение между ним и
экзаменаторами, проводимое согласно прочно установленным
правилам для обоих, и он идёт на них как боксёр-профессионал.
Открытое списывание редко встречается на мед.экзаменах, но
претенденты проводят почти столько же времени на изучение
технических подробностей состязания, сколько на изучение общнй
медицины по своим учебникам.

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“Doctor in the house”

I ‘Doctor in the house’ is a novel written by a famous American writer

The novel ‘Doctor in the house’ belongs to the belles-lettres functional

III As for the narrative compositional forms they are: narration,

IV,V The vocabulary of the passage is characterised by a great amount of

VI The passage is written in a vivid, humorous tone. The process of taking

In order to characterize different types of students in the waiting room the

o Morphemic: cheating, learning

o Root repetition: medical, medicine;

o Ordinary repetition: of the word examination, which serves

Для студента-медика выпускные экзамены похожи на смерть:

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