Evelyn Waugh

Bella Fleace Gave a Party

Linguacultural Analysis
(The Irish)
1. PRE-READING DISCUSSION
1. What do you know about Evelyn Waugh? 2. What cultural identity does he
belong to? 3. How does he usually portray the cultural characteristics of the
British? What main problems does Evelyn touch upon in his work? What
satirical methods does Waugh use in his works? What are E. Waugh’s other
stories?
Be ready with a brief autobiographical note on Evelyn Waugh.
2. WHILE-READING ACTIVITIES
2. Read the short story and mark the sentences as True/False/Not Given.
Please, find the proof in the text.
1. Ballinger gave the impression of a post-war city.
2. Fleacetown was nothing but a demolished city.
3. The Fleacehouse was in a comparatively decent condition.
4. The roof makes all the difference when it comes to the strength of the house
5. The welfare of the Fleaces never changed.
6. Bella Fleace wasn’t a very atrractive woman.
7. At the age of 80 she had a lot of friends and was never alone.
8. Bella knew every single detail about her house.
3. Read the story again and answer the questions.
1. What historical period and what country is the story set in? Build up the portrait
of the region with the phrases from the text.
2. How is Fleacetown described? What characteristics of the city does the writer
focus on?
3. Why is Bella’s relatives an unfortunate lot? What traces of eccentricities had
there been? Give reasons from the text.
4. What made Bella invite her heir?
5. What is the relationship between Bella and Banks? Why does Bella feel
contempt for this person?
5. What made her organise the party? What several reasons did she have to do it?
Why was it so expensive for her?

4. LANGUAGE PERSPECTIVE
Find in which context are these words used. Select culturally-specific words
and comment on the cultural background.
Dublin
Market town
Protestant Church
irresponsible medley of architectural orders
transmontane pietists
soapy colonial cheese
each is licensed to sell ale and porter
blurring the transitions
the Land Commission
the rest has run to rot, thorned bushes barren of edible fruit
the wonder and ridicule of the country
draughty skeletons
befouled by cattle
unusually habitable
an Irishman’s house is still his castle
essentially Irish houses of the Free State
though enervated, was still wealthy and influential
a marked Irish intonation
went like smoke
South Kensington
the Spectator
a BBC voice
5. CULTURAL/STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE TEXT
1. Find the culturally-loaded words in the text which help convey the cultural
information of the country. What information do they convey? Be ready to gather
as much information as possible
2. There are several main characters in the short story. Please, write out the phrases
the narrator uses to describe the personal identity (appearance/character/special
features) and the cultural identity of these characters.
3. Find out the information about the British culture in the text. Arrange these
cultural facts on the scale from the most to the least important for describing the
British character.
4. Detect the sentences and facts in the story that prove or refute the following
statements:
Bella Fleace shows that she is superficial, eccentric, and extremely proud because
she is cemented into a past belief of social structures with a need to pretend if not
actually to be of particular social strata
Bella Fleace is a good image of the British society of that time
The British higher society is being satirised on by Evelyn Waugh.
5. What is the main philosophical idea of the text? What implicit conclusions does
the writer come to? Are the ideas culture-specific or global and typical for all
people?
6. What phrases in the text prove the narrator’s point of view?
7. Speak about the events described in the story and important for the cultural
analysis of the text.
8. What additional real facts do you know/could you find about the cities and
events mentioned in the story?
9. Describe Bella and Banks in your own words. Comment on them as true
members of their society using the information from the text? Is their behaviour
culture-specific? How would you behave in their shoes?

CULTURE PERSPECTIVE
1. Could this story happen in our culture? If yes, would it be different? How
different would it be?
2. Look at Bella’s and Bank’s behaviour. How would you evaluate their
behaviour from the point of view of a representative of Russian culture?
3. What conclusions about the British culture can we draw from the text?
4. How would you explain the main idea of the text to a representative of a
German/French culture? Why?
SUMMARY AND ROLE-PLAYS
1. Be ready with an oral and written summary of the text. Try to use as many
culture-specific words as possible. Who can do it in a shorter and a more
concise way?
2. Individual: Speak about Bella and her destiny. Who will be more expressive
in reflecting her problems, controversies and misfortunes in life?
3. Pair-work: You are Bella making arrangements for the party. You talk with
the butler about your purposes and ideas of how to arrange the ball.
4. Pair-work: You are Evelyn Waugh. You speak about the main ideas and
issues that you raise in this story. The presenter will ask you the questions
you have to answer fully.
5. Role-play (trio/four people): Main characters: Narrator (Sets the scene) /
Bella (the old socialite) organising the party/The Butler/Banks (who has
come to visit his relative). You need to role-play the scene from the story
with the active participation of each character. We will then vote for the best
representation of the British character and the epoch.

WRITING
1. Write a character sketch of Bella as a representative of the British culture.
(word count: 280-350 words)
2. Write a critical review of the story, its philosophy and cultural belonging
3. Make a commentary that explains the events in the story