Literary Devices in The Black Prince
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
London in the Mid-to-Late Twentieth CenturyThe first thing you need to know about The Black Prince's setting is that it's hard to know exactly whenthe novel is set. Bradley Pearson's narrative—wh...
Narrator Point of View
First Person (Central Narrator)The Black Prince is told primarily through the voice of Bradley Pearson, whose own memoir/novel "The Black Prince" forms the heart of the text. The multiple forewords...
Genre
Faux Autobiography; Family DramaThe Black Prince announces itself as the personal reflections of one Bradley Pearson, who, in narrating the events of a particularly tumultuous period in his life, c...
Tone
Wry and IntellectualImagine that Frasier Crane is a wannabe literary genius who may or may not have murdered his worst/best frenemy, a famous popular novelist. Now imagine that this alt-universe Fr...
Writing Style
High-Brow and Erudite, and, Dare We Say It, SesquipedalianIf you had to look up "erudite" or "sesquipedalian" in the dictionary after we used those words to characterize The Black Prince, thumbing...
What's Up With the Title?
As Francis Marloe remarks in his postscript to Bradley Pearson's narrative, The Black Prince is an "ambiguous" title (Postscript by Francis: par. 8)—one that may have multiple different meanings....
What's Up With the Ending?
There are multiple plausible "endings" to The Black Prince, so our final parting from the story is almost as long as what Peter Jackson gives us in The Return of the King. There's the ending that c...
Tough-o-Meter
(8) Snow LineWe won't lie to you, Shmoopers: The Black Prince ain't easy.For one thing, Iris Murdoch's writing style is dense and intellectual, and you may find yourself having to read some paragra...
Plot Analysis
Exposition (Initial Situation): A Foreword (or Two) in Your EarThe Black Prince has a slightly unusual set-up for its exposition, since the novel's narrator and protagonist is also presented to us...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
RebirthUnder the Shadow of a Dark PowerBooker suggests that "Rebirth" plotlines begin with the hero "fall[ing] under the shadow of [a] dark power." In Bradley Pearson's case, this "dark power" isn'...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
Act IAct I of The Black Prince covers Part 1 of Bradley Pearson's narrative, "The Black Prince." In it, Bradley moves through a series of misadventures as various personalities interrupt his plans...
Trivia
Iris Murdoch totally adapted The Black Prince as a theatrical play. (Source)Bradley Pearson derides Arnold Baffin throughout The Black Prince for writing so prolifically (Arnold publishes a new boo...
Steaminess Rating
RThere's more than a few sex scenes in The Black Prince, and even though they're not always particularly sexy or pleasant (in fact, almost none of them are), they're explicit enough to warrant an R...
Allusions
Literary and Philosophical ReferencesWilliam Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well (1.3.122)Homer, Iliad (1.4.59)Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy (1.4.59)D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (1.4.59)...