Master George Essay

Beryl Bainbridge's novel Master George, is a historical piece set in the mid-1800’s. The novel depicts the life of surgeon and amateur photographer George Hardy. Like several of her novels master Georgie is a historical fiction and thus takes place during the Crimean War. The Crimean War was the conflict between the Russians, British, French, and the Ottoman Turks over the Middle East, specifically in the Crimean Peninsula. During this war Britain and France sided with the Turks to keep the Russians at bay. Although the Russians ultimately lost the war, both sides suffered severe casualties due to disease rather than actual gunfire. (Britannica)
It was during this turbulent time that Bainbridge gives life to Master Georgie. Although the reader

Potter’s character is one of the most relatable. Despite being a man of higher education, Dr. Potter’s character experiences the same feelings of longing, desire and failure as any real person. In his review Daniel Murtaugh describes the erotic relationships between the characters, one being that of Dr. Potter and his spouse Beatrice (35). Potter thought to himself “I loved my wife,... the thought of parting from her...filled me with sorrow”(Bainbridge 87). Like most men these feelings are contradictory to those that he shows to his wife. Furthermore Potter is consistently making note of how thankful he is that Beatrice is his wife. He had once remarked “I am a man accustomed to sleeping against the curve of my wife’s back” (Bainbridge 158). By the end of the novel George believed Potter had gone mad due to his constant mentioning of his faraway wife. Potter longed for her so much that he saw her during the photo Pompey was talking (Bainbridge 163). Dr. Potter is also a realistic character because like most individuals he has experienced failure. No matter how he tries he cannot sell any of the books he writes and is thus at the charity of Hardy (Bainbridge 85) . The inner thoughts that Potter has elevates him from being an “arrangement of characteristics” to a rounded character (Pool