Again, Peters chooses words carefully to delineate the dramatic situation, to illuminate the nature of both characters, and to create a tension that holds the reader as Sioned makes her proposal and is granted it as a "loyal daughter" (146).
Peters is also skillful at evoking thoughts and emotions by outward signs that can be observed and described. When the Prior, Brother Richard, Father Cadfael, and the others ride to Rhisiart's yard and learn that the prisoner has escaped, Cadfael's mood at this news is evident as he translates "With considerable pleasure" (209), seeing the news as a "neat little stab" (209). The way the news affects another person present is apparent in the way Peters describes the scene: "It kindled a spark in the speaking eyes of the young person in green, and Griffith did not miss it" (209). Again, the tension of the moment creates a dramatic situation that holds the reader as Griffith thinks that "to challenge it would have been folly" (209-210).
Peters is also able to convey a sense of the attitudes of the crowd in the final sequences and does so in a way that shows...
During the transfer of the bones, Cadfael fools the other clerics but not the people: "They knew already!" (239). The fact that the people would keep the secret is also apparent to Cadfael: "And not a word aloud, not a word out of place, until the strangers were gone" (239). The
contrast with the Prior is also made quite clear as he enters the chapel, "very tall, very regal, very silvery-fine... with most of Gwytherin crowding into the graveyard after him" (239).
Throughout, Peters creates scenes like this in which the meaning is made evident by the way the characters move as much as by what they say, by words unspoken and actions and behaviors that reveal inner states. She writes clearly and concisely and does so in a way that creates an image of the period and of the very realistic people who inhabit that time and place. She fits in much information about the time period and the way people of the time thought and viewed the world, and the way she does this shows both ways in which people remain the same to this day and ways in which they had different ideas and held to them tightly.
Works Cited
Peters, Ellis. A…
