Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)

STUDIES - Anna Jakabfi: Regionalism and the Surgeon Figure in Hugh MacLennan's Fiction

he wanted to think and to have time to recover the only thing he had left in the world, the sense of his own personality."

7 Daniel Ainslie quite often is felt sorry for by his wife Margaret when he is in the state of complete exhaustion. "During the past three nights he had slept no more than a total of eleven hours, not counting the hour or two he might have dozed in his carriage. This morning he had performed five operations and then he had made his calls and seen patients in his surgery all afternoon."

8 Jerome Martell is the strongest, he has an all enduring physical constitution which matches his spirit. "His daily routine called for about six operations in addition to his calls, he lectured in the university, he spent two hours every day in a free clinic he had established for the unemployed, and he was involved in various public causes. Besides all this he managed to find time to read, to help people in trouble, and even to play with his child. The one thing he almost always did: he came home for dinner and reserved the half-hour before it for Sally."

9 The surgeons of MacLennan feel a special tenderness for children and wish to have one. Just as Jerome Martell reserved his half an hour for his four-year old daughter, Sally before dinner, Angus Murray acknowledges the fact of liking children as if stating a diagnosis: "I've got a weakness for all children, I guess. So naturally I like this one."

1

0 Daniel Ainslie at the age of forty is married to Margaret. She cannot have a child for she had to undergo an operation a few years before. This operation deprived the couple forever of having a child of their own. The craving for a child, a son is so strong with Daniel Ainslie that he would not think twice to get hold of Alan, eight-year old son of Molly and Archie MacNeil and give him proper education. The feeling overwhelms his psyche, his logic, his respect for other people. He takes it for granted that 7 Cf. op. cit. pp. 2, 203—4. 8 Cf. op. cit. pp. 5, 25. 9 Cf. op. cit. pp. 3, 150. 1

0 Cf. op. cit. pp. 2, 73. 51