The evening lesson

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

I dreaded Mr Hale’s lessons. He never praised a page until he had found something wrong with it, and his pencil moved through my work like a small, exacting knife. That evening he returned an essay covered in marks. I folded it before reading the comments. Outside, the other pupils were already leaving.

He asked me to stay. I prepared an excuse, but he placed a clean sheet beside my book and read one paragraph aloud. He showed me where the argument became clear, then where I abandoned it too quickly. We worked until the caretaker rattled his keys at the door. When I unfolded the essay on the way home, the marks began to look less like wounds and more like directions.

Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to show the narrator’s changing view of a strict teacher. Support your answer with references to the passage.