The Walnut Board

Text 1: Dovetails, by Dennis Hartwell

An original short story extract.

The walnut had cost more than Kieran earned in a month. Mr Fairley had said so, mildly, when he handed it over, and had said nothing else, which was worse. It was the front of a cabinet for a customer in Harrogate, and Kieran had been trusted to cut the dovetails.

He measured three times. He marked the lines with the knife, fine as hairs. He clamped the board and lifted the saw and began, and for twenty minutes the workshop held nothing but the whisper of the blade and the smell of sawdust, sweet and peppery. Then he lifted the board to check it, and his stomach dropped. He had cut on the wrong side of the line. Every tail was a fraction too thin. The joint would rattle like loose teeth.

He stood very still. The radio on the windowsill was playing something cheerful, and he wanted to throw it across the room. Behind him he heard Mr Fairley put down his plane. Footsteps. A pause. Kieran could not turn round. His face was burning, and the back of his neck, and even his ears, and he stared at the ruined board as if staring might make it whole.

How does Dennis Hartwell use language and structure to show Kieran’s shame at his mistake?

You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.