1. Unit at a glance
- This unit contains only one prose excerpt titled “Birth” from A.J. Cronin’s novel The Citadel.
- The story follows young doctor Andrew Manson during a difficult night-time delivery in the Welsh mining town of Blaenelly.
- Central focus is the conflict between textbook medical knowledge and instinctive, life-saving action.
- The narrative highlights the emotional and ethical pressures faced by a newly practising physician.
- The common theme is the miracle of birth and the doctor’s sense of having achieved something genuinely meaningful.
2. Prose
Summary
Andrew Manson is called to deliver the first child of Joe and Susan Morgan after nearly twenty years of marriage. The baby is born lifeless. Andrew first stabilises the unconscious mother, then revives the apparently stillborn child through persistent artificial respiration and alternate hot-and-cold baths. At the end he feels he has done “something real”.
Setting
A small, poorly furnished bedroom in Number 12 Blaina Terrace, Blaenelly, during a single night that ends at dawn.
Main characters
- Andrew Manson: newly qualified doctor who acts decisively when the textbook approach fails.
- Joe Morgan: anxious husband waiting outside, married nearly twenty years.
- Susan Morgan: mother who desperately wants this child.
- Mrs Morgan’s mother: elderly woman who watches Andrew with wise, hopeful eyes.
- The midwife: elderly assistant present during the delivery.
Sequence of key events
- Andrew is fetched by Joe Morgan just after midnight.
- After hours of waiting, the child is born lifeless at dawn.
- Andrew first injects the mother to restore her pulse.
- He then uses hot-and-cold water baths and artificial respiration on the child for half an hour.
- The child finally breathes and cries; Andrew informs Joe that both are safe.
3. Poem
No poem is included in the unit text provided.
4. Themes and messages
The writer shows that real medical practice often demands instinctive action beyond textbook rules. Andrew’s final thought—“I’ve done something; oh, God! I’ve done something real at last”—expresses the satisfaction of saving a life through personal effort rather than routine procedure.
5. Literary devices
- Imagery: “The limp, warm body was white and soft as tallow”
- Simile: “like a strange, white fish”
- Personification: “a raging hopelessness”
- Imagery: “A bubble of mucus came from one tiny nostril, a joyful iridescent bubble”
- Irony: The child is born “lifeless” after the mother’s long wait, yet is revived by the doctor’s persistence.
6. Vocabulary
- Burly: heavily built
- Lethargy: lack of energy
- Asphyxia: suffocation due to lack of oxygen
- Resuscitate: bring back to life
- Flaccid: limp, soft
- Convulsive: sudden, jerky movement
- Scullery: small room for washing dishes
7. Exam pitfalls
- Confusing the order of events (Andrew treats the mother before reviving the child).
- Claiming the child was born alive (the text clearly states it was lifeless).
- Adding details about Christine or Andrew’s personal life that are only mentioned in passing and not central to the birth episode.
- Forgetting that the story ends with Andrew’s feeling of achievement, not with any further plot developments.