A Surgeon's Care

The extract (H) taken from A Surgeon’s Care, a book published by Mills and Boon. The purpose of this text is to entertain and the intended audience are middle aged women. The text coveys the feeling that the man in this context has much more power than the woman, this is established in the first line in which the male character is referred to as ‘the famous Professor  Chadwick’ giving him some kind of status through both his title and his implied reputation. The text goes on to portray the female character as unprofessional compared to her male counterpart, a stereotype that the male character reinforces when he says ‘Where on earth is Dr Hatfield?’, a question that causes the female character (who is in fact Dr Hatfield) to establish herself In her position. The line suggests the stereotype that women cannot be doctors.

Unfortunately rather than going out of her way to counteract the implications of this stereotype the female character instead shows a lack of competence and professionalism in her work, seemingly unable to focus on her work and instead fixation on the male surgeon.