Walking the line: deconstructing identity, suicide and betrayal in Peter Maxwell Davies ’Mr Emmet Takes a Walk'

This article explores how Peter Maxwell Davies uses thematic and structural devices to chart the means by which the title character in Mr Emmet Takes a Walk is led towards suicide. Discussion centres on how Davies integrates use of quotation and trademark musical gestures into the development of characterisation in order to explore different states of ‘reality, dream and waking fantasy’ by which he seeks to explain the reasons for Emmet’s suicide.