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050303
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Stylistics of the English Language
Expressive means /stylistic means/ stylistic markers/ stylistic devices/ tropes/ figures of speech
Rhyme
Rhyme /raim / is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sounds, chaining two or more lines of
a poem.
Rhyme has several functions:
it adds a musical quality to the poem;
it makes the poem easier to remember;
it affects the pace and tone of the poem.
There are several different types of rhyme:
1. True/perfect/full rhyme ()-identical sounds correspond exactly
Boat-float; might-right; kite-night; day-say; goes-flows
2. Incomplete/imperfect/half rhyme/slant rhyme ():
fresh-flesh; road-boat; loads-lads; honour-won her ().
3. Eye-rhyme (, ):
advice-compromise; have-grave; love-prove; flood-doom ( )
4. End rhymes () fall at the end of the lines. They mark the end of the line.
5. Internal rhymes () occur within the same line:
I bring fresh showers to the thirsting flowers
The internal rhyme has two functions: dissevering and consolidating, realized simultaneously.
According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza, there are some certain models:
Couplets-aa()
Cross rhymes-abab()
Framing rhyme-abba()
Rhythm
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Rhythm /ri m / is a flow, movement, characterized by regular recurrence of elements or features.
Rhythm in language demands oppositions that alternate: long-short; high-low; stressed-unstressed,
narrow-broad, and other contrasting segments of speech. Harmony is not only a matter of similarity,
but also of dissimilarity, and in good poetry, irregularities of lines are among the most important
features of the poem.
Actually, the beauty of the poem is less dependent upon the regularities than the irregularities of the
poem.
Rhythm is flexible and it is perceived at the background of the metre.
Metre
Metre /mi:t / is any form of periodicity in verse. The kind of the metre is determined by the
number and the character of syllables of which it consists. The metre is the phenomenon characterized
by its strict regularity, consistency and exchangeability.
End-stopped line
When a pause occurs at the end of a line we refer to it as an end-stopped line:
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
the woodland paths are dry.
Enjambement /Run-on-line
Enjambement /Run-on-line are the terms we use when the sense of the sentence extends into the
next line:
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And in the frosty season, when the sun
was set, and visible for many a mile
the cottage windows blazed through twilight gloom,..
Caesura
If a strong break occurs in the middle of the line it is referred as Caesura:
A thing of beauty is a joy forever
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness.
Enjambement /Run-on-line and Caesura give their own particular rhythm to poetry.
Rhymeless verse is called blank verse ( - in Russian) .It is mostly used by playwrights
(Shakespeare, e.g.)
Alliteration
Alliteration /lit `rei n / is the repetition of similar sounds (usually consonants) at the beginning of
successive words:
Alliteration in the English language is deeply rooted in the tradition of English folklore. In Old
English poetry alliteration was one of the basic principles of verse and its main characteristic.
Alliteration in Old English verse was used to consolidate the sense within the line and therefore is
sometimes called initial rhyme.
As a phonetic stylistic device alliteration aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance.
Therefore alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the authors idea,
supporting it with some emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. Certain
sounds, if repeated, may produce a special effect.
Thus the repetition of the sound /d / from Poes poem The Raven may give a feeling of fear,
anxiety, anguish or all this feelings together.
Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before.
The sound /m/ is used by some poets to produce a somnolent effect:
How sweet it were,
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
To the music of mild-minded melancholy;
To muse and brood and live again in memory.
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We would rather be ruined than changed
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.
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Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia /onmtup?i:/ is a combination of speech sounds which aims at imitating sounds
produced in nature (wind, water, leaves, etc.),by animals, by people, and by things (machines or
tools ). There are two varieties of onomatopoeia: direct and indirect.
Direct onomatopoeia imitates natural sounds, as buzz, bang beep, vroom, clap, click, cuckoo,
rustle, giggle, mumble, whistle, crunch, splash, bubble, ping-pong, tick-tock, etc.
Animal sounds:
catmiaow, purr;
bird - chirp, tweet;
crow - caw,dog woof, grrr, bow-wow;
lion roar;
horse neigh;
mouse squeak;
pig oink;
wolf ow ow owooooo, howl;
human blab, blah-blah, murmur
Indirect onomatopoeia is a combination of sounds that echoes the sense of the utterance: And the
silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain where the repetition of the sound /s/ produces
the sound of the rustling of the curtains.
The sound /w/ may reproduce the sound of wind:
Whenever the moon and stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet
A man goes riding by.
Indirect onomatopoeia is sometimes used by repeating words which themselves are not
onomatopoetic, as in Poes poem The Bells:
Silver bellshow they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle
Euphony
Euphony is rather close to assonance because it is a combination of sounds that we hear as pleasant
and beautiful:
The lone and level sands stretch far away
Analysis
Analyzing a poem
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6. Characterization: Who is the main character or protagonist? Who are the other major and minor
characters? How does the writer reveal what each of the characters is like?
7. Theme: What is the theme (the message of the author), or central idea of the story? How is the
theme revealed? (A theme usually expresses some insight into the human experience. It may deal with
values, ideas, beliefs, or life in general.)
8. Figures of speech and devices of sound: Which of them can you find and how do they reveal
the authors ideas?
9. The tone (mood) of the text: What is the writers attitude to what he depicts? Is it serious,
humorous, ironic, sarcastic, mocking, indignant, matter-of-fact, etc.? How is the authors attitude
revealed in the authors commentaries or impersonally, through the characters actions and speech?
Methods of character-drawing
There are two methods of character-drawing: direct and indirect. A character is described directly
if we learn about him from descriptions of his appearance, behaviuor, etc.
The indirect method is used when we learn about the personage from other parts of the text: in
dialogue the character is described through his own words and the remarks of other personages; in
narrations - through his actions.
The protagonist is the most important character in a work. Other characters are called major and
minor characters.
Elements of character are: appearance, words and actions, background, personality, motivation,
relationships, conflict.
When you analyze a character, ask yourself the following questions:
1. Appearance: what do the aspects of the characters appearance reveal about his traits?
2. Words and actions : what kind of language does the hero use? what can we learn from his words?
3. Background: what past experience has the character got? how does the past effect the characters
thoughts and actions in the present?
4. Motivation: what makes the character act and speak as he does?
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5. Conflict: is the character involved in some conflict? is the conflict internal (within the characters
mind) or external (between the character and the other force)? how is the conflict resolved?
Remember! ALWAYS support your views and opinion with evidence by referring to points in the
text.
****************************************************************
The usage of colloquial English /archaic words/create (), humorous effect.
The choice of epithets reveals the authors attitude to the character.
The image of a cat crouching under the table suggests
This mood is conveyed by
This effect is created by
These details underline
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Texts
Poems to analyze
Bird Talk
Fairy Story
Think said the Robin.
I went into the wood one day
Think said the Jay,
And there I walked and lost my way
sitting in the garden,
talking one day.
When it was so dark I could not see
Think about people
A little creature came to me
the way they grow:
they dont have feathers
He said if I would sing a song
at all, you know.
The time would not be very long
They dont eat beetles,
they dont grow wings,
But first I must let him hold my hand tight
they dont like sitting
Or else the wood would give me a fright
on wires and things.
I sang a song, he let me go
Think! said the Robin.
But now I am home again there is nobody I
Think! said the Jay.
know.
Arent people funny
to be that way?
Stevie Smith
Aileen Fisher
The Swallow
The Brook
Pretty Halcyon Days
Grumbling, stumbling,
Fumbling all the day; How pleasant to sit on the beach,
Fluttering, stuttering,Muttering On the beach, on the sand, in the sun,
away; With ocean galore within reach,
Rustling, hustling, Bustling as it And nothing at all to be done!
flows No letters to answer,
That is how the brook talks, No bills to be burned,
Bubbling as it goes. No work to be shirked,
Alfred Tennyson No cash to be earned.
Afternoon in February
How Do You Know Its Spring?
The day is ending,
The night is descending; How do you know it is Spring?
The march is frozen, And how do you know it is Fall?
The river dead. Suppose your eyes were always shut
Through clouds like ashes And you couldnt see at all,
The red sun flashes Could you smell and hear the Spring?
On village windows And could you feel the Fall?
That glimmer red. Margaret Wise Brown
W. Blake
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October
The month is amber,
Wind on the Hill
Gold, and brown.
Blue ghosts of smoke No one can tell me,
Float through the town. Nobody knows,
Great Vs of geese Where the wind came from,
Honk overhead, Where the wind goes.
And maples turn Its flying from somewhere
A fiery red. As fast as it can,
Frost bites the lawn. I couldnt keep up with it,
The stars are slits Not if I ran.
In a black cats eye But if I stopped holding
Before she spits. The string of my kite,
At last, small witches, It would blow with the wind
Goblins, hags, For a day and a night.
And pirates armed And then when I found it,
With paper bags, Wherever it blew,
Their costumes hinged I should know that the wind
On safety pins, Had been going there too.
Go haunt a night A. Milne
Of pumpkin grins.
John Updike
The Fly
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But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
You will know I'm trying
To say that for destruction ice
With my Granite lip!
Is also great
E. Dickinson
And would suffice.
R. Frost
Mirror
A PRAYER IN SPRING
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
And give us not to think so far away
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
I am not cruel, only truthful
All simple in the springing of the year.
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
It is pink, with speckles'. I have looked at it so long
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
And make us happy in the happy bees,
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
And make us happy in the darting bird
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
And off a blossom in mid-air stands still.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
The which it is reserved for God above
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
woman
But which it only needs that we fulfill.
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
Robert Frost
Sylvia Platn
Because I Could not Stop for Death I envy Seas, whereon He rides
I envy Spokes of Wheels
Because I could not stop for Death Of Chariots, that Him convey
He kindly stopped for me I envy Crooked Hills
The carriage held but just Ourselves
And Immortality. That gaze upon His journey
How easy All can see
We slowly drove What is forbidden utterly
He knew no haste As Heaven unto me!
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too, I envy Nests of Sparrows
For His Civility That dot His distant Eaves
The wealthy Fly, upon His Pane
We passed the School, where Children strove The happy happy Leaves
At Recess in the Ring
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain That just abroad His Window
We passed the Setting Sun Have Summer's leave to play
The Ear Rings of Pizarro
Or rather He passed Us Could not obtain for me
The Dews drew quivering and chill
For only Gossamer, my Gown I envy Light that wakes Him
My tippet only Tulle And Bells that boldly ring
To tell Him it is Noon, abroad
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We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground
The Roof was scarcely visible
The Cornice in the Ground
Myself be Noon to Him
Since then 'tis Centuries and yet EMILY DICKINSON
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity
EMILY DICKINSON
Metaphors
The way a crow I'm a riddle in nine syllables,
Shook down on me An elephant, a ponderous house,
The dust of snow A melon strolling on two tendrils
From a hemlock tree red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
Has given my heart This loaf's big with its yeasty' rising.
A change of mood Money new-minted in this fat purse.
And saved some pert I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
Of a day I had rued. I've eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there's no getting off.
Robert Frost
Sylvia Plath
Stories to analyze
14
Indeed, Frau Ilsy's power was not confined to the doctor's household. She was one of those prying
gossips who know every one's business better than they do themselves; and whose all-seeing eyes, all-
telling tongues, are terrors throughout a neighborhood.
Nothing of any moment transpired in the world of scandal of this little burgh, but it was known to
Frau Ilsy. She had her crew of cronies that were perpetually hurrying to her little parlor with some
precious bit of news; nay, she would sometimes discuss a whole volume of secret history, as she held
the street-door ajar, and gossiped with one of these garrulous cronies in the very teeth of a December
blast.
Between the doctor and the housekeeper it may easily be supposed that Dolph had a busy life of it.
As Frau Ilsy kept the keys, and literally ruled the roast, it was starvation to offend her, though he found
the study of her temper more perplexing even than that of medicine. When not busy in the laboratory,
she kept him running hither and thither on her errands; and on Sundays he was obliged to accompany
her to and from church, and carry her Bible. Many a time has the poor varlet stood shivering and
blowing his fingers, or holding his frostbitten nose, in the church-yard, while Ilsy and her cronies were
huddled together, wagging their heads, and tearing some unlucky character to pieces.
With all his advantages, however, Dolph made very slow progress in his art. This was no fault of the
doctor's certainly, for he took unwearied pains with the lad, keeping him close to the pestle and mortar,
or on the trot about town with phials and pill-boxes; and if he ever flagged in his industry, which he
was rather apt to do, the doctor would fly into a passion, and ask him if he ever expected to learn his
profession, unless he applied himself closer to the study. The fact is, he still retained the fondness for
sport and mischief that had marked his childhood; the habit, indeed, had strengthened with his years,
and gained force from being thwarted and constrained. He daily grew more and more untractable, and
lost favor in the eyes, both of the doctor and the housekeeper.
In the meantime the doctor went on, waxing wealthy and renowned. He was famous for his skill in
managing cases not laid down in the books. He had cured several old women and young girls of
witchcraft, a terrible complaint, and nearly as prevalent in the province in those days as hydrophobia
is at present. He had even restored one strapping country-girl to perfect health, who had gone so far as
to vomit crooked pins and needles; which is considered a desperate stage of the malady. It was
whispered, also, that he was possessed of the art of preparing love-powders; and many applications
had he in consequence from love-sick patients of both sexes. But all these cases formed the mysterious
part of his practice, in which, according to the cant phrase, "secrecy and honor might be depended on."
Dolph, therefore, was obliged to turn out of the study whenever.
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When he looked up again, it was dark outside and he saw the bright rim of the moon just peeping
over the horizon. He jumped up in great fright and rang for the Court Jester. The Court Jester came
bounding into the room and sat down at the foot of the throne.
"What can I do for you, your Majesty?" he asked.
"Nobody can do anything for me," said the King mournfully. "The moon is coming up again. It will
shine into the Princess Lenore's bedroom, and she will know it is still in the sky and that she does not
wear it on a golden chain around her neck. Play me something on your lute, something very sad. For
when the Princess sees the moon, she will be ill again."
The Court Jester strummed on his lute. "What do your wise men say?"
"They can think of no way to hide the moon that will not make the Princess Lenore ill," said the
King.
The Court Jester played another song, very softly. "Your wise men know everything," he said, "and
if they cannot hide the moon, then it cannot be hidden."
The King put his head in his hands again and sighed. Suddenly he jumped up from his throne and
pointed to the windows. "Look!" he cried. "The moon is already shining into the Princess Lenore's
bedroom. Who can explain how the moon can be shining in the sky when it is hanging on a golden
chain around her neck?"
The Court Jester stopped playing on his lute. "Who could explain how to get the moon when your
wise men said it was too large and too far away? It was the Princess Lenore. Therefore the Princess
Lenore is wiser than your wise men and knows more about the moon than they do. So 1 will ask her."
And before the King could stop him, the Court Jester slipped quietly out of the throne room and up the
wide marble staircase to the Princess Lenore's bedroom.
The Princess was lying in bed, but she was wide awake and she was looking out the window at the
moon shining in the sky. Shining in her hand was the moon the Court Jester had got for her. He looked
very sad, and there seemed to be tears in his eyes.
"Tell me, Princess Lenore," he said mournfully, "how can the moon be shining in the sky when it is
hanging on a gold chain around your neck?"
The Princess looked at him and laughed. "That is easy, silly," she said. "V/hen I lose a tooth, a new
one grows in its place, doesn't it?"
"Of course," said the Court Jester. "And, when the unicorn loses his horn in the forest, a new one
grows in the middle of his forehead."
"That is right," said the Princess. "And when the Royal Gardener cuts the flowers in the garden,
other flowers come to take their place."
"I should have thought of that," said the Court Jester, "for it is the same way with the daylight."
"And it is the same way with the moon," said the Princess Lenore. "I guess it is the same way with
everything." Her voice became very low and faded away, and the Court Jester saw that she was asleep.
Gently he tucked the covers in around the sleeping Princess.
But before he left the room, he went over to the window and winked at the moon, for it seemed to
the Court Jester that the moon winked at him.
Louise
(after W.S. Maugham; abridged and adapted)
I could never understand why Louise bothered - with me. She disliked me and I knew that behind
my back she seldom lost the opportunity of saying a disagreeable thing about me. She had too much
delicacy ever to make a direct statement, but with a hint and a sigh and a little flutter of her beautiful
hands she was able to make her meaning plain. It was true that we had known one another almost
intimately for five and twenty years, but it was impossible for me to believe that this fact meant much
to her. She thought me a brutal, cynical and vulgar fellow. I was puzzled at her not dropping me. She
did nothing of the kind; indeed, she would not leave me alone; she was constantly asking me to lunch
and dine with her and once or twice a year invited me to spend a week-end at her house in the country.
At last I thought that I had discovered her motive. She suspected that I did not believe in her, that I saw
the face behind the mask and she hoped that sooner or later I too should take the mask for the face. I
was never quite certain that she was a complete humbug. I wondered whether she fooled herself as
22
thoroughly as she fooled the world or whether there was sonic spark of humour at the bottom of her
heart.
I knew Louise before she married. She was then a frail, delicate girl with large and melancholy
eyes. Her father and mother adored and worshipped her, for some illness, scarlet fever, I think, had left
her with a weak heart and she had to take the greatest care of herself. When Tom Maitland proposed to
her they were dismayed, for they were convinced that she was too delicate for marriage.
But they were not too well off and Tom Maitland was rich. He promised to do everything in the
world for Louise and finally they entrusted her to him. Tom Maitland was a big strong fellow, very
good-looking and a line athlete. He adored Louise. With her weak heart he could not hope to keep her
with him long and he made up his mind to do everything he could to make her few years on earth
happy. lie gave up the games he was so good at, not because she wished him to, she was glad that he
.should play golf and hunt, but because it so happened that she always had a heart attack whenever he
was going to leave her for a day. If they had a difference of opinion she gave in to him at once for she
was the most gentle wife a man could have, but her heart failed her and she would be laid up, sweet
and uncomplaining for a week. He could not he such a brute as to cross her.
On one occasion seeing her walk eight miles on an expedition that she specially wanted to make, I
mentioned to Tom Maitland that she was stronger than one would have thought. He shook his head and
sighed.
"No, no, she is dreadfully delicate. She's been to all the best heart specialists in the world and they
all say that her life hangs on a thread. But she has a wonderfully strong spirit."
He told her that I remarked on her endurance.
"I shall pay for it tomorrow," she said to me in her melancholy way. "I shall be at death's door."
"I sometimes think that you're quite strong enough to do things you want to," I murmured.
I noticed that if a party was amusing she could dance till five in the morning, but if it was dull she
felt very poorly and Tom had to take her home early. I am afraid she did not like my reply, for though
she gave me a pathetic little smile I saw no amusement in her large blue eyes.
"You can't expect me to fall down dead just to please you," she answered.
Louise outlived her husband. He caught his death of cold one day when they were sailing and
Louise needed all the rugs there were to keep her warm. He left her a comfortable fortune and a
daughter. Louise was inconsolable. It was wonderful that she managed to survive the shock. Her
friends expected her speedily to follow poor Tom Maitland to the grave. Indeed they already felt
dreadfully sorry for Iris, her daughter, who would be left an orphan. They redoubled their attention
towards Louise. They would not let her stir a finger; they insisted on doing everything in the world to
save her trouble. They had to, because if it was necessary for her to do anything tiresome or unpleasant
her heart failed her and she was at death's door. She was quite lost without a man to take care of her.
She said she did not know how, with her delicate health, she was going to bring up her dear Iris. Her
friends asked her why she did not marry again. Oh, with her heart it was out of the question, she
answered. Who would want to be bothered with a wretched invalid like herself?
Oddly enough more than one young man showed himself quite ready to undertake the charge and a
year alter Tom's death she allowed George Hob house to lead her to the altar. He was a fine, upstanding
fellow and he was not at all badly off. I never saw anyone so grateful as he for the privilege of being
allowed to take care of this frail little thing.
"I shan't live to trouble you long," she said.
He was a soldier and an ambitious one, but he left the army. Louise's health forced him to spend the
winter at Monte Carlo and the summer at Deauville. He prepared to make his wife's last few years as
happy as he could.
"It can't be very long now," she said. "I'll try not to be troublesome."
For the next two or three years Louise managed, in spite of her weak heart, to go beautifully dressed
to all the most lively parties, to gamble very heavily, to dance and even to flirt with tall slim young
men. But George Hobhouse had not the strength of Louise's first husband and he had to brace himself
now and then with a stiff drink for his day's work as Louise's second husband. It is possible that the
habit would have grown on him, which Louise would not have liked at all, but very fortunately (for
her) the war broke out. He rejoined his regiment and three months later was killed. It was a great shock
to Louise. She felt, however, that in such a crisis she must not give way to a private grief; and if she
23
had a heart attack nobody heard of it. In order to distract her mind she turned her villa at Monte Carlo
into hospital for convalescent officers. Her friends told her that she would never survive the strain.
"Of course it will kill me," she said, "I know that. But what docs it matter? I must do my bit."
It didn't kill her. She had the time of her life. There was no convalescent home in France that was
more popular. I met her by chance in Paris. She was lunching at a fashionable restaurant with a tall and
very handsome young Frenchman. She explained that she was there on business connected with the
hospital. She told me that the officers were very charming to her. They knew how delicate she was
and they wouldn't let her do a single thing. They took care of her, well - as though they were all her
husbands. She sighed.
"Poor George, who would ever have thought that I with my heart should survive him?"
"And poor Tom!" I said.
I don't know why she didn't like my saying that. She gave me her melancholy smile and her
beautiful eyes filled with tears.
"You always speak as though you grudged me the few years that I can expect to live."
"By the way, your heart is much better, isn't it?" "It'll never be better. I saw a specialist this morning
and he said I must be prepared for the worst."
"Oh, well, you've been prepared for that, for nearly twenty years now, haven't you?"
When the war came to an end Louise settled in London. She was now a woman of over forty, thin
and frail still, with large eyes and pale cheeks, but she didn't look a day more than twenty-five, iris,
who had been at school and was now grown up, came to live with her.
"She'll take care of me," said Louise. "Of course it'll be hard on her to live with such a great invalid
as I am, but it can only be for such a little while, I'm sure she won't mind."
Iris was a nice girl. She had been brought up with the knowledge that her mother's health was poor.
As a child she had never been allowed to make a noise. She had always realized that her mother must
on no account be upset. And though Louise told her now that she would not hear of her sacrificing
herself for a tiresome old woman the girl simply would not listen.
With a sigh her mother let her do a great deal.
"It pleases the child to think she's making herself useful," she said.
"Don't you think she ought to go out more?" I asked.
"That's what I'm always telling her. I can't, get her to enjoy herself. Heaven knows, I never want
anyone to give up their pleasures on my account."
And Iris, when I talked to her about it, said: "Poor dear mother, she wants me to go and stay with
friends and go to the parties, but the moment I start off anywhere she has one of her heart attacks, so I
prefer to stay at home."
But presently she fell in love. A young friend of mine, a very good lad, asked her to marry him and
she consented. I liked the child and was glad that she would be given at last the chance to lead a life of
tier own. But one day the young man came to me in great distress and told me that the marriage was
postponed for an indefinite time. Iris felt that she could not desert her mother. Of course it was really
no business of mine, but I decided to go and sec Louise. She was always glad to receive her friends at
tea-time and now that she was older she cultivated the society of painters and writers.
"Well, I hear that Iris isn't going to be married," I said after a while.
"I dont know about that. She's not going to be married quite as soon as I wish. I've begged her on
my knees not to consider me, but she absolutely refuses to leave me."
"Don't you think it's rather hard on her?"
"Dreadfully. Of course it can only be for a few months. I hate the thought of anyone sacrificing
themselves for me."
"My dear Louise, you've buried two husbands. I can't see why you shouldn't bury at least two
more."
"Do you think that's funny?" she asked me in a tone that she made as offensive as she could.
"Don't you think it strange that you are always strong enough to do anything you want and that your
weak heart prevents you from doing things that bore you?"
"Oh, I know; I know what you've always thought of me. You've never believed that I have a poor
heart, have you?"
I looked at tier full and square.
24
"Never. I think you've carried out a bluff for twenty-five years. I think you're the most selfish and
monstrous woman I have ever known. You ruined the lives of those two wretched men you married
and now you're going to ruin the life of your daughter."
I should not have been surprised if Louise had had a heart attack then. I fully expected her to fly
into a passion. She only gave me a gentle smile.
"My poor friend, one of these days you'll be so dreadfully sorry you said this to me."
"Have you quite decided not to let Iris marry this boy?"
"I've begged tier to marry him. I know it'll kill me, but I don't mind. Nobody cares for me. I'm just a
burden to everybody."
"Did you tell her it would kill you?"
"She made me."
"Nobody can make you do anything that you yourself don't want to do."
"She can marry her young man tomorrow if she tikes. If it kills me, it kills me."
Well, let's risk it, shall we?"
"Haven't you got any pity for me?"
"One can't pity anyone who amuses one as much as you amuse me," I answered.
A spot of colour appeared on Louise's pale cheeks and though she smiled her eyes were hard and
angry.
"Iris will marry in a month's time," she said, "and if anything happens to me I hope you and site will
be able to forgive yourselves."
Louise was as good as her word. A date was fixed, a rich trousseau was ordered, and invitations
were sent. Iris and the lad were very happy. On the wedding-day, at ten o'clock in the morning, Louise,
that devilish woman, had one of her heart attacks - and died. She died gently forgiving Iris for having
killed her.
26
'Well, what of it? They'll all lie. Leastways all but the nigger. I don't know him. But I never see a
nigger that would'nt lie. Shucks! Now you tell me how Bob Tanner done it, Huck,'
'Why, he took and dipped his hand in a rotten stump where the rain-water was.'
'In the daytime?'
'Certainly.'
'With his face to the stump?'
'Yes. Least I reckon so.'
'Did he say anything?'
'I don't reckon he did, I don't know.'
'Aha! Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk water such a blame fool way as that! Why, that
ain't a going to do any good. You got to go all by yourself to the middle of the woods, where you know
there's a spunk water stump, and just as it's midnight you back up against the stump and jam your hand
in and say
Barley-corn, barley-corn, injun-meal shorts,
Spunk water, spunk water, swaller these warts,
and then walk away quick, eleven steps, with your eyes shut, and then turn around three times and
walk home without speaking to anybody. Because if you speak, the charm's busted.'
'Well, that sounds like a good way; but that ain't the way Bob Tanner done.'
'No, sir, you can bet he didn't; because he's the warti-est boy in this town; and he wouldn't have a
wart on him if he'd knowed how to work spunk water. I've took off thousands of warts off of my hands
that way, Huck. 1 play with frogs so much that I've always got considerable many warts. Sometimes I
take 'em off with a bean.'
'Yes, bean's good. I've done that.'
'Have you? What's your way?'
'You take, and split the bean, and cut the wart so as to get some blood, and then you put the blood
on one piece of the bean, and take and dig a hole and bury it 'bout midnight at the cross-roads in the
dark of the moon, and then you burn up the rest of the bean. You see that piece that's got the blood on it
will keep drawing and drawing, trying to fetch the other piece to it, and so that helps the blood to draw
the wart, and pretty soon off she comes.'
'Yes, that's it, Huck that's it; though, when you're burying it, if you say, "Down bean, off wart;
come no more to bother me!" it's better. That's the way Joe Harper does, and he's been nearly to
Coonville, and most everywhere. But say how do you cure 'em with dead cats?'' Why, you take your
cat and go and get in the graveyard long about midnight, when somebody that was wicked has been
buried; and when it's midnight a devil will .come, or maybe two or three, but you can't see 'em, you
can only hear something like the wind, or maybe hear 'em talk; and when they're taking that feller
away, you heave your cat after 'em and say, "Devil follow corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat,
I'm done with ye!" That'll fetch any wart'
'Sounds right. D'you ever try it, Huck?'
'No, but old Mother Hopkins told me.'
'Well, I reckon it's so, then, becuz they say she's a witch.'
'Say! Why, Tom, I know she is. She witched pap. Pap says so his own self. He come along one day,
and he see she was a witching him, so he took up a rock, and if she hadn't dodged he'd a got her. Well,
that very night he rolled of f n a shed where' he was a layin' drunk, and broke his arm.'
'Why, that's awful. How did he know she was a witching him?'
'Lord, pap can tell, easy. Pap says when they keep looking at you right stiddy, they're a witching
you, specially if they mumble. Because when they mumble they're saying the Lord's Prayer backyards.'
'Say, Hucky, when you going to try the cat?'
'To-night. I reckon they'll come after old Hoss Williams tonight.'
'But they buried him Saturday. Didn't they get him Saturday night?'
'Why, how you talk! How could their charms work till midnight? and then it's Sunday. Devils don't
slosh around much of a Sunday, I don't reckon.''I never thought of that. That's so. Lemme go with you?'
'Of course if you ain't afeard.'
'Afeard! 'Tain't likely. Will you meow?'
27
'Yes, and you meow back if you get a chance. Last time you keep me a meowing around till old
Hays went to throwing rocks at me, and says, "Dern that cat!" and so I hove a brick through his
window but don't you tell'
'I won't. I couldn't meow that night because auntie was watching me; but I'll meow this time. Say
what's that?'
'Nothing but a tick.'
'Where'd you get him?'
'Out in the woods.'
'What'll you take for him?'
'I don't know. I don't want to sell him.'
'All right. It's a mighty small tick, anyway.'
'Oh, anybody can run a tick down that don't belong to them. I'm satisfied with it. It's a good enough
tick for me.'
'Sho, there's ticks a plenty. I could have a thousand of 'em if I wanted to.'
'Well, why don't you? Becuz you know mighty well you can't. This is a pretty early tick, I reckon.
It's the first one I've seen this year.'
'Say, Huck, I'll give you my tooth for him.'
'Less see it.'
Tom got out a bit of paper and carefully unrolled it. Huckleberry viewed it wistfully. The temptation
was very strong. At last he said:
'Is it genuwyne?'
Tom lifted his lip and showed the vacancy.
'Well, all right,' said Huckleberry; 'it's a trade.'
Tom enclosed the tick in the percussion-cap box that had lately been the pinch-bug's prison, and the
boys separated, each feeling wealthier than before.
When Tom reached the little isolated frame school-house, he strode in briskly, with the manner of
one who had come with all honest speed. He hung his hat on a peg, and flung himself into, his seat
with business
The Clock
I was staying with my aunt in Hampstead. There was another guest, whom I had never met before, a
Mrs Caleb. She lived in Lewes and had been staying with my aunt for about a fortnight. Frankly, I
disliked her. She was queer and secretive; underground, if you can use the expression, rather than
underhand. And I could feel in my body that she did not like me.
One summer day Mrs Caleb waylaid me in the hall, just as I was going out.
'I wonder,' she said, 'I wonder if you could do me a small favour. If you do have any time to spare in
Lewes - only if you do - would you be so kind as to call at my house? I left a little travelling-clock
there in the hurry of parting. If it's not in the drawing-room, it will be in my bedroom or in one of the
maids' bedrooms. Would it be too much to ask? The house has been locked up for twelve days, but
everything is in order. I have the keys here; the large one is for the garden gate, the small one for the
front door.'
I could only accept, and she proceeded to tell me how I could find Ash Grove House.
'You will feel quite like a burglar,' she said. 'But mind, it's only if you have time to spare.'
I found Ash Grove without difficulty. It was a medium-sized red-brick house, standing by itself in a
high walled garden that bounded a narrow lane. A flagged path led from the gate to the front door. The
dining-room and drawing-room lay on either side of the hall and I looked round hurriedly for the
clock. It was neither on the table nor mantelpiece. The rest of the furniture was carefully covered over
with white dust-sheets. Then 1 went upstairs. I made a hurried search of the principal bedrooms. There
was no sign of Mrs Caleb's clock. The impression that the house gave me - you know the sense of
personality that a house conveys - was neither pleasing nor displeasing, but it was stuffy, stuffy from
the absence of fresh air, with an additional stuffiness added, that seemed to come out from the
hangings and quilts. The last door that I unlocked - (I should say that the doors of all the rooms were
locked, and relocked by me after I had glanced inside them) -contained the object of my search. Mrs
Caleb's travelling-clock was on the mantelpiece, ticking away merrily.
28
That was how I thought of it at first. And then for the first time I realised that there was something
wrong. The clock had no business to be ticking. The house had been shut up for twelve days. No one
had come in to air it or to light fires. And yet the clock was going. I wondered if some vibration had set
the mechanism in motion, and pulled out my watch to see the time. It was five minutes to one. The
clock on the mantelpiece said four minutes to one. I again looked round the room. Nothing was out of
place. The only thing that might have called for remark was that there appeared to be a slight
indentation on the pillow and the bed; but the mattress was a feather mattress, and you know how
difficult it is to make them perfectly smooth. I gave a hurried glance under the bed and then, and much
more reluctantly, opened the doors of two horribly capacious cupboards, both happily empty. By this
time I really was frightened. The clock went ticking on. I had a horrible feeling that an alarm might go
off at any moment, and the thought of being in that empty house was almost too much for me.
However, I made an attempt to pull myself together. It might after all be a fourteen-day clock. If it
were, then it would be almost run down. I could roughly find out how long the clock had been going
by winding it up. I hesitated to put the matter to the test; but the uncertainty was too much for me. I
took it out of its case and began to wind. I had scarcely turned the winding-screw twice when it
stopped. The clock clearly was not running down; the hands had been set in motion probably only an
hour or two before. I felt cold and faint and, going to the window, threw up the sash, letting in the
sweet, live air of the garden. I knew now that the house was queer, horribly queer. Could someone be
living in the house? Was someone else in the house now? I thought that I had been in all the rooms, but
had I? I had only just opened the bathroom door, and I had certainly not opened any cupboards, except
those in the room in which I was. Then, as I stood by the open window, wondering what I should do
next and and feeling that I just couldn't go down that corridor into the darkened hall to fumble at the
latch of the front door with I don't know what behind me, I heard a noise. It was very faint at first, and
seemed to be coming from the stairs. It was a curious noise - not the noise of anyone climbing up the
stairs, but of something hopping up the stairs, like a very big bird would hop. I heard it on the landing;
it stopped. Then there was a curious scratching noise against one of the bedroom doors, the sort of
noise you can make with the nail of your little finger scratching polished wood. Whatever it was, was
coming slowly down the corridor, scratching at the doors as it went. I could stand it no longer.
Nightmare pictures of locked doors opening filled my brain. I took up the clock wrapped it in my
mackintosh and dropped it put of the window on to a flower-bed. Then I managed to crawl out of the
window and, getting a grip of the sill, 'successfully negotiated', as the journalists would say, 'a twelve-
foot drop'. Picking up the mackintosh, I ran round to the front door and locked it. Then I felt I could
breathe, but not until I was on the far side of the gate in the garden wall did I feel safe.
Then I remembered that the bedroom window was open. What was I to do? Wild horses wouldn't
have dragged me into that house again unaccompanied. I made up my mind to go to the police-station
and tell them everything. I had actually begun to walk down the lane in the direction of the town, when
I chanced to look back at the house. The window that I had left open was shut.
No, my dear, I didn't see any face or anything dreadful like that... and of course, it may have shut by
itself. It was an ordinary sash-window, and you know they are often, difficult to keep open.
And the rest? Why, there's really nothing more to tell. I didn't even see Mrs Caleb again. She had
had some sort f fainting fit just before lunch-time, my aunt informed me on my return, and had had to
go to bed. Next morning I travelled down to Cornwall to join mother and the children. I thought I had
forgotten all about it, but when three years later Uncle Charles suggested giving me a travelling-clock
for a twenty-first birthday present, I was foolish enough to prefer the alternative that he offered, a
collected edition f the works of Thomas Carlyle.
30
Just at daybreak, I was awakened by a series of awful screams from Bill. They weren't yells, or
howls, or shouts, or whoops, or yawps, such as you'd expect from a manly set of vocal organs they
were simply indecent, terrifying, humiliating screams, such as women emit when they see ghosts or
caterpillars. It's an awful thing to hear a strong, desperate, fat man scream incontinently in a cave at
daybreak.
I jumped up to see what the matter was. Red Chief was sitting on Bill's chest, with one hand twined
in Bill's hair. In the other he had the sharp case-knife we used for slicing bacon; and he was
industriously and realistically trying to take Bill's scalp, according to the sentence that had been
pronounced upon him the evening before.
I got the knife away from the kid and made him lie down again. But, from that moment, Bill's spirit
was broken. He laid down on his side of the bed, but he never closed an eye again in sleep as long as
that boy was with us. I dozed off a while, but along toward sun-up I remembered that Red Chief had
said I was to be burned at the stake at the rising of the sun. I wasn't nervous or afraid; but I sat up and
lit my pipe and leaned against a rock.
"What you getting up so soon for, Sam?" asked Bill.
"Me?" says I. "Oh, I got a kind of pain in my shoulder. I thought sitting up would rest it."
"You're a liar!" says Bill. "You're afraid. You was to be burned at sunrise, and you was afraid he'd
do it. And he would, too, if he could find a match. Ain't it awful, Sam? Do you think anybody will pay
out money to get a little imp like that back home?"
"Sure," said I. "A rowdy kid like that is just the kind that parents dote on. Now, you and the Chief
get up and cook breakfast, while I go up on the top of this mountain and reconnoiter."
I went up on the peak of the little mountain and ran my eye over the contiguous vicinity. Over
towards Summit I expected to see the sturdy yeomanry of the village armed with scythes and
pitchforks beating the countryside for the dastardly kidnappers. But what I saw was a peaceful
landscape dotted with one man ploughing with a dun mule. Nobody was dragging the creek; no
couriers dashed hither and yon, bringing tidings of no news to the distracted parents. There was a
sylvan attitude of somnolent sleepiness pervading that section of the external outward surface of
Alabama that lay exposed to my view. "Perhaps," says I to myself, "it has not yet been discovered that
the wolves have borne away the tender lambkin from the fold. Heaven help the wolves!" says I, and I
went down the mountain to breakfast.
When I got to the cave I found Bill backed up against the side of it, breathing hard, and the boy
threatening to smash him with a rock half as big as a cocoanut.
"He put a red-hot boiled potato down my back," explained Bill, "and then mashed it with his foot;
and I boxed his ears. Have you got a gun about you, Sam?"
I took the rock away from the boy and kind of patched up the argument. "I'll fix you," says the kid
to Bill. "No man ever yet struck the Red Chief but he got paid for it. You better beware!"
Ernest Hemingway
Cat in the Rain
There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they
passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the
sea. It also faced the public garden and the war monument. There were big palms and green benches in
the public garden. In the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way
palms grew and the bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea. Italians came from a long
way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. The rain
dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in
the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain. The
motor cars were gone from the square by the war monument. Across the square in the doorway of a
cafe a waiter stood looking out at the empty sguare.
The American wife stood at the window looking out. Outside right under their window a cat was
crouched under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was trying to make herself so compact that
she would not be dripped on.
Im going down and get that kitty, the American wife said.
Ill do it, her husband offered from the bed.
No, Ill get it. The poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a table.
33
The husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the bed.
Dont get wet, he said.
The wife went downstairs and the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as she passed the office.
His desk was at the far end of the office. He was an old man and very tall.
Il piove, the wife said. She liked the hotelkeeper.
Si, si, Signora, brutto tempo. Its very bad weather.
He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. She liked the deadly
serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he wanted to serve
her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old, heavy face and hands.
Liking him she opened the door and looked out. It was raining harder. A man in a rubber cape was
crossing the empty square to the cafe. The cat would be around to the right. Perhaps she could go along
under the eaves. As she stood in the doorway an umbrella opened behind her. It was the maid who
looked after their room.
"You must not get wet," she smiled, speaking Italian. Of course, the hotel-keeper had sent her.
With the maid holding the umbrella over her, she walked along the gravel path until she was under
their window. The table was there, washed bright green in the rain, but the cat was gone. She was
suddenly dissappointed. The maid looked up at her.
Ha perduta qualque cosa, Signora?
There was a cat, said the American girl.
A cat?
Si, il gatto.
A cat? the maid laughed. A cat in the rain?
Yes, she said, under the table. Then, Oh, I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty.
When she talked English the maids face tightened.
Come, Signora, she said. We must get back inside. You will be wet.
I suppose so, said the American girl.
They went back along the gravel path and passed in the door. The maid stayed outside to close the
umbrella. As the American girl passed the office, the padrone bowed from his desk. Something felt
very small and tight inside the girl. The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really
important. She had a momentary feeling of being of supreme importance. She went on up the stairs.
She opened the door of the room. George was on the bed reading.
Did you get the cat? he asked, putting the book down.
It was gone.
Wonder where it went to, he said, resting his eyes from reading. She sat down on the bed.
I wanted it so much, she said I dont know why I wanted it so much. I wanted that poor kitty. It
isnt any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain.
George was reading again.
She went over and sat in front of the mirror of the dressing table looking at herself with the hand
glass. She studied her profile, first one side and then the other. Then she studied the back of her head
and her nec
Dont you think it would be a good idea if I let my hair grow out? she asked, looking at her
profile again.
George shifted his position in the bed. He hadnt looked away from her since she started to speak.
You look pretty darn nice, he said.
She laid the mirror down on the dresser and went over to the window and looked out. It was getting
dark
I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel, she
said. I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her.
Yeah? George said from the bed.
And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I
want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes.
Oh, shut up and get something to read, George said. He was reading again.
His wife was looking out of the window. It was quite dark now and still raining in the palm trees.
34
Anyway, I want a cat, she said, I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I cant have long hair or any
fun, I can have a cat.
George was not listening. He was reading his book. His wife looked out of the window where the
light had come on in the square.
Someone knocked at the door.
Avante, George said. He looked up from his book.
In the doorway stood the maid. She held a big tortoise-shell cat pressed tight against her and swung
down against her body.
Excuse me, she said, the padrone asked me to bring this for the Signora.
35
How amused everyone would be if they knew what really happened, said Louisa Mebbin a few
days after the ball.
What do you mean? asked Mrs. Packletide quickly.
How you shot the goat and frightened the tiger to death, said Miss Mebbin, with her disagreeably
pleasant laugh.
No one would believe it, said Mrs. Packletide, her face changing colour.
Loona Bimberton would, said Miss Mebbin. Mrs. Packletides face settled on an ugly shade of
greenish white.
You surely wouldnt give away? she asked.
Ive seen a week-end cottage near Dorking that I should like to buy," said Miss Mebbin. Six
hundred and eighty. Quite cheap, only I dont happen to have the money.
Louisa Mebbins pretty week-end cottage is the wonder and admiration of her friends.
Mrs. Packletide does no more shooting.
The incidental expenses are so heavy, she says to inquiring friends.
KATE CHOPIN
STORY OF AN HOUR
A wife has a startling reaction to the news of her husbands death.
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with1 a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her
as gently as possible the news of her husbands death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half
concealing. Her husbands friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the
newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallards name
leading the list of killed. He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second
telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept
its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sisters arms. When the
storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed
down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the
new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his
wares. The note; of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless
sparrows were twittering in the eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled
above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair quite motionless, except when a
sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in
its dreams.
She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength.
But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those
patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent
thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not
know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward
her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was
approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will as powerless as her two
white slender hands would have been.
When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it
over and over under her breath: Free, free, free! The vacant stare and the look of terror that had
followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing
blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
36
She did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception
enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face
that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter
moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and
spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There
would be no powerful will bending her in that blind persistence with which men and women believe
they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention
made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love,
the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly
recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
Free! Body and soul free! she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for
admission. Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door you will make yourself ill. What are you
doing, Louise? For heavens sake open the door.
Go away. I am not making myself ill. No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that
open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all
sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only
yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sisters importunities. There was a feverish triumph
in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sisters waist,
and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little
travel-stained, composedly carrying his gripsack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of
accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephines piercing ay; at
Richards quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife. But Richards was too late.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease of joy that kills.
Biographies
Cummings, Edward Estlin 1894 1962. One of the most technically innovative poets of this
century, Cummings was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and graduated from Harvard in 1916. He
drove an ambulance in Paris after the armistice. His first published work was a novel, The Enormous
Room (1922), based on his mistaken imprisonment in a French detention centre during the war. This
was followed by collections of verse, Tulips and Chimneys (1923) and XLI Poems (1925).
Cummingss new style, was influenced by jazz and contemporary slang and characterized by an
innovative use of punctuation and typography, as in the use of lower case letters for his own name.
38
Features of this poetry include the use of capital letters and punctuation in the middle of single words,
phrases split by parentheses, and stanzas arranged to create a visual design on the page. Formal devices
were often used as visual manifestations of theme or tone; the poems typographical dimension itself
becomes a new level of meaning.
Rossetti, Christina (Georgina) 1830 94 Poet. The sister of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William
Michael Rossetti, she was born in London and educated at home by her mother. She showed early
promise as a poet, and her grandfather had small collections printed when she was 12 and 15. She was
a delicate and religious girl, her devotion to High Anglicanism later moulding much of her finest verse.
Her religious convictions seem also to have caused the eventual collapse of her prolonged engagement
to the Pre-Raphaelite painter James Collinson.
Christina Rossettis lyrics An End and Dream Lane were published in the first number of The
Germ (1850) under the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne. She contributed further poems to this and other
journals. Her first major collection was Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862), followed in 1866 by
The Princes Progress and Other Poems. Sing Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872) was illustrated by
Arthur Hughes. By the 1880s bouts of ill health had made her an invalid, but she continued to write
and publish. A Pageant and Other Poems (1881) contained the sonnet sequence Monna Innominata,
celebrating the superiority of divine love over human passion, while (1885) consisted of 130 poems
and thoughts for each day. The last original work published in her lifetime was The Face of the Deep:
A Devotional Commentary on the Apocalypse (1892). Her brother, William Michael, edited her
complete works (1904).
Her verse is remarkable for its love of verbal invention and of metrical experiment. In both her
religion and her secular poetry she shows a keen interest in natural, pictorial imagery, while her
addresses to an unnamed lover or suitor suggest both a determination and a carefully controlled
ambiguity. Her delicate, frank meditations on death and Heaven are balanced by the imaginative
vigour of poems like Goblin Market.
Kate Choping (1851 1904) Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Kate Chopin came of French-Creole
parentage on her mothers side and Irish immigrants on her fathers side. She grew up in a household
dominated by generations of women, and it was from her great-grandmother that she heard the tales of
the early French settlers to St. Louis that were later to influence many of her short stories with their
colorful descriptions of Creole and Acadian life.
Much of Chopins writing deals with women searching for freedom from male domination, and she
is considered to be an early feminist writer. She wrote over a hundred short stories, many of which
were published in two collections: Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadia (1897). Her two novels,
At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), deal with the controversial themes of divorce and adultery,
respectively. Denounced as immoral, The Awakening caused a public uproar, which left Chopin deeply
depressed and discouraged. As a result, she wrote very little in the last five years of her life.
Saki Pseudonym of Hector Hugh Munro (1870-1916), short-story writer and novelist. He was born
in Akyab, the son of an officer in the Burma police, and brought up by two maiden aunts in Devon.
After being educated at a school in Exmouth and at Bedford grammar school, he followed his father
into the Burma police but was invalided home. In 1896 he settled in London, contributing political
satires to The Westminster Gazette (collected in The Westminster Alice, 1902). Between 1902 and 1908
he acted as correspondent for The Morning Post in Poland, Russia and Paris.
His first book, The Rise of the Russian Empire (1899), was the only one written in a serious vein.
Thereafter he adopted the pseudonym Saki (the name of the cup-bearer in the last stanza of The
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam) for his collections of short stories: Reginald (1904). Reginald in Russia
and Other Sketches (1910). The Chronicles of Clovis (1912) and Beasts and Superbeasts (1914).
Whimsical in their plots and light-heartedly cynical in their lone, these stories arc also given a darker
side by Munros memories of his unhappy childhood with his aunts. He also published two novels. The
Unbearable Bassingon (1912) and When William Came (1913), the latter a satirical fantasy subtitled
A Story of London under the Hohenzollerns.
Munro served with the Royal Fusiliers in World War I and was killed on the Western Front in 1910.
Two collections of stories and sketches appeared posthumously, The Toys of Pence and Other Papers
(1919) and The Square Egg and Other Sketches (1924).
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MARK TWAIN (1835-1910). Early years Mark Twain, the pen-name of Samuel Longhorne
Clemens, was born in a small village in Missouri in 1835. Four years later he moved with his family to
Hannibal, a town on the banks of the Mississippi River. After his father's death in 1847 he left school
and became an apprentice to a printer.
A variety of jobs When his older brother bought out a small newspaper in Hannibal, he went to
work for him, first as a printer and later he contributed humorous articles about local characters and
events. In 1853, not yet eighteen years old, he decided he wanted to expand his horizons. He travelled
in the East and the Midwest visiting New York, Philadelphia and Washington and settling for a time in
Iowa and New Orleans, where he got a job as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. When the Civil War
broke out in 1860 he served for a brief period as a volunteer in the Confederate army, before deserting
and heading first for Nevada and then fur California, where he became a miner.
Success as a writer In 1862 he was asked to become the editor of a newspaper to which he had
contributed some humorous essays. He started signing his articles 'Mark Twain', a cry used in river
piloting to refer to the river's depth. His articles became popular and the publication of a collection of
his stories, (1865), consolidated his reputation as a humorous writer.
Family life and success In 1870 he married Olivia Langon and settled into a comfortable lifestyle in
Connecticut, which was occasionally interrupted by trips to Europe or lecture tours. For the next
fifteen years he dedicated himself to his family and writing. He produced an account of his years as a
miner, Roughing It (1872), the best-selling (1876), a historical fantasy The Prince and the Pauper
(18S2), and the sequel to Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
More travels and anti-imperialism In 1886 he travelled to Hawaii where he stated that the
'disease' of civilisation was destroying the islands' inhabitants. He took a strong stand against his
country's foreign policy of acquiring of new territories outside mainland USA. He was a busy activist
in the Anti-Imperialist League and championed freedom for the colonies of the British Empire in his
lectures.
Last years In the final two decades of his life he became involved in a series of bad business
ventures which left him nearly bankrupt. He tried to recover his losses by carrying out exhausting
lecture tours which included visits to India, South Africa and Australia. His desperation was
compounded by the death of his wife and two of his three daughters. He continued writing up until his
death in 1910.
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Suicide This period of relative happiness was interrupted when she discovered that her husband was
having an affair. The couple divorced and six months later Sylvia Plath committed suicide at her home
in London.
Themes Sylvia Plath, had not been well-known before her death, but the posthumous publication of
The Bell Jai (1963) and Ariel (1965, the collection of thirty-five poems she had written in the last
months of her life), brought her to the public's attention. While her early poems are mostly about death,
her later work shows the complex personality of a woman in search of her own identity. Her concern
for the condition of women, which emerges in both her poetry and her autobiography made her into a
spokesperson for feminism. She was also deeply concerned with issues such as consumerism, the
misuse of the mass-media and technology and the exploitation of man and the environment.
Style Sylvia Plath's poetry is highly personal and has often been defined as 'confessional'. Many of
her poems are written in the dramatic monologue form. Surprising uses of sound and rhythm literary
equivalents of cinematic techniques such as flashbacks and close-ups, shocking metaphors and highly
personal symbols make her poetic style extremely distinctive.
In 1981 she was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
James Thurber (1894-1961)
After spending his boyhood and university days in Columbus, Ohio, Thurber worked as a reporter,
serving for a time as a foreign correspondent in France. He was one of the young, talented writers E.
B. White was anotherrecruited when Harold Ross founded The New Yorker in 1925, a period
recounted in Thurber's best-selling My Years with Ross (1959).
Thurber subsequently devoted full time to writing and illustrating some tvo dozen books of stories
and essays. He collaborated with Elliott Nugent in writing a play, The Male Animal, which ran
successfully in New York in 1940. Several of Thurber's stories and sketches were also presented on
Broadway in Three by Thurber (1955) and A Thurber Carnival (1960). A number of his stories,
including "The Unicorn in the Garden" and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (with Walter played by
Danny Kaye) have been produced as movies.
A representative selection of Thurber's short stories, fables, essays and cartoons is available in The
Thurber Carnival (1945). His wide-eyed dogs, predatory women, and timid men have made him one
of America's best-loved humorists.
Character
What do other people think? What emotions do they experience? How are they similar to or
different from us?
Literature allows us to look into the lives of an endless collection of men and women and find
answers to these questions. We can learn about people's hopes and fears, we can see them struggle
through adverse circumstances, we can rejoice with them in moments of success and sympathise with
them in moments of despair. In real life we have the opportunity of knowing intimately a relatively
small number of people - family members, loved ones, close friends. Literature allows us to multiply
that number by giving us access lo the private thoughts and lives of an endless assortment of
fascinating and memorable people.
Defining characters
When we analyse characters in fiction we need to ask some key questions about:
their relationship to the plot: do they play a major part in the events of the story or do they have
a minor role?
the degree to which they are developed: are they complex characters or are they one-
dimensional?
their growth in the course of story: do they remain the same throughout the story or do
significant changes in their personalities take place?
Another important aspect of character analysis is determining how the author presents and
establishes a character. There are two basic methods for conveying character: telling and showing.
Telling
Telling involves direct intervention and commentary by the author. He interrupts the narrative to
comment on the character's personality, thoughts or actions. The guiding hand of the author is clearly
evident as he helps us to form opinions about the character. An example of the telling technique can be
found in this short extract from D.H. Lawrence's novel , in which the author describes the protagonist
of his novel:
Arthur Morel was growing up. He was a quick, careless, impulsive boy, a good deal like his father.
He hated study, made a great moan if he had to work, and escaped as soon as possible to his sport
again.
Showing
When an author uses the technique of showing, he steps aside and allows the characters to reveal
themselves through what they do and say. His voice is silent. The reader is asked to infer character
from the evidence provided in the dialogue and action of the story. When the author chooses the
showing method, the revelation of character is generally gradual. The reader must be attentive and
receptive, and use his intelligence and memory to draw conclusions about the character's identity.
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Modern authors tend to favour showing over telling, but most writers use a mixture of both
methods.
Dialogue
In real life what people say reveals a lot about who they are and what they think. Similarly, in
fiction, what a character says can help us to understand basic elements of his personality. The
character's attitude towards others may also emerge from the dialogue. Important information about his
origin, education, occupation or social class may also be revealed by what he says and how he says it.
However, characters in stories do not always say what they really think. Just like people in real life,
they can be deceptive and create a false image of themselves.
Action
We can learn a lot about a character's emotions, attitudes and values by examining what he does in
the course of the story. We should try to understand the motives for the character's actions, and
discover the underlying forces that make him behave the way he does.
Comparison with other characters Is the way a character behaves similar to or different from the way
other characters act? One of the chief functions of minor characters in fiction is to provide contrast to
the main character. What can you learn by comparing the protagonist to some of the other less
important characters?
Setting
The time and place in which the story unfolds may provide useful information about the characters.
If events take place during a particular historical period (the Middle Ages, the French Revolution, the
Vietnam War) the characters' ideas and actions may be shaped by important external events. The
characters' physical surrounding (where they grew up, where they choose to live) may help us to
understand their psychological make-up.
References to the social setting may also give us some helpful insight. Do the characters share or
reject the values associated with their social background?
Names
Occasionally the character's name may provide clues to his personality. Emily Bronte's choice of
Heathcliff as a name for the hero of her novel Wuthering Heights conveys the character's wild, rugged,
almost primitive nature. (Heath = wild, uncultivated land; cliff = high rocky land that usually faces the
sea)
Appearance
In real life it is not advisable to judge a person by his appearance, but in fiction how a character
looks often provides important information about his personality. References to the clothes a character
wears may, for example, indicate his social and economic status. Details of a character's physical
appearance may prove useful in determining his age and the general state of his physical and emotional
health.
Imagery
Images are words or phrases that appeal to our senses. Consider these lines taken from Wilfred
Owen's poem:
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags we cursed though sludge.
The poet is describing his experience as a soldier during the First World War. Through his choic of
words he creates:
visual images: bent double, old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed;
aural images: coughing like hags, cursed;
a tactile image: sludge. If we replace the imagistic words that Owen uses
with more generic terms:
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Physically exhausted, the soldiers marched across the wet terrain cursing their fate.
the impact on our senses is lost
A writer may use an image to help us:
re-live a sense experience that we have already had. We may be able to conjure up the sound of
old women coughing or the sensation of walking through mud from past experience;
have a aew sense experience. This is achieved when our sense memories are called forth in a
pattern that does not correspond to any of our actual experiences. Exploited in this way, images allow
us to see, hear, feel, smell and taste experiences that are new to us.
We use the term imagery to refer to combinations or clusters of images that are used to create a
dominant impression. Death, corruption and disease imagery, for example, creates a powerful network
in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. Writers often develop meaningful patterns in their imagery, and a
writer's choice and arrangement of images is often an important clue to the overall meaning of his
work.
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kind of narrator was particularly popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. If the narrator does
not address the reader directly he is referred to as non-obtrusive.
Stream of consciousness
Stream of consciousness is the term applied to any attempt by a writer to represent the conscious
and subconscious thoughts and impressions in the mind of a character. This technique takes the reader
inside the narrating character's mind, where he sees the world of the story through the thoughts and
senses of the focal character.
At the beginning of the twentieth century some authors, notably James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and
William Faulkner, developed a stream of consciousness technique called interior monologue
Interior monologue
The term is borrowed from drama, where monologue refers to the part in a play where an actor
expresses his inner thoughts aloud to the audience. In fiction, an interior monologue is a record of a
characters, thoughts and sense impressions.
As people do not think in complete, well-formed logical sentences, Joyce, Woolf and Faulkner
abandoned traditional syntax, punctuation and logical connections in order to represent the flow of a
character's thoughts. For example, in Joyce's Ulysses (1922) the reader finds himself with a transcript
of one of the character's thoughts which contains no commas, full stops or capital letters. The stop,
start, disjointed and often illogical nature of interior monologue makes it a challenge for the reader to
interpret.
Plot
The term plot refers to an author's arrangement of the events that make up a story. The plot of a
work is not necessarily the same as the story. When we tell a story we generally start at the beginning
and continue in a chronological order until we come to the end. Plots, however, do not always follow
this pattern. Many writers choose to mix events up in order to provoke specific responses in the reader.
They may, for example, start in the middle of things (in medias res) and use flashbacks or dialogue to
refer to previous events.
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The author's choices regarding plot do not stop simply at organising the events of his tale. He must
also decide when the story begins, which events should be dealt with at length, which aspects of the
story can be quickly summarised and when the story should end. Time is entirely subjective. The
events of several years can be condensed into a paragraph, while a complete chapter may be dedicated
to a particularly significant moment. The author's aim in writing a story will direct the choices he
makes, and therefore analysing these aspects of plot gives us invaluable insight into the meaning of his
work.
Love stories, adventure stories, detective stories, horror stories: writers never seem to run out of
ideas for stories. Although each story is unique, many of them share some basic elements.
Conflict
Conflict is the driving force behind many plots. It may come from:
outside: the main character may be in conflict with external forces such as his family, society,
physical hardship or nature;
within: the character may be forced to make a difficult choice, or he may have to question his
values and beliefs.
Suspense
Suspense is also an important element in many plots. Creating suspense generally involves denying
the reader immediate access to information which is essential to the full understanding of the story.
The clearest example of this can be found in detective stories, where the author does not reveal the
identity of the murderer until the very last moment. Suspense is often created through the careful
ordering of events in the story.
Subplot
In some stories the main plot is accompanied by a subplot - a second story that is complete in its
own right. The subplot is usually linked in some way to events in the main plot and generally helps to
deepen our understanding of it.
Setting
Where does the story take place? What kind of world do the characters live in? The term we use to
refer to the general locale and the historical time in which a story occurs is the setting. The term is also
used to refer to the particular physical location in which an episode or scene within the story takes
place. The general setting of a novel may be, for example, a large city like London, while the setting of
the opening scene may be the kitchen of the main character.
Some settings are relatively unimportant. They serve simply as a decorative backdrop helping the
reader to visualise the action and adding authenticity to the story. Other settings are closely linked to
the meaning of the work: the author focuses on elements of setting to create atmosphere or mood, or
the setting plays a major role in shaping the characters' identity and destiny.
Broadly speaking, there is a direct ratio between the attention given to the setting and its importance
in the total work. If the setting is sketched briefly, we can assume that it is of little importance, or that
the writer wishes us to think that the action could take place anywhere and at any time. If, on the other
hand, the passages describing the setting are extensive and highly developed, or are written in
connotative or poetic language, we can assume that the setting is being used for more profound or
symbolic purposes.
Some of the main functions of setting are:
Setting as a mirror
The setting may reflect a prevailing mood or reinforce the emotions felt by a character; barren
landscapes may mirror despair and desperation; stormy weather may provide a suitable backdrop for
emotional turmoil. However, the setting may also be ironic or comment on the characters' state of mind
or behaviour in an indirect way.
Setting as an antagonist
The setting of the story often shapes the characters' identities and destinies -making people what
they are. Someone growing up in an inner city slum is likely to have a different outlook on and
approach to life than someone who has grown up in wide open rural spaces, in close contact with
nature. Stories sometimes show us characters that are direct products of their environment, reflecting
its moods and values. Often, however, stories depict characters who rebel against their restrictive
settings and fight to break free of their stifling environment.
Setting in time
The historical period, time of year and time of day are all important features of the setting. The fact,
for example, that most of a story's action takes place at night may create an atmosphere of mystery,
violence or conspiracy. Authors often use the traditional associations with the seasons and the cycle of
the day to create appropriate time settings for their work, for example spring-morning-youth.
Social setting
While the setting refers to the time and place in which the action occurs, the term social setting is
used to indicate the social environment in which a story takes place. The social setting of a novel or
story may be explicitly indicated by the author or it may be conveyed through the use of social or class
markers, i.e. the way the characters talk, where and how they live, the clothes they wear, how they eat,
and so on. Like the physical and temporal setting, the social setting may be relatively unimportant or it
may play a determining role in a novel or story. In many novels characters are presented as products of
their social class, and many authors have explored the themes of conformity to or rebellion against the
values and mores of specific social settings.
Symbols
A symbol is an example of what is called the transference of meaning. Writers take a concrete item
- an object, a colour, a person, a place - and attribute a deeper meaning to it. A symbol may be a detail,
an object, a character or an incident. II exists first as something literal and concrete in the work, but it
also has the capacity to evoke in the mind of the reader a range of invisible and abstract associations.
By definition symbols are open-ended. A given symbol will evoke different responses in different
readers. There is, however, an acceptable range of possible readings and any interpretation of a symbol
must be confirmed by the rest of the work.
The identification and understanding of symbols demands awareness and intelligence of the reader.
It involves the reader directly in the creative process, asking him to add his own intellectual and
emotional responses. Through this collaboration the work is enriched and enlarged.
Cultural or shared symbols
Many symbolic associations are widely recognised and accepted: the dawn with hope, the serpent
with evil, the colour white with innocence, light with knowledge, dark with ignorance. Writers often
make use of these cultural or shared symbols. Readers must not, however, automatically apply
conventional meanings to these symbols. Sometimes writers will enlarge or narrow the meaning of a
cultural symbol. The reader must first carefully examine how the symbol is used in the text before
assigning meaning.
Literary or personal symbols
Authors also use their own original symbols. Personal or literary symbols do not have pre-
established associations: the meaning that is attached to them emerges from the context of the work in
which they occur. A particular landscape or certain atmospheric conditions may become associated
with a character's emotional state. A colour or an object may take on a secondary meaning. A recurring
gesture or a character may be given symbolic meaning.
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Guidelines for identifying and understanding symbols
When does an object, character or action cease to be just part of the story and begin to develop
symbolic associations? There is no simple answer to this question. Ultimately, the reader must develop
his own awareness through receptive and responsive reading. There are, however, some broad
guidelines he can follow. The principal techniques that writers use for creating symbols are:
repetition: the reader should take note of multiple references to a particular object or the
recurrence of the same gesture;
ephasis: does, the author seem to pay particular attention to some element, describe it in detail or
use poetic or connotative language when referring to it?
associations automatically made with shared symbols: the reader should try to understand if the
author wishes him to make conventional associations with the symbol or if he has added his own
personal significance.
While there is a risk that a reader may not identify symbols, there is also the danger that he may see
symbolic importance where the writer did not intend it. 'Symbol hunting', i.e. attributing symbolic
status to objects, characters or actions when there is little evidence in the text that they should be
viewed as a symbol, should be avoided.
Theme
Theme is the central idea that directs and shapes the subject matter of a story, play or poem. It is the
views of life or the insights into human experiences that the author wishes to communicate to his
readers. In certain types of literature (fables, parables and propaganda pieces) the theme emerges
forcefully as a moral or a lesson that the author wishes to teach, while in others the theme is embedded
in the story. In the past, writers openly stated the theme of their work. They usually put the words into
the mouth of a character or used an omniscient narrator to voice their opinions. If the theme of a work
is clearly stated in the text, we refer to it as an overt theme. Most modern writers are reluctant to state
the themes of their work openly. They prefer to encourage the readers to think and draw their own
conclusions. When the theme is hidden in the action, characters, setting and language of a story, we
refer to it as an implied theme.
Theme versus subject
The theme of a literary work should not be confused with the subject or the story. To say that a work
is about 'love' is not identifying the theme; it is merely stating the subject matter. Saying what happens
in a story is also not a way of identifying the theme; it is simply summarising the plot. The theme is the
abstract, generalised comment or statement the author makes about the subject of the story. It is the
answer to the question 'What does the story mean?', not 'What is the story about?'.
Formulating theme
When formulating the theme of a literary work, hasty generalisations and cliches should be avoided.
Sweeping statements about life are rarely enlightening, so writers tend to avoid them. They are more
inclined to explore complex issues and propose tentative answers.
Supporting theme
The theme of a poem, play or story should emerge from and be confirmed by the analysis of plot,
characters, setting, imagery, sound features and style. If the theme that is proposed leaves certain
elements unexplained, or if there are aspects of the story that do not support the theme, then it is
probably incomplete or incorrect.
The title of the work
The title the author gives the work should always be taken into careful consideration when trying to
identify the theme. The title often suggests the focus of the work and may provide clues about its
meaning.
Multiple themes
A single work may contain several themes and readers may identify different, even opposing
themes in the same work. Any theme that is supported by the other elements of the work should be
considered valid.
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Graphic
Punctuation
Understanding graphic is very important: pay attention to the size of letters, paragraphing and the
location of lines, capital letters, and punctuation.
Apostrophe is a figure of speech consisting of speech addressed to a person not present or to a
thing. In dramatic works and in poetry it is often introduced by the word O (not oh):
O grave, where is your victim?
A whole word can be in the CAPITAL LETTERS as being very important: WILL YOU BE
QUIET! he shouted.
It is a writing English tradition to capitalize all the meaningful words in the titles of books Three
Men in a Boat, to Say Nothing of the Dog
Nowadays it has become popular among modern writers to use only small letters in the titles in their
own names:
under milk wood
(by) dylan thomas
Italics is also very important and one should always pay attention to it during the analysis.
The combination of sound and graphic together make impression on the reader, as graphic conveys
the pauses, rhythm, tone and so helps inner reading.
Usually graphic conveys the emotional colouring of the poem. Spelling is as important as
punctuation. Punctuation serves to show the authors attitude to the written.
? and ! show that the text is very emotional negatively or positively. ! often shows irony or irritation
The role of the hyphen is very important as it denotes emotional pauses: Please, - not that!
Emotional pauses are also shown by suspension marks which reflect different emotions of the
heroes: embarrassment, confusion, hesitation, etc .A suspension mark before a word can denote that it
is an important word and in that way the author draws attention to it. The row of three dots () - dot-
dot-dot , or asterisks (***)suspension point indicate the intentional omission.
The absence of punctuation markers is magnificent, very often used by modern poet. Stylistic
usage of the absence of punctuation markers is different with different authors: it may convey stream
of consciousness, endless relations of times and cultures, events in the life of a person, endless
movement.
Metaphor
( - ,
.)
Metaphor is realizing two lexical meanings simultaneously. Due to this power metaphor is one of
the most potent means of creating images.
Metaphors which are absolutely unexpected, i.e. quite unpredictable, are called genuine
metaphors:
1. The leaves fell sorrowfully.
2. A puppet government
3. He is a mule.
4. The Tooth of Time, which has already dried many a tear, will let the grass grow over this painful
wound. The expression tooth of time implies that time, like a greedy tooth devours everything, makes
everything disappear or be forgotten.
5. He is not a man, he is just a machine!
6. a treacherous calm
Genuine metaphors are mostly to be found in poetry and emotive prose.
Metaphors, commonly used in speech are called trite /dead // (stereotyped,
hackneyed), they are fixed in dictionaries:
A ray of hope, a flight of fancy, seeds of evil, roots of evil, to fish for compliments, to bark up the
wrong tree, to apple ones eye, to burn with desire.
Trite metaphors are generally used in newspaper articles or scientific language (cliches).
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Metonymy
Metonymy is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated:
The White House said (the American government) ; the press (newspapers and magazines); the
cradle(infancy, place of origin);the grave(death);
The hall applauded; The marble spoke; The kettle is boiling;
I am fond of Agatha Christie; We didnt speak because there were ears all around us; He was about
a sentence away from needing plastic surgery .
Synecdoche
Synecdoche is a form of metonymy: using the name of a part to denote a whole or vice versa:
Hands wanted; -, the police (for a handful of officers);
bread (for food).
Simile
Simile is a figure of speech in which the subject is compared to another subject. By means of the
comparison the objects are characterized.
The formal elements of a simile are like, as, as if, as though, such as, seem, etc.
1. A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.
2. She seemed nothing more than a doll.
3. Maidens, like mohs are ever caught by glare.
Sometimes the simile-forming like is placed at the end of the phrase:
Emily Barton was very pink, and looked a Dresden-china-shepherdess like. In the English
language there is a long list of hackneyed similes, which are not genuine similes any more but have
become cliches:
Faithful as a dog; to work as a horse; stubborn as a mule; slow as a tortoise; busy as a bee;
hungry as a bear; to swim like a fish and many others of the same type.
Cliche
Cliches are stereotyped unoriginal (trite) word-combinations that do not surprise; they are
predictable and easily anticipated:
rosy dreams of youth; the whip and carrot policy; to live to a ripe old age; to let bygones be
bygones; the patter of rain;
The usage of cliches is a specific feature of the publicistic style. They are necessary in newspaper
language helping the writer to enliven his work and make the meaning more concrete.
Irony
Irony (mockery concealed) is a form of speech in which the real meaning is concealed or
contradicted by the words used.
Well done! A fine friend you are!
What a noble illustration of the tender laws of this favoured country! - they let the poor go to
sleep!
Irony must not be confused with humour, although they have very much in common. Humour
always causes laughter. But the function of irony is not to produce a humorous effect. Irony is
generally used to convey a negative feeling: irritation, displeasure, pity or regret.
Epithet
Epithet coveys the subjective attitude of the writer as it is used to characterize an object and
pointing out to the reader some properties or features of the object. Epithet aims at evaluation of these
properties or features.
Heart-burning smile; wild winds; fantastic terrors; voiceless sands;
unearthly beauty; deep feelings; sleepless bay.
Fixed epithets (stock images) are mostly used in ballads and folk-songs:
true love, dark forest, sweet Sir, green wood; good ship, brave cavaliers.
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From the point of view of their compositional structure epithets may be divided into simple,
compound, phrase and sentence epithets.
Simple: dreary midnight; brilliant answer; sweet smile.
Compound: heart-braking sigh; good-for-nothing fellow;
Phrase epithets and sentence epithets: 1. Personally I detest her (Giacondas) smug, mystery-
making, come-hither-but-go-away-again-because-butter-wouldnt-melt-in-my-mouth expression. 2.
There is a sort of Ohwhata-wicked-world-this-is-and-how-I-wish-I-could-do-something-to-make-it-
better-and-nobler expression about Montmorency that has been known to bring to tea s into the eyes
of pious old ladies and gentlemen.
The reversed epithets, or metaphorical, are of two types: 1) two nouns are linked in an of-phrase:
a devil of a job; A little Flying Dutchman of a cab2) The predicative is in the inverted position:
Fools that they are; Wicked as he is
Transferred epithets describe the state of a human being but referred to an animate object:
sleepless pillow; unbreakfasted morning; merry hours;
an indifferent shoulder; sick chambers.
Oxymoron
Oxymoron is a combination of two words in which their meaning clash, being opposite in sense:
Sweet sorrow; pleasantly ugly face; deafening silence; horribly beautiful.
The following example describes the authors attitude to New York: I despise its vastness and
power. It has the poorest millionaires, the littlest great men, the plainest beauties, the lowest
skyscrapers of any town I ever saw. (Satiric mocking)
Allusion
Allusion is reference to a famous historical, literary, mythological, biblical or everyday life
character or event, commonly known. As a rule no indication of the source is given. Its his Achilles
heel.
Antonomasia
Antonomasia is intended to point out the leading, most characteristic features of a person or of
event. It categorizes the person and simultaneously indicates both the general and the particular.
Antonomasia can be defined as a variety of allusion:
Vralman, Molchalin, Mr. Zero, Don Juan.
Metalepsis
Metalepsis is a reference to something remotely associated with the theme of the speech.
Ive got to go catch the worm tomorrow morning. said Mary. (The early bird catches the worm- a
proverb)
Zeugma
Zeugma (syllepsis) is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations. It
creates a semantic incongruity which is often humorous:
1. He lost his hat and his temper.
2. and covered themselves with dust and glory.-Mark Twain
3. . , .
4. The alphabet was above the blackboard and friendly atmosphere was there.
5. And Mays mother always stood on her gentility; and Doras mother never stood on anything but
her active feet.
Pun
Pun (also known as paronomasia) is a deliberate confusion of similar sounding words for
humorous effect. Puns are often used in jokes and riddles.
E.g.1. What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver?
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(One trains the mind and the other minds the train.)
2. The name Justin Time sounds like just in time
3. I have no idea how worms reproduce but you often find them in pairs (pears).
4. Officer.-What steps (measures) would you take if an enemy tank were coming towards you?
Soldier. - Long ones.
Here are some of the meanings that can be expressed by interjections: joy, delight, admiration,
approval, disbelief, astonishment, fright, regret, dissatisfaction, boredom, sadness, blame, reproach,
protest, horror, irony, sarcasm, self-assurance, despair, disgust, surprise, sorrow, and many others.
Oh! Ah! Pooh! Gosh! Alas! Heavens! Dear me! God! Come on! Look here! By the Lord! Bless me!
Humbug! Terrible! Awful! Great! Wonderful! Fine! Man! Boy! Why! Well!
Periphrasis
Periphrasis denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and planer form of
expression. It is also called circumlocution due to the round-about or indirect way to name a familiar
object.
There are traditional periphrases which are not stylistic devices, they are synonymic expressions:
The giver of rings, the victor lord, the leader of hosts (king),
the play of swords(battle), a shield-bearer(warrior),
the cap and gown (student), the fair sex (women), my better half (my wife).
The traditional periphrasis is an important feature of epic poetry.
Periphrasis as stylistic device is a new, genuine nomination of an object. Stylistic periphrasis can
be divided into logical and figurative.
Logical: instruments of destruction (pistols),
the most pardonable of human weaknesses (love).
Figurative periphrasis is based either on metaphor or on metonymy.
To tie the knot (to marry), the punctual servant of all work (the sun).
There is little difference between metaphor or metonymy and periphrasis.
Euphemisms
Euphemism is a word or a phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression:
to die=to pass away, to be no more, to depart, to join the majority, to be gone; to kick the bucket, to
give up the ghost, to go west.
So, euphemisms are synonyms which aim to produce a mild effect. Euphemisms may be divided
into several groups:
1) religious, 2) moral, 3) medical, 4) parliamentary.
a woman of a certain type(whore), to glow(to sweat),mental hospital(madhouse), the big C(cancer),
sanitation worker(garbage man).
Meiosis/Understatement
Meiosis/Understatement is a figure of speech which intentionally understates something or implies
that it is less in significance, size, than it really is.
For example, a lawyer defending a schoolboy who set fire to school, might call the fact of arson a
prank ().
Hyperbole
Hyperbole is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a phenomenon or an object.
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He was so tall that I could nt see his face.
Epigrams
Epigrams are terse, witty statements, showing the turn of mind of the originator. Epigram is a
stylistic device akin to a proverb, the only difference being that epigrams are coined by people whose
names we know, while proverbs are the coinage of the people.
A God that can be understood is not a God.
Quotations
Quotation is a repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech and the like used by the way
of illustration, proof or as a basis for further speculation on the matter. By repeating the utterance in a
new environment, we attach to the utterance an importance.
Allegory
Allegory is a device by which the names of objects or characters are used figuratively, representing
some more general things, good or bad qualities.
A type of allegory is Personification.
Personification
Personification is a form of comparison in which human characteristics, such as emotions,
personality, behavior and so on, are attributed to an animal, object or idea. The proud lion surveyed his
kingdom.
The primary function of personification is to make abstract ideas clearer to the reader by
comparing them to everyday human experience.
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year
Personification is often represented by the masculine or feminine pronouns for the names of
animals, objects or forces of nature. He is used for the Sun, the Wind , for the names of animals (The
Cat that walked all by himself), for abstract notions associated with strength and fierceness-Death,
Fear, War, Love.
She is used for what is regarded as rather gentle (the Moon, Nature, Beauty, Hope, Mercy.
In neutral style there also some associations of certain nouns and gender. The names of countries, if
the country is not considered as a mere geographical territory, are referred to as feminine (England is
proud of her poets). The names of vessels and vehicles are also referred as feminine.
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is the form of personification consisting of creating imagery persons of
inanimate objects. Common examples include naming ones car or begging a machine to work. The
use of anthropomorphized animals has a long tradition in literature and art. They are used to portray
stereotypical characters, in order to quickly convey the characteristics the author intends them to
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possess. Examples include Aesops fables, famous television characters, Tom and Jerry, Mickey Mouse
and a lot of other funny animals.
Decoding Stylistics
Practice Section
On her face was that tender look of sleep, which a nodding flower has when it is full out. Like a
mysterious early flower, she was fall out, like a snowdrop which spreads its three white wings in a
flight into the waking sleep of its brief blossoming. The waking sleep of her full-opened virginity,
entranced like a snowdrop in the sunshine, was upon her. (Lawrence)
2.How is the effect of defeated expectancy achieved in the examples below? What are the specific
devices employed in each case?
Celestine finally turned on the bench and put her hand over Dots.
Honey, she said, would it kill you to say yes?
Yes, said Dot. (Erdrich)
St. Valentines Day, I remembered, anniversary for lovers and massacre. (Shaw)
I think that, if anything, sports are rather worse than concerts, said Mr. Prendergast. They at least
happen indoors. (Waugh)
...the Indian burial mound this town is named for contain the things that each Indian used in their
lives. People have found stone grinders, hunting arrows and jewelry of colored bones. So I think its no
use. Even buried, our things survive. (Erdrich)
Would this be of any use? Asked Philbrick, producing an enormous service revolver. Only take
care, its loaded.
The very thing, said the Doctor. Only fire into the ground, mind. We must do everything we can to
avoid an accident. Do you always carry that about with you?
Only when Im wearing my diamonds, said Philbrick. (Waugh)
Texans, quite apart from being tall and lean, turned out to be short and stout, hospitable, stingy to a
degree, generous to a fault, even-tempered, cantankerous, doleful, and happy as the day is long.
(Atkinson)
3. Explain how the principle of coupling can be used in analyzing the following passages. What
types of coupling can you identify here?
Feeding animals while men and women starve, he said bitterly. It was a topic; a topic dry,
scentless and colourless as a pressed flower, a topic on which in the school debating society one had
despaired of finding anything new to say. (Waugh)
You asked me what I had doing this time. What I have doing is wine. With the way the worlds
drinking these days, being in wine is like having a license to steal. (Shaw)
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4.In many cases coupling relies a lot on semantic fields analysis. Show how these principles interact
in the following passage.
The truth is that motor-cars offer a very happy illustration of the metaphysical distinction between
being and becoming.
Some cars, mere vehicles, with no purpose above bare locomotion; mechanical drudges... have
definite being just as much as their occupants. They are bought all screwed up and numbered and
painted, and there they stay through various declensions of ownership, brightened now and then with a
lick of paint... but still maintaining their essential identity to the scrap heap.
Not so the real cars, that become masters of men; those vital creations of metal who exist solely for
their own propulsion through space, for whom their drivers are as important as the stenographer to a
stockbroker. These are in perpetual flux; a vortex of combining and disintegrating units, like the
confluence of traffic where many roads meet. (Waugh)
5. Working in groups of two or three try to define the themes of the following text with a
description of a thunderstorm. Let each group arrange the vocabulary of the passage into semantically
related fields, for example: storm sounds, shapes, colors, supernatural forces, etc.
We... looked out the mucking hole to where a tower of lightning stood. It was a broad round shaft
like a great radiant auger, boring into m cloud and mud at once. Burning. Transparent. And inside this
cylinder f of white-purple light swam shoals of creatures we could never have" imagined. Shapes filmy
and iridescent and veined like dragonfly wings erranded between the earth and heavens. They were
moving to a music I we couldnt hear, the thunder blotting it out for us. Or maybe the cannonade of
thunder was music for them, but measure that we couldnt understand.
We didnt know what they were.
They were storm angels. Or maybe they were natural creatures whose natural element was storm,
as the sea is natural to the squid and shark. We couldnt make out their whole shapes. Were they
mermaids or tigers? Were they clothed in shining linen or in flashing armor? We saw what we thought
we saw, whatever they were, whatever they were in process of becoming.
This tower of energies went away then, and there was another thrust of lightning just outside the
wall. It was a less impressive display, just an ordinary lightning stroke, but it lifted the three of us
thrashing in midair for a long moment, then dropped us breathless and sightless on the damp ground.
(Chappell)
I think cards are divine, particularly the kings. Such naughty old faces! (Waugh)
It was Granny whom she came to detest with all her soul... her Yvette really hated, with that pure,
sheer hatred which is almost a joy. (Lawrence)
...everyone who spoke, it seemed, was but biding his time to shout the old village street refrain
which had haunted him all his life, Nigger! Nigger!White Nigger! (Dunbar-Nelson)
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Convergence
Convergence as the term implies a combination or accumulation of stylistic devices promoting the
same idea, emotion or motive. A stylistic device is not attached to this or that stylistic effect. Therefore
a hyperbole, for instance, may provide any number of effects: tragic, comical, pathetic or grotesque.
Inversion may give the narration a highly elevated tone or an ironic ring of parody.
This chameleon quality of a stylistic device enables the author to apply different device for the
same purpose. The use of more than one type of expressive means in close succession is a powerful
technique to support the idea that carries paramount importance in the authors view. Such redundancy
ensures the delivery of the message to the reader.
An extract from E. Waughs novel Decline and Fall demonstrates convergence of expressive
means used to create an effect of the glamorous appearance of a very colorful lady character who
symbolized the high style of living, beauty and grandeur.
The door opened and from the cushions within emerged a tall young man in a clinging dove-gray
coat. After him, like the first breath of spring in the Champs-Elysee came Mrs. Beste-Chetwyndetwo
lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chinchilla body, a tight little black hat, pinned with platinum and diamonds,
and the high invariable voice that may be heard in any Ritz Hotel from New York to Budapest.
Inversion used in both sentences (...from the cushion within emerge a toll man; ...like the first
breath of spring came Mrs. Beste-Chetwynde) at once sets an elevated tone of the passage.
The simile that brings about a sensory image of awakening together with the allusion to Paristhe
symbol of the worlds capital of pleasuressustains this impression: like the first breath of spring, the
Champs-Elysee. A few other allusions to the world capitals their best hotelsNew York, Budapest, any
Ritz Hotel all symbolize the wealthy way of life of the lady who belongs to the international jet-set
distinguished from the rest of the world by her money, beau and aristocratic descent.
The use of metonymy creates the cinematographic effect of shots and fragments of the picture as
perceived by the gazing crowd and suggests the details usually blown up in fashionable newspaper
columns on high society life: two lizard-skin feet, silk legs, chinchilla body, a tight little black hat... the
invariable voice.
The choice of words associated with high-quality life style: exotic materials, expensive clothes and
jewelry creates a semantic field that enhances the impression still further (lizard, silk, chinchilla,
platinum and diamonds). A special contribution to the high-flown style of description is made by the
careful choice of words that belong to the literary bookish stratum: emerge, cushions, dove, invariable.
Even the name of the characterMrs. Beste-Chetwyndeis a device in itself, its the so-called
speaking name, a variety of antonomasia. Not only its implication (best) but also the structure
symbolizes the ladys high social standing because hyphenated names in Britain testify to the noble
ancestry. So the total effect of extravagance and glamour is achieved by the concentrated use of at least
eight types of expressive means within one paragraph.
Defeated expectancy
The essence of the notion is connected with the process of decoding by the reader of the literary
text.
The linear organization of the text mentally prepares the reader for the consequential and logical
development of ideas and unfolding of the events. The normal arrangement of the text both in form
and content is based on its predictability which means that the appearance of any element in the text is
prepared by the preceding arrangement and choice of elements, e.g. the subject of the sentence will
normally be followed by the predicate, you can supply parts of certain set phrases or collocation after
you see the first element, etc.
An example from Oscar Wildes play The Importance of Being Earnest perfectly illustrates how
predictability of the structure plays a joke on the speaker who cannot extricate himself from the grip of
the syntactical composition:
Miss Fairfax, ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl... I have met... since I met
you. (Wide)
The speaker is compelled to unravel the structure almost against his will, and the pauses show he is
caught in the trap of the structure unable either to stop or say anything new. The clash between the
perfectly rounded phrase and empty content creates a humorous effect.
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Without predictability there would be no coherence and no decoding. At the same time stylistically
distinctive features are often based on the deviation from the norm and predictability. An appearance of
an unpredictable element may upset the process of decoding. Even though not completely
unpredictable a stylistic device is still a low expectancy element and it is sure to catch the readers eye.
The decoding process meets an obstacle, which is given the full force of the readers attention. Such
concentration on this specific feature enables the author to effect his purpose.
Defeated expectancy may come up on any level of the language. It may be an unusual word against
the background of otherwise lexically homogeneous text.
It may be an authors coinage with an unusual suffix. Among devices that are based on this
principle we can name pun, zeugma, paradox, oxymoron, irony, anti-climax, etc.
Defeated expectancy is particularly effective when the preceding narration has a high degree of
orderly organized elements that create a maximum degree of predictability and logical arrangement of
the contextual linguistic material.
Paradox is a fine example of defeated expectancy. The following example demonstrates how
paradox works in such highly predictable cases as proverbs and phraseology. Everybody knows the
proverb Marriages Are Made In Heaven.
Oscar Wilde, a renowned master of paradox, introduces an unexpected element and the phrase
acquires an inverted implication Divorces are made in Heaven, The unexpected ironic connotation is
enhanced by the fact that the substitute is actually the antonym of the original element. The reader is
forced to make an effort at interpreting the new maxim so that it would make sense.
Coupling
Coupling is another technique that helps in decoding the message implied in a literary work. While
convergence and defeated expectancy both focus the readers attention on the particularly significant
parts of the text coupling deals with the arrangement of textual elements that provide the unity and
cohesion of the whole structure.
Coupling is more than many other devices connected with the level of the text. This method of text
analysis helps us to decode ideas, their interaction, inner semantic and structural links and ensures
compositional integrity.
Coupling is based on the affinity of elements that occupy similar positions throughout the text.
Coupling provides cohesion, consistency and unity of the text form and content.
Like defeated expectancy it can be found on any level of the language, so the affinity may be
different in nature; it may be phonetic, structural at semantic. Particularly prominent types of affinity
are provided by the phonetic expressive means. They are obviously cases of alliteration, assonance,
paranomasia, as well as such prosodic features as rhyme, rhythm and meter.
Syntactical affinity is achieved by all kinds of parallelism and syntactical repetitionanadiplosis,
anaphora, framing, chiasmus, epiphora to name but a few.
Semantic coupling is demonstrated by the use of synonyms and antonyms, both direct and
contextual, root repetition, paraphrase sustained metaphor, semantic fields, recurrence of images,
connotations or symbols.
The latter can be easily detected in the works of some poets who create their own system of
recurrent esthetic symbols for certain ideas, notions and beliefs.
Some of the well-known symbols are seasons (cf. the symbolic meaning of winter in Robert Frosts
poetry), trees (the symbolic meaning of a birch tree, a maple in Sergei Yesenins poetic work, the
meaning of a moutain-ash tree for Marina Tsvetaeva), animals (the leopard, hyena, bulls, fish in Ernest
Hemingways works) and so on. These symbols do not only recur in a separate work by these authors
but also generally represent the typical imagery of the authors poetic vision.
An illustration of the coupling technique is given below in the passage from John OHaras novel
Ten North Frederick. The main organizing principle here is contrast.
Lloyd Williams lived in Collieryville, a mining town three or four miles from 10 North Frederick,
but separated from the Chapins home and their life by the accepted differences of money and prestige;
the miners poolroom, and the Gibbsville Club; sickening poverty, and four live-in servants for a
family of four, The Second Thursdays, and the chicken-and-waffle suppers of die English Lutheran
Church. Joe Chapin and Lloyd Williams were courthouse-corridor friends and fellow Republicans, but
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Joe was a Company man and Lloyd Williams was a Union man who was a Republican because to be
anything else in Lantenengo County was futile and foolish. (OHara)
The central idea of the, passage is to underline the difference between two men who actually
represent the class differences between the rich upper class and the lower working class, So the social
contrast shown through the details of personal life of the two characters is the message with a
generalizing power. This passage shows how coupling can be an effective tool to decode this message.
There is a pronounced affinity of the syntactical structure in both sentences. The first contains a
chain of parallel detached clauses connected by and (which is an adversative conjunction here). They
contain a number of antitheses. The contrast is enhanced by the use of contextual antonyms that
occupy identical positions in the clauses: the miners poolroom and the Gibbseville Club; sickening
poverty and four servants for a family of four, The Second Thursdays and the Church suppers. The
same device is used in the second sentence: Joe was a Company man and Lloyd Williams was a Union
man. There are a few instances of phonetic affinity, alliteration: four servants for a family of four,
courthouse-corridor, friends and fellow Republicans; futile and foolish.
The passage presents alt interesting case of semantic coupling through symbols. The details of
personal and class difference chosen by the author are all charge with symbolic value. There is a
definite connection between them all however diverse they may appear at first sight. They are all
grouped so that they symbolize either money and prestige or poverty and social deprivation.
The first group creates the semantic field of wealth and power: money, social prestige, the
Gibbsville Club (symbol of wealth, high social standing, belonging to the select society), four live-in
servants for a family of four (that only rich people can afford), The Second Thursdays (traditional
reception days for people of a certain circle, formal dinner parties for people of high standing), a
Company man (a member of a financially and socially influential group, political elite). The second
semantic field comprises words denoting and symbolizing poverty and social inferiority: miners
poolroom (a working class kind of leisure), sickening poverty, chicken-and-waffle suppers of, the
English Lutheran Church (implying informal gatherings where people cook together and share food),
a Union man (a representative of the working class).
The similarity of these elements positions in this text makes the contrast all the more striking.
A minor case of coupling in the passage above is the use of zeugma in the first sentence when the
word separated is simultaneously linked to two different objects home and life in two different
meaningsdirect and figurative.
Semantic field
Semantic field is a method of decoding stylistics closely connected with coupling. It identifies
lexical elements in text segments and the whole work that provide its thematic and compositional
cohesion. To reveal this sort of cohesion decoding must carefully observe not only lexical and
synonymous repetition but semantic affinity which finds expression in cases of lexico-semantic
variants, connotations and associations aroused by a specific use or distribution of lexical units,
thematic pertinence of seemingly unrelated words.
This type of analysis shows how cohesion is achieved on a less explicit level sometimes called the
vertical context. Lexical elements of this sort are charged with implications and adherent meanings that
establish invisible links throughout the text and create a kind of semantic background so that the work
is laced with certain kind of imagery.
Lexical ties relevant to this kind of analysis will include synonymous and antonymous relations,
morphological derivation, relations of inclusion (various types of hyponymy and entailment), common
semes in the denotative or connotative meanings of different words.
If a word manifests semantic links with one or more other words in the text it shows thematic
relevance and several links of this sort may be considered a semantic field, an illustration of which was
offered in the previous example on coupling. Semantic ties in that example (mostly implicit) are based
on the adherent and symbolic connotations (Church meals, Club member, live-in servants, Union man,
etc) and create a semantic field specific to the theme and message of this work: the contrast between
wealth and poverty, upper class and working class.
In the next example we observe the semantic field of a less complicated nature created by more
explicit means.
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Joe kept saying he did not want a fortieth birthday party. He said he did not like partiesa palpable
untruthand particularly and especially a large party in honor of his reaching forty...
At first there were going to be forty guests but the invitation list grew larger and the party plans
more elaborate, until Arthur said that with so many people they ought to hire an orchestra, and with
an orchestra there would be dancing, and with dancing there ought to be a good-size orchestra. The
original small dinner became a dinner dance at the Lantenengo Country Club. Invitations were sent to
more than three hundred persons... (OHara)
The thematic word of the passage is party. It recurs four times in these four sentences. It is
obviously related to such words used as its substitutes as dinner and dinner dance which become
contextual synonyms within the frame of the central stylistic device of this piecethe climax.
Semantic relations of inclusion by entailment and hyponymy are represented by such words as
birthday (party), (party) in honor, (party) plans, invitation (list), guests, people, persons, orchestra,
dancing.
The subtheme of the major theme is the scale of the celebration connected with the importance of
the datethe main character reached the age of forty considered an important milestone in a mans life
and career. So there is a semantic field around the figure fortyits lexical repetition and morphological
derivation (fortyfortyfortieth) and the word large amplified throughout by contextual synonyms,
morphological derivatives and relations of entailment (largelargermoremanygood-sizemore-
three hundred).
Another type of semantic relationship that contributes to the semantic field analysis is the use of
antonyms and contrastive elements associated with the themes in question: largesmall, fortythree
hundred, small dinnerdinner dance, orchestragood-sized orchestra, did not likeuntruth. The
magnitude and importance of the event are further enhanced by the use of synonymous intensifies
particularly and especially.
Semi-marked structures
Semi-marked structures are a variety of defeated expectancy associated with the deviation from the
grammatical and lexical norm. Its an extreme case of defeated expectancy much stronger than low
expectancy encountered in a paradox or anti-climax, the unpredictable element is used contrary to the
norm so it produces a very strong emphatic impact.
In the following lines by G. Baker we observe a semi-marked structure on a grammatical basis:
The stupid heart that will not learn
The everywhere of grief.
The word everywhere is not a noun, but an adverb and cannot be used with an article and a
preposition, besides grief is an abstract noun that cannot be used as an object with a noun denoting
location. However the lines make sense for the poet and the readers who interpret them as the feeling
of sadness and dejection.
Lexical deviation from the norm usually means breaking the laws of semantic compatibility and
lexical valency.
If you had to predict what elements would combine well with such words and expressions as to try
ones best to..., to like ... or what epithets you would choose for words like father or movement you
would hardly come up with such incompatible combinations that we observe in the following
sentences:
She ... tried her best to spoil the party. (Erdrich)
Montezuma and Archuleta had recently started a mock-serious separatist movement, seeking to
join New Mexico. (Michener)
Would you believe it, that unnatural father wouldnt stump up. (Waugh)
Such combination of lexical units in our normal everyday speech is rare. However in spite of their
apparent incongruity semi-marked structures of both types are widely used in literary texts that are full
of sophisticated correlations which help to read sense into most unpredictable combinations of lexical
units.
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Phonetic Stylistic Devices
Practice Section
Define the Stylistic Devices:
1. I know these Eye-talians!
2. I AM sorry.
3. Appeeee Noooooyeeeeerr! (Happy New Year!)
4. Little Dicky strains and yaps back from the safety of Marys arms.
5. Whos that dear, dim, drunk little man?
6. I prayed for the city to be cleared of people, for the gift of being alone a-l-o-n-e
7. Sense of sin is sense of waste.
Task 1
Define the figures of speech:
1.Where have you gone
with your confident
walk with
your crooked smile
why did you leave
me
3. Earth
planet doesn't explode of
itself,
said dryly
The Martian astronomer, gazing off
into the air
That they were able to do it is
proof that highly
Intelligent beings must have been
living there.
2. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.-
Francis Bacon
5. Such was the background of the wonderful, cruel, enchanting, bewildering, fatal, great city.
6. Never mind, said the stranger, cutting the address very short, said enough - no more - smart
chap that cabman damn me punch his head This coherent speech was interrupted by entrance
of the coachman.
7. The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in and the sun and moon were formed to give
them light; rivers and seas were made to float their ships.
8. Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.
2. He knew the necessity of keeping as clear as possible from that poisonous many-headed serpent,
the tongue of people.
3. She had to live. It is useless to quarrel with your bread and butter.
Task 1
Define the schemes:
1. My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall.
2. In plunged she boldly
No matter how coldly
The rough river was
6. Inhuman piercing shrieks that could not be produced by a manly set of vocal organs - simply
indecent, terrifying, humiliating screamssuch as women omit when they see ghost or caterpillars.
7. Pleasures a sin, and sometimes sins a pleasure.
8. The sound of loud music drowned out the sound of burglary.
9.The telephone rang and rang but nobody answered.
10.The poetry of earth is never dead
he poetry of earth is ceasing never
Task 2
Define the schemes:
1.The principle production of those towns are soldiers, sailors, Jews, chalk, shrimps, officers and dock-
yard-men.
2. Little by little, bit by bit, and day by day, and year by year the baron got the worst of some disputed
questions.
3. Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
4. Bicket did not answer his throat felt too dry.
5. The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast over him in only one respect.
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6. Too black for heaven, and yet too white for the hell.
7.I came, I saw, I conquered.
8. Weve reached a point of great decision, not just for our nation, not only for all humanity, but for
life upon the Earth.
9. It was an afternoon to dream. And she took out Jons letters.
10.He was not a gentle lamb.
11.My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
Task 3
Define the schemes:
1. What difference if it rained, hailed, blew, snowed, cycloned?
7. There isnt going to be room for nice people any more. Its ended, its all over, its dead.
English Vocabulary
Practice Section
. Can you distinguish neutral, formal and informal among the following groups of words:
A B C
1. currency money dough
2. to talk to converse to chat
3. to chow down to eat to dine
4. to start to commence to kick off
5. insane nuts mentally ill
6. spouse hubby husband
7. to leave to withdraw to shoot off
8. geezer senior citizen old man
9. veracious open sincere
10. mushy emotional sentimental
2. To what stratum of vocabulary do the words in bold type in the following sentences belong?
A. I expect youve seen my hand often enough coming out with the grab.
B. I must be off to my digs.
C. When the old boy popped off he left Philbrick everything.
D. Flossie arrived, splendidly attired in magenta and green.
E. He decided that she was not appropriately dressed and must be a fool to sit downstairs in such
togs.
3. How does the choice of words contribute to the stylistic character of the passages? (technical,
poetic, bookish, commercial, religious, elevated, colloquial)
A. Fo what you go by dem, eh? Wy not keep to yoself? Dey don want you, dey don care fo
you. H ain you got no sense?
B. I made a check over the machine, cleaned filters, drained sumps, swept out the cabin, and
refueled.
C. We ask Thee, Lord, the old man cried, to look after the childt. The childt is Thine; he is Thy
childt, Lord, what father has a man but Thee?
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D. I see, said the Doctor, I see. Thats splendid. Well, will you please go into your tent, the little
tent over there.
E. The evidence is perfectly clear. The woman was unfaithful to her husband during his absence
overseas and gave birth to a child out of wedlock.
F. I say, Ive met an awful good chap called Miles. Regular topper. You know, pally.
Syntactical Stylistic Devices
Inversion/Change of Word Order
Inversion/Change of Word Order aims at making one of the members of the sentence more
conspicuous, more important, more emphatic.
Talent Mr.Micawber has; capital Mr.Micawber has not.
Came frightful days of snow and rain.
Detached Construction
Detached Construction is a secondary part of a sentence, placed so that it seems formally
independent of the word it logically refers to. The detached part, being torn away from its referent,
assumes a greater degree of significance.
Steyne rose up, grinding his teeth, pale, and with fury in his eyes.
This stylistic device is akin to inversion, detached construction produces a much stronger effect.
I want to go, he said, miserable.
Epiphora
Epiphora is the repetition at the end of a phrase.
I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest
of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such a case as that.
Repetition can also be arranged in the form of a frame: the initial parts of syntactical units are
repeated at the end of it. Such compositional units are called framing. Framing makes the whole
utterance more compact and more complete.
Anadiplosis/Reduplication
Anadiplosis/ Reduplication: the last word or phrase of one part of the utterance is repeated at the
beginning of the next part.
This compositional pattern is also called chain-repetition:
A smile would come into Mr.Pickwicks face: the smile extended into a laugh: the laugh into a roar,
and the roar became general.
Any repetition causes some modification of meaning which needs analysis. The functions of the
repetition are the following:
to intensify the utterance.
1.Those evening bells! Those evening bells!
Meditation, sadness, reminiscence and other psychological and emotional states of mind are
suggested by the repetition of the phrase with the intensifier those.
2) Repetition may also stress monotony of action, suggest fatigue, despair, hopelessness or doom:
What has my life been? Fag and grind, fag and grind. Turn the wheel, turn the wheel.
Pleonasm/Tautology
Pleonasm/Tautology is the use of more words in a sentence than are necessary to express the
meaning:
1. It was a clear starry sky, and not a cloud was to be seen.
2. He was the only survivor; no one else was saved.
Enumeration
Enumeration is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena, actions or
properties are named one by one so that they produce a chain. The links of the chain are forced to
display some semantic homogeneity.
The grouping of sometimes absolutely heterogeous notions meets the peculiar purport of the writer.
Enumeration is frequently used to depict scenery through a tourists eyes as it gives one an insight into
the mind of the observer.
Suspense
Suspense consists in arranging the matter of communication in such a way that the less important
parts are amassed at the beginning, the main idea being withheld till the end of the sentence. Thus the
readers attention is held and his interest kept up, as he is in the state of uncertainty and expectation.
Suspense sometimes goes together with Climax.
Climax/Gradation
Climax/Gradation is the arrangement of sentences which secures a gradual increase in
significance, importance or emotional tension in the utterance. The gradual increase in significance
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may be maintained in three ways: logical, emotional and quantitative. Emotional climax is mainly
found in sentences.
It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of a city.
Quantitative climax is an evident increase in the volume of the concepts:
They looked at hundreds of houses, they climbed thousands of stairs, they inspected innumerable
kitchens.
The function of this stylistic device is to show the relative importance of the things as seen by the
author.
Bathos
Bathos or anticlimax ( , ) is a sudden
drop from elevated to the commonplace that produces a comic or ridiculous effect.
Sooner shall heaven kiss the earth-
Oh, Julia! what is every woe?-
For Gods sake let me have a glass of liquor,
Pedro, Battista, help me down below.
Julia, my love! you rascal, Pedro, quicker.
Antithesis
Antithesis is a stylistic opposition, setting thing one against the other. In order to characterize a
thing or phenomenon from a specific point of view, it may be necessary to find points of sharp
contrast.
1. A saint abroad, and a devil at home.
2. Youth is lovely, age is lonely,
Youth is fiery, age is frosty.
3. Man proposes, God disposes
Antithesis has the basic function of rhyme-forming because of the parallel arrangement on which it
is founded.
Crabbed age and youth
Cannot live together:
Youth is full of pleasance,
Age is full of care
Asyndeton
Asyndeton is a deliberate omission of connectives between parts of sentences where they are
generally expected to be according to the norms of the language
Soams turned away; he had an utter disinclination to talk.
Polysyndeton
Polysyndeton is the stylistic device of connecting sentences or phrases or words by using
connectives before each component.
Should you ask me, whence these stories?
Whence these legends and traditions
With the odours of the forest,
With the dew, and damp of meadows,
With the curling smoke of wigwams
The repetition of conjunctions and other means of connection makes an utterance more rhythmical,
so one of the functions of polysyndeton is rhythmical.
Unlike enumeration, which combines elements of thought into one whole, polysyndeton shows
things isolated.
And, polysyndeton. has also the function of expressing sequence.
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The Gap-Sentence Link
The Gap-Sentence Link (GSL) is a peculiar type of connection of sentences in which the
connection is not immediately seen and it requires an effort to grasp the interrelation between the parts
of the utterance.
She and that fellow ought to be the sufferers, and they are in Italy.(It means-Those who ought to be
the sufferers are enjoying themselves in Italy where well-to-do English people go for holiday.)
The Gap-Sentence Link is generally indicated by and or but. The functions of GSL are the
following:
1) it signals the introduction of inner represented speech;
2) it indicates a subjective evaluation of the facts;
3) it displays an unexpected coupling of ideas.
The Gap-Sentence Link aims at stirring up in the readers mind the suppositions, associations and
conditions under which the sentence can exist.
Ellipsis
Ellipsis refers to any omitted part of speech that is understood, i.e. the omission is intentional. In
writing and printing this intentional omission is indicated by the row of three dots () or asterisks
(***).
Ellipsis always imitates the common features of colloquial language. This punctuation mark is
called a suspension point or dot-dot-dot.
Aposiopesis/Break in-the-narrative
Good intentions but-; You just come home or Ill
Litotes
Litotes is a peculiar use of negative construction: the negation plus noun or adjective establish a
positive feature in a person or thing. It is a deliberate understatement used to produce a stylistic
effect. Litotes is not a pure negation, but a negation that includes affirmation.
The whole word-stock of the English language is divided into three main layers: the literary layer,
the neutral layer and the colloquial layer
The common property of the words of the literary layer is their bookish character. The aspect of the
colloquial layer is its lively spoken character. The words of the neutral layer have a universal character:
they can be used in any style of a language and in all spheres of human activity.
Common literary words are mainly used in writing and polished speech. Colloquial words are
always more emotionally coloured than literary ones.
A. Terms
Terms are mostly used in the language of science but they can appear in any other style. When used
in science terms are connected with the concepts they denote. In other styles they indicate technical
peculiarities or make some relevance to the occupation of a character, create a special atmosphere.
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One of the functions of the foreign words is to supply local colour, to depict local conditions of life,
concrete facts and events, customs and habits.
The common function of barbarisms and foreignisms is to build up the stylistic device of
represented speech/reported speech of the local people. Sometimes one or two foreign words create
an impression of an utterance made in a foreign language. Foreign words may be used to elevate the
language, to exalt the expression of the idea: words that we do not quite understand have a peculiar
charm.
Most of the literary-bookish coinages are built by means of affixation and wordcompounding:
orbiter; moisturize; mentee; supermanship.
Another type of neologisms is the nonce-word, a word coined to suit one particular situation: to
evaluate a thing or phenomenon:
You are the bestest good one, she said, the most bestest good one in the world. sevenish
New words are also coined by contractions and abbreviations:
LOX-liquid oxygen explosive; laser=light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation;
UNESCO (United Nations Education and Science Organization); jeep (GP=General Purpose car)
A. Slang
Slang is deviation from the established norm and everything that is below the standard of educated
speech in modern English. It is the language of highly colloquial type, consisting of new words or
current word in some special sense, the language of a low and vulgar type.
Nowadays slang is highly praised as vivid, more flexible, more picturesque, richer in
vocabulary. When slang is used, our life seems fresher and a little more personal.
So, slang reflects the personality, gives us clearly visible characteristics of the speaker.
There are many kinds of slang: Cockney, commercial, military, theatrical, society, school, etc.
B. Jargonisms
Jargon is a set of words whose aim is to preserve secrecy within a social group. Jargonisms are
generally old words with entirely new meanings imposed on them, and because of that absolutely
incomprehensible to people outside the group.
Grease money; loaf-head; a tiger hunter-a gambler; a lexer- a law student
There is the jargon of thieves and vagabonds (cant, argot /a:gu/ ,- ); the jargon of
jazz people; the jargon of the army as military slang; the jargon of sportsmen; the jargon of hackers,
and many others.
Slang and jargon both differ from ordinary language in their vocabularies, but slang, contrary to
jargon needs no translation. Jargonisms do not always remain the possession of a given social group.
Some of them migrate into other social strata and sometimes become recognized in the literary
language as slang or colloquial words:
Kid, fun, humbug.
C. Professionalisms
Professionalisms are the words used in different trades, professions or within a group of people
connected by common interests. They designate some working process, tools or instruments.
Professionalisms should not be mixed with jargonisms. Like slang, professionalisms do not aim at
secrecy.
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Professionalisms are used in emotive prose to depict the natural speech of a character, his or her
education, breeding, environment and psychology.
The difference between the terms and professionalisms is that terms belong to the literary layer of
words and professionalisms belong to the non-literary layer. Professionalisms remain within a definite
community, lined to a definite occupation:
A midder case= (a midwifery case- )
Tin-fish=submarine
D. Dialectal Words
The function of the dialectal words is to characterize personalities through their speech.
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:
1. .. . ./ . .,
2002
2. .. . .
. .: , 2004
3. .. :
. .: , 2003 ( .
)
4. .. ./ .
.: , 2004. 192 .
:
1. . ..
. 1984 . ( . ).
2. Delaney D., Ward C., Fiorina C. Fields of Vision
3. Galperin I. R. Stylistics. M. 1977
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663606, . , . 40 , 65
. (39161) 2-56-30, (39161) 2-55-91
E-mail: kanskcol@rambler.ru
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