PERIPHRASIS is the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. It implies the round-about, indirect way used to name a familiar object or phenomenon.
This device always demonstrates redundancy of lingual elements. Its stylistic effect varies from elevation to humor. E.g.: "Delia was studying under Rosenstock-you know his repute as a disturber of the piano keys (=as a pianist)... Delia did things in six octaves so promisingly..." (=played the piano so well.) (O. Henry) "And then to the waiter he betrayed the fact that the minutes! coin and himself were strangers." (= that he had no money at all.) (O. Henry.)
ALLUSION is an indirect reference to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life commonly known. The writer heed not explain what he means: he merely mentions some detail, of what he thinks analogous in fiction or history to the topic discussed. Allusions are based on the accumulated experience and the knowledge of the writer who presupposes a similar experience and knowledge in the reader.
ANTITHESIS denotes any active confrontation, emphasized co-occurence of notions, really or presumably contrastive. The purpose of using this device is to demonstrate the contradictory nature of the object described. E.g. " It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the era of incredulity; it was the season' of light, it was the season of Darkness." (Ch. Dickens.)
Another variety of antithesis concerns two different objects opposed to each other and being given opposite characteristics. This device serves to underline their incompatibility. E.g. "Large homes are still occupied while weavers' cottages stand empty." (Gaskell) "His fees were high: his lessons were light." (O. Henry.)
ASYNDETON is a deliberate omission of connectives or conjunctions between words, phrases or clauses in an utterance. It affects the rhythmical organization of the utterance and can be suggestive in a variety of ways.
E.g. "She might make a scene. She might introduce those two children-she was capable of anything." (Omission of the connective "because" serves to emphasize the fact that she was really dangerous.)
POLYSYNDETON is an insistent repetition of a connective in an utterance. E.g.: They were ail from Milan and one of them was to be a painter and one had intended to be a soldier, and after we were finished with the machines, sometimes we walked together to the cafe." (E. Hemingway,)
The repetition of connectives makes an utterance more rhythmical-so that prose may even seem like poetry. Polysyndeton also serves the purpose of accentuating each tact introduced after the connective.
INVERSION consists in an unusual arrangement of words for the purpose of making one of them more conspicuous, more important, more emphatic. Some elements of the sentence in order to be made emphatic are put either at the beginning or at the end. E.g.: Up went the curtain. (Cf.: The curtain went up.) Beautiful were those flowers. (Cf.: Those flowers were beautiful.) Came frightful days of snow and ram. (Cf: Frightful days of snow and rain came.) Yes, sir that you can do. (Cf. You can do that, sir.)
PARALLELISM (PARALLEL CONSTRUCTIONS) is assimilation or even identity of two or more neighboring sentences (or verse lines.) As a matter of fact parallelism is a variety of repetition, but not a repetition of lexically identical sentences, only a repetition of syntactical constructions. E.g.: John kept silent; Mary was thinking.
Still much more often it happens that parallel sentences contain the same lexical elements.
E.g.: Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods. (Burns)
Parallelism contributes to rhythmic and melodic unification of neighboring sentences. It also serves to emphasize the repeated element, or to create a contrast, or else underlines the semantic connection between sentences.
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS are utterances in the form of questions which pronounce judgments and also express various kinds of modal shades of meaning, such as doubt, challenge, acorn, irony, etc. The question no longer remains the question but becomes a statement expressed in the form of an interrogative sentence. Questions are more emotional than statements. Rhetorical questions are most often used in publicists style and particularly in oratory where the rousing of emotions is the effect generally aimed at. E g.: Isn't that too bad? (=That is too bad.) Did I say a word about money? (I didn't say a word about money.) "What's the good of a man behind a bit of glass? What use is he there and what's the good of their banks?" (Jerome K. Jerome)
SAMPLE TEXT FOR ANALYSIS.
EXTRACT FROM "DOMBEY AND SON" BY CHARLES DICKENS
CHAPTER 47.
Florence took her seat at the dinner-table, on the day before the second anniversary of her father's marriage to Edith [...], with an uneasiness amounting to dread. She had no other warrant for it, than the occasion, the expression of her father's marriage to Edith [...] with an uneasiness amounting to dread. She had no other warrant for it, than the occasion, the expression of yer father’s face, in the hasty glance she caught of it, and the presence of Mr. Carker, which, always unpleasant to her, was more so on this day, than she had ever felt it before.
Edith was richly dress, for she and Mr. Dombey were engaged in the evening to some large assembly, and the dinner-hour that day was late. She did not appear until they were seated at table, when Mr. Carker rose handled her to her chair. Beautiful and lustrous as she was, there was that in her face an air which seemed to separate her hopelessly from Florence, and from every one, for ever more. An<J yet, for an instant, Florence saw a beam of kindness in her eyes, when they were turned on her, that made the distance to which she had withdrawn herself, a greater cause of sorrow and regret than ever.
There was very little said at dinner. Florence heard her father speak to Mr. Carker sometimes on business matters, and heard him softly reply, but she paid little attention to what they said, and only wished the dinner at an end. When the dessert was placed in>on die table, and they were left alone, with no servant in attendance, Mr. Dombey, who had been several times clearing his throat in a manner that augured no good, said-
"Mrs. Dombey, you know, I suppose, that I have instructed the housekeeper that there will be some company to dinner here tomorrow."
"I do not dine at home," she answered.
"Not a large party," pursued Mr. Dombey, with an indifferent assumption of not having heard her; "merely some twelve or fourteen. My sister, Major Bagstock, and some others whom you know but slightly."
"I do not dine at home," she answered.
"However doubtful reason 1 may have, Mrs. Dombey," said Mr. Dombey, still going majestically on, as if she had not spoken, "to hold the occasion in very pleasant remembrance just now, there are appearances in these things which must be maintained before the world. If you have no respect for yourself, Mrs. Dombey"
"I have none," she said.
"Madam," cried Mr. Dombey, striking his hand upon the table, "hear me if you please.' I say, if you have no respect for yourself"
"And 1 say I have none," she answered.
He looked at her, but the face she showed him in return would not have changed, if death itself had looked.
"Carker," said Mr. Dombey, turning more quietly to that gentleman, "as you have been ray medium of communication with Mrs. Dombey on former occasions, and as I choose to preserve the decencies of life, so far as ! am individually concerned, I will trouble you to have the goodness to inform Mrs. Dombey that if she has no respect for herself, ! have some respect for myself, and therefore insist on my arrangements for tomorrow."
"Tell your sovereign master, sir," said Edith, "That I will take leave to speak to him on this subject by-and-by, and that 1 will speak to him alone."[..,]
"I am not accustomed to ask, Mrs. Dombey, " he observed; "I direct." "I will bold no place in your house tomorrow, or on any recurrence or tomorrow. I will be exhibited to no one, as the refractory slave you purchased, such a time. If I kept my marriage-day, I would keep it as a day of shame. Self-respect! Appearances before the world! What are these to me? You have done all you can to make them nothing to me, and they are nothing."
"I will hold no place in your house tomorrow, or will be exhibited to no one, as the refractory slave you have purchased, such a time. If I kept my marriage-day, I would keep it as a day of shame. Self-respect! Appearances before the world! What are these to me? You have done all you can to make them nothing to me, and they are nothing."
"Carker," said Mr. Dombey, speaking with knitted brows, and after a moment's consideration, "Mr. Dombey is so forgetful of herself and me in all this, and places me in a position so unsuited to my character, that I must bring this state of matters to a close."
"Release me, then," said Edith, immovable in voice, in took, and bearing as she had been throughout, "from the chain by which I am bound. Let me go."
"Madam?" exclaimed Mr. Dombey.
"Loose me. Set me free!"
"Madam." he repeated, "Mrs. Dombey?"
"Tell him," said Edith, addressing her proud foce to Carker, "that I wish for a separation between us. That there had better be one. That I recommend it to him Tell him it may take place on his own terms - his wealth is nothing to me - but that it cannot be too soon."
"Good heaven, Mrs. Dombey!" said her husband, with supreme amazement, "do you imagine it possible that I could ever listen to such a proposition? Do you know who I am, madam? Do you know what I represent? Did you ever hear of Dombey and Son? People say that Mr. Dombey - Mr. Dombey! - was separated from his wife! Common people to talk of Mr, Dombey and his domestic affairs! Do you seriously think, Mrs. Dombey that I would permit my name to be handed about in such connection? Pooh, Pooh, madam! Fie for shame! You're absurd," Mr. Dombey absolutely laughed.
But not as she did. She had better have been dead than laugh as she did, in reply, with her intent look fixed upon him. He had better have been dead, than sitting there, in his magnificence, to hear her. [...]
She had better have turned hideous and dropped dead, than have stood up with such a smile upon her face, in such a fallen spirit's majesty of scorn and beauty. She lifted her hand to the tiara of bright jewels radiant on her hand, and. plucking it off with a force that dragged and strained her rich black hair with heedless cruelty, and brought it tumbling wildly on her shoulders, cast the gems upon the ground. From each arm, she unclasped a diamond bracelet, flung it down, and trod upon the glittering heap. Without a word, without a shadow on the fire of her bright eye, without abatement of .her awful smile, she looked on Mr. Dombey to the last, in moving to the door; and left him. [...]
Yielding at once to the impulse of her affection, timid at all other times, but bold in its truth to him in his adversity, and undaunted by past repulse, Florence, dressed as she was, hurried down-stairs. As she set her light foot in the hall, he came out of his room. She hastened towards him unchecked, with her arms stretched out and crying "Oh dear, dear papa!" as if she would have clasped him round the neck.
And so she would have done. But in his frenzy, he lifted up his cruei arm, and struck her, crosswise, with that heaviness, that she tottered on the marble floor; and as he dealt the blow, he told her what Edith was, and bade her follow her, since they had always been in league,
She did not sink down at his feet; she did not shut out the sight of him with her trembling hands; she did not weep; she did not utter one word of reproach. But she looked at him, and a cry of desolation issued from her heart. For as she looked, she saw him murdering that fond idea to which she had held in spite of him. She saw his cruelty, neglect, and hatred dominant above it, and stamping it down. She saw she had no father upon earth, and ran out, orphaned, from his house. [...]
Questions and tasks to the extract from "Dombev and Son"
1. Prepare the summary of the excerpt. Dividing it into logically complete parts will help you to do it.
2. What is the general atmosphere (slant) of the text? i.e. what mood is prevalent in the text? Does it change throughout the text or is it the same?
3. Comment on the author's mastership in creating the general slant What stylistic devices help him to do it?
4. What components can be found in the text (narration, description, dialogue: psychological portrayal of the personages)? Prove your point of view by quoting the text.
5. From whose point of view is the story told, i.e. who the narrator is?
6. What method of characterization is employed by the author? (Direct, indirect or both)?
7. How can you account for the behavior of Mr. Dombey? Take into consideration his vocabulary and syntax, his manner of speech. How do the author's remarks help you to form your notion of this character?
8. How are Edith and Florence characterized? What are their predominant features? Do they have anything in common?
9. What are the relations between the characters like?
10. Give examples of stylistic devices which help the author to picture his personage and the conflict between them more sharply and vividly.
II .What is the author's attitude to his characters? Is it expressed explicitly and if so - how?
12. What is your attitude to the characters? Whose side do you take in the conflict?
13. Characterize the style of Dickens in general. Analyze his vocabulary, choice of words, syntax. Does he use stylistic devices amply or sparingly?
14. What is the message of the excerpt?
15. What is your evaluation of the text? How can you account for the subject matter of the text, its structure and composition, its plot, the author's mastership in portraying his characters and presenting the situation? Are the problems raised in the text close to you? Is the excerpt thought-provoking?
Comments
The extract under analysis is taken from the novel «Dombey and Son» which belongs to the pen of the prominent English writer Ch. Dickens, who represented the brilliant school of critical realists. Dickens's childhood was full of hardships and he had to start working at a very young age. His education was mainly achieved by extensive; reading and keen observation of people and things around him. In 1837 his first novel «The Posthumous Papers of Pickwick Club» appeared which brought him fame and recognition all over Europe. Then Dickens created a number of novels, specially notable for critical and comic treatment of Victorian England. AH Dickens's great works - «Oliver Twist», «The Old Curiosity Shop», «David Copperfield», «Bleak House», «Great Expectations» and others carry a profound moral message. In the books of Dickens we have an astonishing combination of creative vigor, inimitable humor and abundant variety of literary technique. Every personality Dickens describes is full of life, striking and unforgettable. Many of them have become recognizable types in English fiction.
The writer possessed a keen and observant eye and in his best works he touched upon the most significant social problems, drawing the reader's attention to work -houses, the ruling classes' hypocrisy, egotism and the cruelty of state.
The extract under consideration is taken from the novel «Dombey and Son». The main character of it is Mr. Dombey, head of the firm, a person who is obsessed with money and his business considerations. His best hopes connected with the prosperity of his finn are ruined with the death of his son Paul, his heir. Mr. Dombey, preoccupied with the prestige of his firm marries a second time. His new wife, Edith Granger is a beautiful and proud woman coming from an impoverished aristocratic family. She doesn't share her husband's principles. The tension in Mr. Dombey's family is increasing. And it is clearly seen from this extract, which may be considered one of the climaxes of the whole novel. The extract depicts the scene of a quarrel between Edith and Mr. Dombey at dinner.