You've
asked me to analyze some extract from my story in a more detailed way. I was
thinking for a long time what particular extract to choose and I think that
this one is the best. It is rather small, but it is very emotive and full of
stylistic devices.
"Now hear it?--yes, I hear it, and have heard it. Long--long --long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard it--yet I dared not--oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!--I dared not--I dared not speak! We have put her living in the tomb! Said I not that my senses were acute? I now tell you that I heard her first feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them--many, many days ago--yet I dared not--I dared not speak! And now--to-night--Ethelred--ha! ha!--the breaking of the hermit's door, and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield!--say, rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault! Oh whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair? Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart? Madman!" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his soul--"Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the door!"
Roderick Usher was so sad because of the
death of his sister. This extract is his reaction on the fact that his sister
is alive and he together with the narrator buried her alive.
Constant
use of repetitions shows, that he
was sure what he saw and what he heard and may be be even couldn’t believe,
that it was true, that his sister can be alive: "Now hear it?-yes, I hear
it, and have heard it. Long-long -long-many minutes, many hours, many days,
have I heard it-yet I dared not--oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!-I
dared not-I dared not speak!” His speech is highly emotive and we see exclamation marks. Usher is shocked,
but also in some way excited.
Roderick’s
utterance is highly emotive, he is horrified and the use rhetorical questions prove this: “Said I not that my senses were acute?”, “Oh
whither shall I fly?”, “Will she not be here anon? ? Is she not hurrying to
upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair? Do I not
distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart?”.
He
laughs hysterically, realizing that he buried Madeline alive and onomatopoeia can show his emotional
state: “And now-tonight-Ethelred--ha! ha!”
Realization
that his sister can be alive and can come makes him go crazy. Now he is
terribly horrified: Madman!" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and
shrieked out his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his soul-"Madman!
I tell you that she now stands without the door!". The use of exclamations
and the repetition of the word “madman” can show his state.
The
use of enumeration makes Mr. Ushers
speech more dynamic, tense and energetic: “…the breaking of the hermit's door,
and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield!-say, rather,
the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of her prison,
and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault!”
To stress how pity and miserable Roderick felt, the author uses inversion: “…oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!”
To stress how pity and miserable Roderick felt, the author uses inversion: “…oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!”
And, of course, aposiopesis can be seen throughout the whole
extract, which is marked by break dashes. This stylistic device indicates, that
this extract is an example of a spontaneous oral speech and highlingths in such
a way the emotional state of the main character.
Good job! Enjoyed reading your analysis! :D
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