文学概论6 style tone and irony

Style, Tone and Irony Style Definition the distinctive manner in which a writer arranges words to achieve particular effect The arrangement of words in a manner which at once best expresses the individuality of the author and the idea and intent in the author’s mind. (Holman 432) A writer who cultivates an artful literary style is called a literary stylist Styles can be ornamental, forceful, poetic, abstract, concrete, rhythmic, pedestrian, sincere, artificial, dignified, comic, original, imitative, dull, vivid. A study of styles involves diction, sentence, structure, variety, imagery, rhythm, repetition, coherence, emphasis, arrangement of ideas. Style in terms of diction Style in terms of diction refers to what words a writer uses, which reveals personality, conveys themes, creates atmosphere. Denotative/connotative Parts of speech, length and construction Formal, informal, colloquial Figurative devices: simile, metaphor, personification Style in terms of syntax Style in terms of syntax refers to how words are arranged in phrases and sentences Short and spare long and involved Simple, compound, complex Loose, periodic balanced Examples of Styles Examples: William Faulkner Faulkner uses an experimental style with meticulous attention to diction and cadence: highly emotional, subtle, complex, and sometimes Gothic or grotesque. An example from “A Rose for Emily”: It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house as left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps—an eyesore among eyesores. And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery among the ranked and anonymous graves of Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson. Examples: Mark Twain Mark Twain uses vernacular language/dialects laced with light-heartedness and sometimes cynicism coated with seemingly artless humor. An example from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly -- Tom's Aunt Polly, she is -- and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I said before. Examples: Gertrude Stein Stein uses repetitive sentences, each one building up, phrase by phrase, the substance of her characters. An example from Three Lives: Rose Johnson was a real black, tall, well built, sullen, stupid, childlike, good looking negress. She laughed when she was happy and grumbled and was sullen with everything that troubled. Rose Johnson was a real black negress but she had been brought up quite like their own child by white folks. Rose laughed when she was happy but she had not the wide, abandoned laughter that makes the warm broad glow of negro sunshine. Rose was never joyous with the earth-born, boundless joy of negroes. Hers was just ordinary, any sort of woman laughter. Examples: James Joyce Joyce’s Ulysses consists of 18 chapters, each covering roughly one hour of the day and each using a different literary style. An example from Ulysses: Yes because he never did a thing like that before as ask to get his breakfast in bed with a couple of eggs since the CITY ARMS hotel when he used to be pretending to be laid up with a sick voice doing his highness to make himself interesting for that old faggot Mrs Riordan that he thought he had a great leg of and she never left us a farthing all for masses for herself and her soul greatest miser ever was actually afraid to lay out 4d for her methylated spirit telling me all her ailments she had too much old chat in her about politics and earthquakes and the end of the world let us have a bit of fun first God help the world if all the women were her sort down on bathingsuits and lownecks of course nobody wanted her to wear them (This is the beginning of the first of eight sentences of altogether 4,391 words that run on for over 30 pages with only three punctuations). Examples: Earnest Hemingway Hemingway uses his distinctive style to depict stoical men who displays grace under pressure. Economy Understatement An example from “A Clean, Well-lighted Place”: “Last week he tried to commit suicide,” one waiter said. “Why?” “He was in despair.” “What about?” “Nothing.” “How do you it was nothing?” “He has plenty of money.” Tone Definition the author’s implicit attitude toward the people, places, and events in fiction a term designating the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience implied in a literary work…tone is used to designate the mood of the work itself and the various devices that are used to create the mood. (Holman 444) Tone is revealed by means of style Tone results from combinations and variations of such things as …diction, sentence structure, repetition, imagery, symbolism, etc. (Holman 444) formal, informal, intimate, solemn, somber, playful, serious, ironic, condescending, or many other possible attitudes. An arrogant tone: Charlie surveyed the classroom of dolts, congratulating himself for snatching the higher test grade, the smug smirk on his face growing brighter and brighter as he confirmed the inferiority of his peers. A playful tone NOTICE PERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished ; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR PEE G. G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE. from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn An ironic tone The question therefore is, How this number shall be reared, and provided for?...For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses, (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing till they arrive at six years old; except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier; during which time they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers: As I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me, that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art. from “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift Irony Irony denotes that the appearance of things differs from their reality, whether in terms of meaning, situation, or action. a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says and what is generally understood a deliberate gap between the language used and what is being discussed What the barber says about Jim in “The Haircut” What Mr. Stevens says about Lord Darlington in Remains of the Day Four types of irony Verbal irony Dramatic irony Situational irony Cosmic irony Verbal Irony Verbal irony refers to spoken words only. Verbal irony occurs when a character says one thing, but suggests or intends the opposite. The contrast is between what the speaker says and what he actually means. in Julius Caesar, Mark Antony repeats the words “and Brutus is an honorable man" in the famous “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech. Mark Antony’s meaning, however, is that Brutus is completely dishonorable because Brutus, Caesar’s best friend, joined the other conspirators and plunged a knife into Caesar’s chest. Jonathan Swift: “A Modest Proposal” Note: Verbal irony may be confused with sarcasm, but sarcasm is harsh and direct, while verbal irony is implied. Dramatic Irony Dramatic irony occurs when the meaning intended by a character’s words or actions is opposite of the true situation. The contrast is between what the character says, thinks, or does and the true situation. Further, the character cannot see or understand the contrast, but the audience or reader can. In Othello, Othello refers to Iago as “honest Iago.” Unknown to Othello, Iago is a villain who deceives him into thinking that Desdemona has been unfaithful. Othello unjustly kills his wife, believing the whole time in Iago’s honesty. In “The Haircut,” the town barber repeatedly says that “Jim is a card.” Note the difference in examples for verbal and dramatic irony: Anthony calls Brutus “honorable” and knows he is not honorable, while Othello calls Iago “honest” and does not know of Iago’s deceit.  Situational Irony the incongruity between what happens and what was expected.  Because it emerges from the events and circumstances of a story it is often more subtle and effective than verbal or dramatic irony. Situational irony defies logical cause/effect relationships and justifiable expectations. The Gift of the Magi The Cop and the Anthem A Little Cloud (Little Chandler wanting to be a poet but never writes any poem; Gallaher is in a way a vulgar person but ends up being a journalist on the London Press) A situational irony in life When John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan, all of his shots initially missed the President; however a bullet ricocheted off the bullet-proof windows of the Presidential limousine and struck Reagan in the chest. Thus, the windows made to protect the President from gunfire were partially responsible for his being shot. Cosmic Irony/Irony of Fate Some irony goes beyond being unfair and is morally tragic. Such irony is often so severe that it causes people to question God and see the universe as hostile. For example, if an honest, hardworking, and generous person buys a lottery ticket and wins ten million dollars, only to die in an auto crash two days later, the irony would reach tragic proportions. When situational irony reaches this scale, it is often called cosmic irony or irony of fate. Such irony typically suggests that people are pawns to malicious forces. Cosmic irony is often found in traditional tragedies. In this sense, it is also sometimes called tragic irony or even dramatic irony Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex the old king orders to have his son killed to guard against the possibility of the son killing him and marrying his queen, but this only leads to the tragedy: the son returns, kills the old king and marries his own mother Romeo and Juliet When Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged death-like sleep, he assumes her to be dead and kills himself. Upon awakening to find her dead lover beside her, Juliet kills herself with his knife A Clean, Well-lighted Place 明灯雅座 Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His distinctive writing style is characterized by economy and understatement and had a significant influence on the development of twentieth century fiction writing. Hemingway's protagonists are typically stoics, often seen as projections of his own character—men who must show "grace under pressure." Many of his works are considered classics in the canon of American literature started his career as a writer in a newspaper office at the age of seventeen After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals. After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution. During the twenties, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris, which he described in his first important work, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Equally successful was A Farewell to Arms (1929), the study of an American ambulance officer's disillusionment in the war and his role as a deserter. Hemingway used his experiences as a reporter during the civil war in Spain as the background for his most ambitious novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Among his later works, the most outstanding is the short novel, The Old Man and the Sea (1952), the story of an old fisherman's journey, his long and lonely struggle with a fish and the sea, and his victory in defeat. Hemingway—himself a great sportsman—liked to portray soldiers, hunters, bullfighters—tough, at times primitive people whose courage and honesty are set against the brutal ways of modern society, and who in this confrontation lose hope and faith. His straightforward prose, his spare dialogue, and his predilection for understatement are particularly effective in his short stories, some of which are collected in Men Without Women (1927) and The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories (1938). Hemingway, nicknamed “Papa” was part of the 1920s expatriate community in Paris, as described in his memoir A Moveable Feast, and was known as part of “the Lost Generation,” a name he popularized. He led a turbulent social life, was married four times, and allegedly had various romantic relationships during his lifetime. In 1961, at age 61, he committed suicide, as his father did before him. Prizes: the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 Hemingway’s style A great deal has been written about Hemingway’s distinctive style. In fact, the two great stylists of twentieth-century American literature are William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, and the styles of the two writers are so vastly different that there can be no comparison. An excellent example of Hemingway’s style is found in “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” In this story, there is no maudlin sentimentality; the plot is simple, yet highly complex and difficult. Focusing on an old man and two waiters, Hemingway says as little as possible. He lets the characters speak, and, from them, we discover the inner loneliness of two of the men and the callous prejudices of the other. When Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1954, his writing style was singled out as one of his foremost achievements. The committee recognized his “forceful and style-making mastery of the art of modern narration.” Hemingway has often been described as a master of dialogue; in story after story, novel after novel, readers and critics have remarked, “This is the way that these characters would really talk.” Yet, a close examination of his dialogue reveals that this is rarely the way people really speak. The effect is accomplished, rather, by calculated emphasis and repetition that makes us remember what has been said. Hemingway often uses no adjectives at all Hemingway's style has often been described as "gritty"; it involves removal of commas and deadpan description/spare sentences of often gruesome events. Hemingway often uses concise, staccato sentences with few authorial comments. Iceberg Theory If a writer of a prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing. (Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon) I always try to write on the principle of the iceberg. There is seven eighth of it under water for every part that shows. Anything you know you can eliminate and it only strengthens your iceberg. It is the part that doesn’t show. (Ernest Hemingway, 1958) Questions When and where does the story set? How are the three characters different from each other? Why did the old man attempt suicide? How did the younger waiter treat the old man? Why? Did the older waiter think the same? How did the old man leave the café? Did the older waiter go home immediately after the café was closed? What did he do? What does the older waiter’s meditation tell us about his attitude toward life? What is the story’s point of view? What do you think distinguishes Hemingway’s style? Characters in the story The young waiter: impatient to close the cafe and go home to his wife, he insults the deaf old man, who, of course, can’t hear him. The old waiter: an old man, like the deaf old man, he lives alone and is sympathetic to the old man’s drinking until he is drunk. The old man: about 80 years old and deaf, the quiet, dignified old man is drinking brandy in the very early hours of the morning in a Spanish cafe. He comes into the cafe every evening. He has, we discover, recently attempted suicide. The relationship between characters The younger waiter and the old man The younger of the two waiters is impatient with the old man; he just wishes the customer would quit drinking and go home, so that the waiter could go home too. He cannot relate to whatever causes the old man to nurse so many drinks over so long a period, night after night, in the quiet cafe. He especially cannot fathom what could have led the old man to attempt suicide, because the old man "has plenty of money," and the young waiter cannot imagine a source of despair any more profound than a shortage of ready cash. On some level, the younger waiter may also understand why the old man prefers drinking in a clean, well-lighted place to drinking at home, but his concern for himself takes precedence over his concern for the old man. After all, he is young and has confidence. The old waiter and the old man The older waiter understands despair only too well. He is saddened when the young waiter insults the old man (regardless of whether or not the old man heard his remark, it is heartless anyway) and is even more grieved when the young waiter closes the cafe and sends the old man away. As he says to the younger waiter, "You have youth, confidence, and a job. You have everything." The old man, on the other hand, has nothing -- no one to go home to, nothing to look forward to, no pleasure left in life except the small comfort of being able to spend a little time in a clean, well-lighted place. After the younger waiter leaves to go home, the older one "continue[s] the conversation with himself." He knows the value of his cafe; when you have nothing else to live for, a place like that can be a small fortress against the huge, all-encompassing darkness of existence. It is an illusion, but a necessary one. The older waiter realizes that the world is "nada and pues nada" (nothing and more nothing), but he nonetheless has the stoicism to keep on living. The idea of a well-lighted place is of great significance to this short story. It illuminates the connection between the old man and the older waiter, both of whom favor well-lighted places especially at night. A well-lighted atmosphere is an atmosphere in which the old man and older waiter can escape their loneliness. In the darkness of the night, the men are more vulnerable to thoughts of suicide and despair. Darkness and sleep must be avoided, for in these states there is nothingness, "nada." Is there anything in common between the old man and the author? Hemingway had to deal with despair, depression, and desperation for most of his life, and these feelings could be felt in most of his writings. Hemingway attempted suicide in the spring of 1961, and received ECT treatment again; but, some three weeks short of his 62nd birthday, he took his own life on the morning of July 2, 1961 at his home in Ketchum, Idaho, with a shotgun blast to the head. Judged not mentally responsible for his action of suicide, he was buried in a Roman Catholic service. Hemingway himself blamed the ECT treatments for "putting him out of business" by destroying his memory; and medical and scholarly opinion has been respectfully attentive to this view. Symbols A clean, well-lighted place shadow the leaves of the tree made the setting man's desire to find a state of tranquility, safety, and comfort A safe haven hiding from the world that was surrounding him a certain cleanness and a sense of order Nada- nothingness When the older waiter was at the bar, he recited the Lord's Prayer, but he replaced many of the key words with "nada." Here with the use of understatement, Hemingway was showing the extent of despair felt by the waiter, because the Lord's prayer is meant to give one hope, purpose, and a sense that everything is not all in vain. But by removing words, and replacing them with others the waiter was reaffirming his feelings of hopelessness. Man is often plagued by the question of his own existence. Existentialism is a subjective philosophy that is centered upon the examination of man’s existence, emphasizing the liberation, responsibility, and usually the solitude of the individual. It focuses on individuals finding a reason for living within themselves. The philosophy forces man to make choices for himself, on the premise that nothing is preordained, there is no fate. Men must find a truth in themselves, a truth that they must be able to live for. Existentialism is in harsh contrast to a belief in a higher power or a god. “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” is a story by Ernest Hemingway about men in successive stages in the philosophy of existentialism, revealing ultimately how the philosophy will fail them. Nothingness is a condition man is faced with when his life has no meaning, when there is no reason to exist. It is the hollowness or emptiness man experiences when he feels that his life has no significant meaning. If there is nothing to believe in, then life is nothing. The older waiter in the story recognizes the existence of nothing: "Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it all was nada y pues nada y pues nada y pues nada" 有些人生活于其中却从来没有感觉到，可是，他知道一切都是虚无缥缈的，一切都是为了虚无缥缈，虚无缥缈，为了虚无缥缈。我们的虚无缥缈就在虚无缥缈中，虚无缥缈是你的名字，你的王国也叫虚无缥缈，你将是虚无缥缈中的虚无缥缈，因为原来就是虚无缥缈。给我们这个虚无缥缈吧，我们日常的虚无缥缈，虚无缥缈是我们的，我们的虚无缥缈，因为我们是虚无缥缈的，我们的虚无缥缈，我们无不在虚无缥缈中，可是，把我们打虚无缥缈中拯救出来吧；为了虚无缥缈。欢呼全是虚无缥缈的虚无缥缈，虚无缥缈与汝同在。他含笑站在一个酒吧前，那儿有架闪光的蒸气压咖啡机。 The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe About Edgar Allan Poe Born on January 19, 1809 Died on October 7, 1849 American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts Upon the deaths of his parents, taken in by John and Frances Allan Briefly attended the University of Virginia and a short period at West Pointthe Allans. In 1827, published an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to “a Bostonian” spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism In 1835, married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin In January 1845, his poem “The Raven” was an instant success. In 1849, at the age of 40, Poe died in Baltimore. Poe was important writer of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story the inventor of the detective-fiction genre credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, particularly popular through translations by Baudelaire Poe’s literary theory Poe was against didacticism Works with obvious meanings cease to be art quality work should be brief and focus on a specific single effect Raven Anna Bell Lee The Black Cat Poe creates a single effect of shocking insanity which degenerates into madness. This is achieved through the use of description of setting Symbolism plot development Diction characterization Setting As is usually the case, Poe’s setting in the story is not located specifically in an actually recognizable place, which makes the story universal in terms of location. This means that the story could happen anywhere. symbolism the cat/Pluto The blackness of the cat is related to misfortune What other symbols are they in the story? Plot development The plot is pushed forward in the course of the narrator’s change of attitude towards the cat—from love to hate, from playmate to beast, to brute, to apparition and monster Point of view/narrator The first-person point of view Unreliable (in what way is the narrator unreliable? What’s wrong with him) Insane Mad Obsessed/guilt Style and tone What is the distinctive style of Poe as revealed in this story, particularly in its diction? What is the tone of the story? PAGE 3