Исследовательская работа
Literary devices in John Galsworthy novel “The Forsyte Saga”
Направляющая организация:
МАОУ «Гимназия №139» Приволжского р-на, г. Казани.
Научный руководитель – Лукманова Н.В.
Казань 2015
Introduction
There are a lot of literary devices, which differ from each other in their meanings. They are used to make our language richer, brighter and more beautiful. As you know, we can see them even in the daily life: in our speech, newspaper’s articles, short stories and mostly in the books. There are many types of literary devices. Such as:
Allegory is a symbolism device where the meaning of a greater, often abstract, concept is conveyed with the aid of a more corporeal object or idea being used as an example.
John Galsworthy is a well-known English novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. He is one of the first critical realists of 20 century English literature.
John Galsworthy “The Forsyte Saga” “In Chancery”. (p.9-76 Ch. I-X)
Metaphor: wild eagerness of hope ;
How he had gazed and gaped at this ruin of his past intention.
Jolyon ran his hands through his hair.
… the house would look like coated with such age (It is also a simile).
He had put his heart into that house, indeed!
… sweet sensation …
… sank into a chair.
… icy shiver.
… said between her teeth.
… the one solid spot in a vanishing world.
… her fresh lips and cheeks, dewy and blooming..
A thin cackle.
… chewing the cud of possessive memories which had turned so bitter in the mouth.
A man and a woman had eaten their hearts out.
… middleaged autumn to chill the mood.
… to see Jane set her heart and jaw on a thing.
… stony despair.
In the shadow of where perfection
Metonomy:
… moving hand in hand with his Forsyte sense of possessive continuity.
A choking sensation had attacked his throat.
… his eyes found a difficulty in leaving her face.
The “Old things” – Aunt Juley and Aunt Hester – would like to hear about it.
The possessive instinet never stands still.
… and young Nicholas and the Will had been quite satisfactory…
… and fear creeping about his inwards.
… the giant London has lapped it round…
… a flush mounted in Val’s cheeks.
10) A little smile became settled in his beard.
11) The old century which had seen the plant of individualism flower so wonderfully was setting in a sky orange with cowing storms.
12) Time had dealt gently with Jolyon.
13) … caution and the desire of possession playing see-sow within him.
14) … whom the world had turned its back.
15) … there was something revolting in the thought!
16) The world had turned its back.
17) A little smile became settled in his beard.
3. Irony:
1) … to become the play-thing of that Law of which he was a pillar.
2) … the unmarried married man to that of the married man remarried.
3) He knew no more than we know where a circle begins.
4. Simile: … as thought to her music she was giving a heart (a piece of metaphor).
1) … often dropped them like a hot potato. The French – they were like cats – one could tell nothing!
2) Euphemia, of course, spoke like a child, … (comparison)
3) He’ll come like a shot, Mother.
4) Ontering softly as a cat.
5) … thin as a crow’s, in shepherd’s plaid trousers.
6) … the house would look like coated with such age.
7) His eyes were shifting from side to side, like an animal’s when it looks for way to escape.
8) That thought was like the first star, … … with his ears standing up like a hare’s.
9) Poor old chap, he’s as thin as a rail.
10) As necessary to health as sea air on week days.
5. Antithesis: … if we’re to catch our train. Uncle soames never misses a train.
1) She was so lovely, and so lonely.
2) Whether Annette had produces the revolution in his outlook or that outlook had produced Annette.
3) Through florescence and feud, frosts and fires it follows the laws of progression.
6. Emotional Climax:
1. “You look so pretty to - night”, he said “so very pretty. Do you know how pretty you look, Annette?”.
2. I dislike him to the very roots of me.
3. She made me suffer. Yes, she had made me suffer!
4. She bought trouble to your daughter June; she brought trouble to every one.
7. Poetic and Highly Literary words:
1. Jolyon’s aesthetic sense.
2. Yes, she would be a swan – rather a dark one, always a shy one, but an authentic swam.
3. Venus for twelve years without a lover!
4. “She’s reallu a duck”, he thought.
5. “She’s a jolly palfrey”.
8. Idioms and sayings:
1. ..he was only at the soup;
2. he was drunk as a lord…
3. Dirty linen washed in public?
4. The only thing is to cut the knot for good.
5. …he was tolerant to the very bone.
6. …there would be a pretty kettle of fish out there!
7. …Roger had got into the “boot”.
8. This is only the last straw.
9. He has always been a burden round your mother’s neck.
10. We must strike while the iron’s hot.
9. Repetition:
1. The family was breaking up; Younger than himself, and in his coffin! The family was breaking up. (inner represented speech).
2. That’s Baltasar, said Holly; he’s so old, nearly as old as I am…I like racing awfully, as well… It must be awfully exciting.
3. Yes, she would be a swan – rather a dark one, always a shy one, but an authentic swan.
4. In chancery! He thought. Both their necks in chancery – and hers so pretty!
5. …but divorce – somehow – anyhow – divorce.
6. I don’t want to hurt her; and I don’t want anything underhand.
7. …She was remarkably pretty – so remarkably pretty…
10. Phraseological combimations:
1. Make public; make up his mind; feel in no mood;
2. get a country into a mess; be in danger;
3. Go bankrupt;
4. Screw up his courage;
5. Get into debt;
6. Pay one's own way;
7. Break away into irony;
8. Break the ice;
9. Be out of touch with;
10. Bring trouble to smb;
11. Beat the record;
12. Be seated side by side;
11. Phrasal verbs (Multi-part verbs):
1. Go down
2. Get back
3. Take up
4. Give up
5. Gaze throught
6. look out
7. Gaze back
8.look round
9. Come down
10. Look back
11. Gaze up
12. Leave off
13. Kill off
14. Gaze into
12. Slang:
1. ...the country ratting to tge dogs!
2. ...the Empire split up and went to pot.
3. the contry going to the dogs, ...
4. "H'llo!", he said, "You f'llows, look!"
13. Onomatopoeiq:
1. James uttered a thin cackke.
2. A choking sensation had attacked his throat.
3. Uttering a growly sound.
4. Mutfering: "Fusty musty ownership!"
5. I say, if I hire a gee tomorrow.
14. Hyperbole:
1. I dislike him to the very roots of me.
2. That night Dartie returned home.
3. What a lot of water had run under bridges since the death of Aunt Ann in '88
4. Haven't seen you for ages.
5. ...useless to every one, and better dead.
6. ...he was tolerant to the very bone.
7. "He had, indeed, loved her to the last, ..."
15. Polysemy:
1. With his air of despising
2. "In chancery!"- he thought.
3. "The lady in gray"
4. To chill the mood
16. Oxymoron:
1. Stony despair
2. Small decided hands
3. It'll be damned piquant!
17. Alliteration:
She was so lovely and so lonely
A warm embrace a “Well, Val’ from Emily…
Wondered whimsically
The possessive instinct never stands still.
Trough florescence and feud, frost and fires it follows the laws of progression.
Sweet sensation.
Call him Cato.
18. Parallel Construction:
1. … he thought of Irene in her lonely flat, and of Soames in his lonely office.
2. She had been given all she had wanted, and in return had given him for three long years all he had wanted.
3. His father had loved the house, had loved the view…
19. Vulgarism:
1. ‘What silly brutes lawyers are!’
2. “… It’ll be damned piquant!”
3. That Spanish filly had got’m.
20. Interjection & Exclamatory words:
1. “Meissonier! Ah! What a jewel!”
2. “My dear, you are naughty about money”
3. “Ah!” said Val.
4. I say,(?) Mother, could I have two plover’s eggs…?
21. Barbarisms and foreign words:
1. It’ll be damned piquant!
2. You wish to see Maman, Monsieur?
22. Elliptical Sentence:
1. “Hello, Soames! Have a muffin?”
2. “Haven’t seen you for ages.”
3. « Wish I were his age?»
23. Break – in – the – Narrative (Aposiopesis):
1. … dear Soames, it had been so good of him, to come today, when they were not feeling very __!
2. “Horses are ripping, aren’t they? My dad -----” – he stopped.
3. “I’ve got so many expenses. Your father ------- ” and he was silent.
24. Question – in – the – Narrative:
1. Why had she never loved him? Why?
2. Take steps! What steps?
3. Did he – did he ever hear anything of Irena nowadays?
25. Inner Represented Speech:
1. “An idea had occurred to Soames. His cousin Jolyon was Jrene’s trustee, the first step would be go down and see him at Robin Hill. Robin Hill! The odd – the very odd feeling those words brought back! Rodin Hill – the house Bosinney had built for him and Irene – the house they had never lived in – the fatal house! And Jolyon lived there now! H’m!”
2. “What could she be like now? – how had she passed the years since he last saw her, twelve years in all, seven already since Uncle Jolyon left her that money! Was she still beautiful? Would he know her if he saw her? Yes, she had made him suffer! Divorce! It seemed ridiculous, after all these years of utter separation! But it would have to be. No other way! She ought to pay for it. ”
26. Chiasmus:
1. Whether Annette had produced the revolution in his outlook, or that outlook had produced Annette.
27. Epithets:
whimsical (equality), fine – faced, dark – haired, camel – hair, frock – coated, clean – skaven, half – finished, new – fangled, stoke – like, no–longer – young, jerry – built, Viking – coloured, deep – set, iron – gray, red – gold, well – bred, olive – green, long – tailed, dark – haired, good – looking, half – civilised, half – baked, soft dark eye, heart – to – heart (encounters); chinny, narrow, concentrated, (look).
28. Dialectal words:
1. “It will be lovelee…”
2. Winifred had never “understand’m”
3. “Thon art sentimental, Maman!”
29. Colloquial Coinages:
1. … said between her teeth: You are the limit, Monty.”
2. “I say, if I hire agee (?) tomorrow.”
3. “Ah!,” said Val, “ She’s a jolly palfrey”
4. “ I’m jolly keen on them too”.
5. “… she was jolly good – looking”.
6. “Thanks awfully!” Val vanished, leaving the two cousins with the ice unbroken.
7. “ I expect they think one awful too”, said Holly.
8. No one could think you awful, of course.
9. Awful old.
10. I like racing awfully.
11. Awfully exciting.
12. Let’s have fizz.
30. Euphemism:
1. “ I hope I shall kick the bucket long before I’m as old as grandfather,” he thought (kick the bucket = die)
31. Pun:
1. She was so lovely, and so lonely.
2. A warm embrace, a “Well, Val!” from Emily
3. … the married man to that of the married man remarried.
32. Direct word order in interrogative sentence ( a sample of spoken Enhlish):
1. “ You wish to see Maman, Monsieur?” in a broken accent.
2. How he had gazed and gaped at this ruin of his past intention?
3. You know that, of course?
33. Allusion:
1. “Kill the fatted calf, warm son, let’s have fizz.”
(That is an ironical allusion to the famous story from the Bible)
34. Detached Construction:
1. Enchanted; would it not be beautiful to see them lighted?
35. Stylistic inversion:
1. By moonlight too, the river must be ravishing!
Analysis
John Galsworthy is a well-known English novelist, short-story writer, and playright. He is one of the first critical realists of 20 century English literature. "The Forsyte Saga", which embraces "The man of Property" (1906), "In chancery" (1920) and "To let" (1921), is considered his masterpiece. The trilogy delineates the lives of the members of one family, centering about Soames Forsyte, the man of property. It is an exposure of the emptiness, hypocrisy and blind egotism of the comfortable moneyed class. Several generations of the Forsytes are taken as the epitome of the class.
The author uses such terms as "strata" and "Forsyteisw" speaking about this family, here they bear ironical tenor. To show the main sense they possess, he uses alliteration. "The possessive instinct never stands still. Though florescence and feud, frosts and fires it fires it follows the laws of progression". Though alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author's idea, it also gives some emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. The above example may also serve as an illustration of metonymy. The mention of "the possessive instinct", instead of the man himself who possesses it, coutributes towards a more colourful and Soames Forsyte himself. Another stylistic device used in this example is known as antithesis. It consists in putting together two abstract nouns ("florescence and feud") and nature phenomena("frosts and fires") that are quite opposed. Here it accentuates the difficulties that "the possessive instinct" has to overcome and to go and to go ahead, which means that the Forsytes are still the "pillars" of British bourgeois society with the "reputation for sagancity, for farsightedness and the clever extrication of others, who stood for propriety interest". "Forsyte" is the name Galsworthy gave to English bourgeois society. The title of the book is highly symbolic and shows the author's attitude towards contemporary society, whose represntative he hiself is. His criticism is mainly ethical and aesthetical, for he cannot overstep the limitations imposed upon him by his own class - the upper middle class.
The novel esents a dramatic prose intercepted with different events, dialogues, portraiture, a psychological portrayal of personages and inner represented speech which is widely used by the author in this novel. It renders the character’s thoughts which are not uttered aloud. Inner represented speech is a powerful stylistic device commonly used in modern literature to reveal the character’s psychology or temporary mental state. It is characteristic or Galsworthy to include represented speech into the author’s transition from one to the other.
Here is an example of the inner speech: “ An idea had occurred to Soames. His cousin Jolyon was Jrene’s trusfee, the first step would be to go down and see him at Robin Hill. Robin Hill! The odd – the very odd feeling those words brought back! Robin Hill – the house Bosinney had built for him and Jrene – the house they ! And Jolion lived there now! H’m!” This device is undoable tedly an excellent one to depict a character. It gives the writer an opportunity to show the inner springs which guide character’s actions utterances.
Here is another example of inner represented speech: “What could she be like now? – how had she passed the years since he last saw her, twelve years in all, seven already since Uncle Jolyon left her that money! Was she still beautiful? Would he know her if saw her? Yes, she had made him suffer! Divorce! It seemed ridiculous, after all these years of utter separation. But it would have to be. No other way! She ought to pay for it.”
The inner speech of Soames Forsyte is here introduced by words describing his state of mind – “suffer, divorce, utter separation”. It renders the character’s thoughts which were not uttered aloud.
In the above example of represented speech there are rhetorical questions like “was she still beautiful?”, “Would he know her if he saw her?”. These questions are no longer questions but statements expressed in the form of interrogative sentences. They are an inseparable part of inner speech.
There are a lot of epithets in the novel, because of them we see the author’s attitude to his heroes, and they help to reveal their features of character. With the help of the careful choice of woods and epithets the author achieves brilliant description of his characters. Speaking of Joylon Galsworthy often uses “whimsical, whimsically, whimsicality”. Here is another example, which shows author’s positive attitude to Jolly and Jolyon’s feelings to his son. “The boy had fair hair which curled a little, and his grandfather’s deep-set iron-gray eyes. He was well-built, and very upright and always pleased Joyon’s aesthetic sense,…”
Describing Soames Galsworthy uses such epithets as “flat-checked”, shaven face full of spiritual bull-doggedness, for his spare, square, sleek figure slightly crouched as if were over the bone he could not digest – came now again, fresh as ever, nay, with an odd increase.” In this example the writer also employs a simile, a figure of speech in which Soames and a bull-dog are compared. This psychological portrayal of Soames shows how Jolyon disliked him. “I dislike him to the very roots of me.” Repetition and hyperbole are used in the above example. Both of them are expressive means of language used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion.
“Val sought the misty freedom of Green Street,…”, “a whirlpool of doubts and misgiving”… In these example the novelist uses one of the most expressive tropes – a metaphor, to express the state of mind of Val. A stylistic device Irony is used in the following example:”… to become the play-thing of that law of which he was a pillar!”
Soams is so irritated and annoyed , because of Irony we feel his state of soul. It expresses the feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity or regret. “You look so pretty to-night”, he said, “so pretty. Do you know how pretty you look, Annete?” we observe here such as arrange meuf of similarity built clauses (parallel constructions) which is called climax.
The stylistic value of this figure of speech is emphasis. Soames uttering phrases “so pretty”, “so very pretty”, “how pretty you look” expressed his feelings towards Annette, because of Climax, we’re sure that he loves her and his intentions are very serious.
“I hope I shall kick the bucket long before I’m as old as grandfather”, he thought. The word ‘die’ has bred the following euphemismus, one of them is used here.
Galsworthy widely uses idioms, sayings and a device called simile. Thanks to them, narration becomes so emotional, figurative and lively.
Galsworthy’s vocabulary is highly colloquial, which means alongside with other things a repetitive use of a small number of words conveying different meanings. To these belong such words as “get”, “gaze”, “look”, “jolly”, “lovely”, etc.
All abundant use of colloquial expressions and idioms is a feature of Galsworthy’s style. They serve to make the dialogues, narration and inner speech natural and the characters living and to have a firm grip on the reader’s interest.
There are a lot of phraseological combinations in the novel which lend an additional expressiveness to the language since they are usually more emotional than a mere stating of facts in play terms.
