Sample Text Analysis

Texts for Stylistic Analysis

Make a thorough stylistic analysis of the following texts: Find the artistic message and principles underlying a writer’s choice of language. While making the stylistic analysis of a text, speak on the following items:

- the style in which the text is written (belles-letters (poetry, drama, or emotive prose), publicistic (speech, essay, or an article), official documents, newspaper, or scientific);

- the form in which the text is written (first/third person narration, dialogue, soliloquy, description);

- sentence complexity prevalence (simple/complex);

- vocabulary prevalence (bookish/neutral/colloquial);

- SDs and EMs and the effect produced by them.

The older professor looked up at the assistant, fumbling fretfully with a pile of papers. “Farrar, what’s the matter with you lately?” he said sharply.

The younger man started, “Why … why …” the brusqueness of the other’s manner shocked him suddenly into confession. “I’ve lost my nerve, Professor Mallory, that’s what ‘s the matter with me. I’m frightened to death,” he said melodramatically.

“What of?” asked Mallory, with a little change in his tone.

The floodgates were open. The younger man burst out in exclamations, waving his thin, nervous, knotted fingers, his face twitching as he spoke. “Of myself … no, not myself, but my body! I’m not well … I’m getting worse all the time. The doctors don’t make out what is the matter … I don’t sleep … I worry … I forget things, I take no interest in life … the doctors intimate a nervous break down ahead of me … and yet I rest … I rest … more than I can afford to! I never go out. Every evening I’m in bed by nine o’clock. I take no part in college life beyond my work, for fear of the nervous strain. I’ve refused to take charge of that summer school in New York, you know, that would be such an opportunity for me … if I could only sleep! But though I never do anything exciting in the evening … heavens! What nights I have. Black hours of seeing myself in a sanitarium, dependent on my brother! I never … why, I’m in hell … that’s what the matter with me, a perfect hell of ignoble terror!” – Dorothy Canfield Fisher, an extract from “The Heyday of the Blood”

The extract above is taken from a short story “The Heyday of the Blood” by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, so it belongs to belles-letters style.

The extract is written in the form of the dialogue between Professor Mallory and his young assistant Farrar.

Sentences in the extract are mainly short to reflect Farrar’s worried emotional state and excited speech.

To reflect the social status and education of the two characters formal (bookish) words are used, such as fretfully, brusqueness, to intimate, for fear, sanitarium, ignoble. Though neutral words prevail, as they are the best means to reflect Farrar’s emotional state and speech.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher used the following tropes:

- Alliterations (the repetition of adjacent or closely following consonant sounds [f], [p] and [b]) – f umbling f ret f ully; p ile of p a p ers; in b ed b y nine; f or f ear. This phonetic SD (I. R. Galperin), phono-graphical EM (V. A. Kukharenko), unit of syntagmatic phonetics (Yu. M. Skrebnev), or rhetorical figure (American and British stylists) brings a melodic effect into the extract.

- Italics – what’s the matter with you; what of. This graphical EM (V. A. Kukharenko), or rhetorical figure (American and British stylists) is used in the extract to show the words that are pronounced with emphasis.

- Breaks-in-the-narrative (aposiopesis) shown graphically by three dots – why … why …; of myself … no, not myself, but my body! I’m not well … I’m getting worse all the time. The doctors don’t make out what is the matter … I don’t sleep … I worry … I forget things, etc. This syntactical SD (I. R. Galperin), a unit of paradigmatic syntax (Yu. M. Skrebnev), or rhetorical figure (American and British stylists) is used to show that Farrar is overexcited, over worried and does not know what to do and what he is ill with, and his emotions prevent him from speaking.

- Hyperbole (deliberate exaggeration) – I’m frightened to death. It is a lexical SD (I. R. Galperin and V. A. Kukharenko), a figure of quantity (Yu. M. Skrebnev), or a rhetorical figure (American and British stylists). As this phrase is used quite often to show how much one is frightened, it is a trite hyperbole.

- Metaphors - the floodgates were open; the younger man burst out in exclamations; I’m in hell. It is a lexical SD (I. R. Galperin and V. A. Kukharenko), a figure of quality (Yu. M. Skrebnev), or a rhetorical figure (American and British stylists). In the extract we have one trite metaphor (I’m in hell) and two genuine ones (the floodgates were open; the younger man burst out in exclamations) to characterize Farrar and his state.

- Epithets – thin, nervous, knotted fingers; black hours. Both epithets are trite, as they are quite often used to describe thin fingers and one’s difficult time respectively. The first (thin, nervous, knotted fingers) is a string of epithets, and the second (black hours) is a transferred (figurative) epithet. Epithet is a lexical SD according to I. R. Galperin and V. A. Kukharenko, or a rhetorical figure according to American and British stylists.

- Complete parallel constructions – I worry; I forget things; I take no interest. This syntactical SD (I. R. Galperin and V. A. Kukharenko), or rhetorical figure (American and British stylists) is used to bring rhythmic effect to the utterance and make several ides equally important.

- Interjection – heavens! It is a derivative bookish interjection, a lexical EM (I.R. Galperin) used to show Farrar’s emotions.

- Oxymoron – a perfect hell of ignoble terror. Oxymoron is a lexical SD (I. R. Galperin and V. A. Kukharenko), a figure of contrast (Yu. M. Skrebnev), or a rhetorical figure (American and British stylists). In this extract two genuine attributive oxymorons are used in one string to characterize Farrar’s great fear of the situation.

- Punctuation. Exclamation marks and dots are used to show that Farrar is overexcited.

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