С т и л и с т и ч е с к и й с и н т а к с и с
“I wake up and I'm alone and I walk round Warley and I’m alone; and I talk to people and I'm alone and I look at his face when I'm home and it’s dead.” (J.Braine)
Атмосфера одиночества и отчаяния, окружающая героя, передается с помощью конвергенции стилистических приемов, таких как параллелизм с анафорой и эпифорой и полисиндетон. Повторение союза “and” (полисиндетон) способствует также созданию особого ритмического рисунка повествования, подчеркивает идею безысходности.
“What courage can withstand the ever-enduring and all-besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue?” (W. Irwing)
В анализируемом предложении имеет место транспозиция синтаксической структуры с целью эмфазы. Предложение, по форме являющееся вопросом, фактически (по смыслу) является отрицанием (No courage can withstand...).
“And everywhere were people. People going into gates and coming out of gates. People staggering and falling. People fighting and cursing.” (P. Abrahams)
В описании толпы автор использует конвергенцию синтаксических стилистических средств. Подхват (...people. People...) дополняется и усиливается анафорическим повтором слова “people” в серии параллельных конструкций (“People staggering and falling. People fighting and cursing”). Эти приемы в сочетании с элементом антитезы (“going into gates” vs “coming out of gates”) передают хаотичность движения людей в толпе, атмосферу ожесточения и создают соответствующий ритмический рисунок высказывания.
КЛИШЕ ДЛЯ АНАЛИЗА ТЕКСТА НА АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ
Stylistic Phonetics
1. At the level of phonetic description stylistically of interest is an instance of substandard pronunciation (are instances of) ...
2. The vowel ... is reduced to ...
The consonant ... is replaced by ...
The sound ... is omitted.
The word ... is completely mispronounced.
3. The substandard (colloquial, low colloquial etc.) pronunciation is rendered in writing by deviations from standard spelling.
4. The non-standard pronunciation
a) serves for character drawing;
b) is due to the social position of the character;
the low educational level of the speaker;
the dialectal peculiarities of speech;
the emotional state of the character, etc.
5. The prosodic features are rendered in writing by...
6. The emphatic stress/intonation, etc.
a) conveys a special importance to the words...
b) renders the emotional state of the personage...
c) shows the attitude of the character to ...
7. Alliteration (intentional repetition of consonants)/onomatopoeia (sound imitation)
a) creates a melodic/rythmic effect;
b) serves as a method of euphonic organization of the text;
c) evokes a concrete sensuous image of the phenomena described;
d) serves for comic representation of foreign speech.
Stylistic Morphology
1. In the extract under consideration we observe transposition of ...
2. The pronoun ... is used instead of ... in order to express ... /show that ...
3. The use of ... instead of ...
a) is a sign of “popular”/ illiterate/low colloquial speech;
b) creates connotations of irritation/surprise/irony etc.
4. Repetition of morphemes
a) is employed for emphasis;
b) serves the purpose of ...;
c) creates indirect onomatopoeia.
5. The forms ... are completely “ungrammatical” and thus show the low social status of the speaker.
6. Stylistically colored morphemes (such as...) are signals of ...
7. The substitution of ... by ... is stylistically relevant, because ...
8. The text (the personage’s discourse, the dialogue, etc.) abounds in contracted forms, which render colloquial (informal) character of communication.
Stylistic Lexicology
1. At the level of lexical description (lexical analysis) of interest stylistically is/are ...
2. The bookish/colloquial type of speech is marked by ...
3. The text is remarkable for the use of ... vocabulary...
4. The bookish/colloquial/slang word ... stands for the neutral ...
5. The use of specific vocabulary (archaisms, barbarisms, terms, dialectisms, etc.) serves to create a particular background (historical, local, professional etc.)
6. The use of ... serves for character drawing (indicates the social position, educational level; renders official/unofficial/familiar/humorous/sneering, etc. manner of speech.
7. ... are used in closed context a) to achieve comic/humorous effect;
b) to create connotations of irony/mockery etc.
8. The specific (poetic, colloquial, etc.) vocabulary gives/renders a particular (solemn, grave, passionate, pompous, unofficial, familiar, etc.) tone to the text.
Stylistic Semasiology
1. The hyperbole ... is intended for emphasis.
2. ... conveys the author’s subjective evaluation of ...
3. ... is introduce to describe (to characterize)...by deliberate underestimation of ...
4. ... carries a sarcastic overtone/ has a connotation of mockery/creates humorous connotations.
5. The text owes its vividness to the use of ...
6. ... gives a vivid colourful description of ...
7. The metaphor/metonymy/ irony ... replaces a traditional nomination on the basis of ...
8. ... presents an abstract notion as a concrete thing with vigor and vividness.
9. ... serves for an expressive characterization of ...
10. ... creates gradual intensification of meaning.
11. The stylistic effect of ... is based on defeated expectancy.
12. ... is used to bring forth a comic/humorous etc. effect.
13. ... is made up by deliberate combination of words incompatible in meaning.
14. The stylistic function of the oxymoron is to present ... in complexity of contrasting features.
15. The antithesis a) is made up of lexical/contextual antonyms
b) serves to show ...
c) is realized through the use of ...
Stylistic Syntax
1. ... creates a certain rhythmic effect/ serves for rythmic organization of the text/creates the inner rhythm of the author’s discourse/of the narration.
2. ... creates an atmosphere of tension/dynamic activities/ monotony etc.
3. ... serves as an appending stylistic device, increasing the stylistic effect of ...
4. ... conveys the emotional state of the character/ the fragmentary character of his thoughts/introduces the elements of suspence.
5. The text , which is a specimen of colloquial speech abounds in elliptical sentences, such as ...
6. ... is used to imply emotional tension to the text.
7. Implied question/request/negation etc. are disguised as ...
8. ... serves for emphatic negation/ assertion etc.
9. ... convey emphasis and expressiveness to the text/description/narration by their condensed and laconic form.
10. The stylistic effect is created by deliberate deviation from the generally accepted arrangement of sentence elements.
11. ... is detached from the head word and placed in a prominent position
12. 12 ... gives special prominence to ... /introduces some new information/a plane of secondary predication.
13. The sentences/clauses/phrases are built after (follow) the same syntactic pattern.
14. The stylistic effect of parallelism ... etc. is increased by anaphora/epiphora/ etc.
15. ... adds to the emphatic overtone of the text.
General Description of a Text
1. The text under analysis is an extract of imaginative prose.
2. It is a homogeneous whole: a) the author’s discourse
b) the personage’s discourse
c) the personage’s represented speech.
3. It is not a homogeneous whole:
a) the author’s discourse followed by ... (e.g. the personage’s discourse);
b) represented speech interspersed with ...
c) mostly the personage’s discourse with instances of ...
4. The text/the author’s discourse etc. represents bookish type of speech which is marked by the use of lengthy sentences of complicated structure/super-natural vocabulary etc.
5. The personage’s discourse ... is a specimen of colloquial type of speech. It is remarkable for/characterized by the use of elliptical/one-member/short two-member sentences, contracted forms, colloquial/vulgar, etc. words.
6. The text / the represented speech is of mixed character. It represents both bookish and colloquial type of speech, such as...
7. At the level of a) phonetic description...
b) lexicology ...
c) morphological analysis ...
d) stylistic semasiology ...
e) syntax ...
8. Conclusion.
Образцы анализа текста на английском языке
Stylistic Phonetics
Thquire!… Your thirvant! Thith ith a bad pieth of bithnith, thith ith…. (Ch. Dickens).
At the level of phonetic description, of interest is substitution of consonants, which is rendered in writing by intentional violation of spelling: the graphon “th” replaces the letter “s” in the personage’s discourse. This stylistic device serves for speech characterization, it shows the character’s lisp.
My daddy’s coming tomorrow on a nairplane.” (J. D Salinger).
To create an impression of the little girl’s speech, the author resorts to graphical stylistic means: the graphon “ on a nairplane” stands for “on an airplane” . The contracted form “daddy’s” is used to show the informal character of communication (reduction of vowels is typical of colloquial speech).
“His wife,” I said… W-I-F-E. Homebody. Helpmate. Didn’t he tell you? (Myrer)
Emphatic stress is rendered in writing by capitalized and hyphenated spelling of the word “wife”. The stylistic device of alliteration (repetition of the initial consonant) in short one-member sentences (“Homebody. Helpmate.”) strengthens the emphatic effect.
How sweet it were,…
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
To the music of mild-minded melancholy;
To muse and brood and live again in memory. (A. Tennyson)
The repetition of the sonorant “m” at the beginning of successive words aims at imparting a melodic effect and creating connotations of solemnity.
Whenever the moon and the stars are set,
Whenever the wind is high,
All night long in the dark and wet
A man goes riding by. (R. S. Stevenson)
In the analyzed passage, stylistically of interest is a case of indirect onomatopoeia: repeated “w” is used to reproduce the sound of wind. Unlike alliteration, indirect onomatopoeia demands some mention of what makes the sound (see the word “wind”).
Stylistic Morphology
“They’re certainly going to hold on to her,” Nicole assured him briskly. “She did shoot the man.” (S. Fitzgerald)
At the level of stylistic morphology, we observe transposition of the auxiliary verb “did”, which is used not in its primary function but for the purpose of emphasis.
“You’re the bestest good one - she said - the most bestest good one in the world” (H.E. Bates)
The emphatic effect of the above given utterance is achieved by intentional violation of English grammar rules (the rules of forming degrees of comparison). The nonce-words thus formed (“bestest”, “the most bestest”) create humorous connotations.
“What else do I remember? Let me see”.
There comes out of the cloud our house, our house - not new to me, but quite familiar, in its earliest remembrance. On the ground floor is Peggoty’s kitchen, opening into the back yard…. (Ch. Dickens)
The reproduces extract is the author’s narrative. Charles Dickens depicts past events as if they were in the present. This stylistic device (the use of present tense forms with reference to past actions) is called “historical present” (“praesens historicum” in Latin). It imparts vividness to narration.
“It don’t take no nerve to do somepin when there ain’t nothing else you can do…” (J. Steinbeck).
The stylistic purpose of the writer is to portray the character by showing peculiarities of his idiolect. Double negation (“don’t take no nerve”, etc.), misuse of person-and-number forms (“it don’t”), a popular speech form (“ain’t’), and the substandard pronunciation of the word “something”, rendered in writing by the graphon “somepin”, - all this shows the low educational and cultural level of the speaker
Stylistic Lexicology
“I’m terribly sorry I brought you along, Nickie”, said his father, his post-operative exhilaration gone. “It was an awful mess to put you through.” (E. Hemingway).
Father’s tenderness and care is stressed by the writer in the diminutive form of the boy’s name. “Nickie”, compared with ”Nick”, shows that besides the nominal meaning the derived word has aquired emotive meaning too. Also, the contracted form “I’m”, substandard intensifier “terribly”, and the word combination “an awful mess” participate the conveying the atmosphere of colloquial informality.
“The little boy, too, we observed, had a famous appetite, and consumed schinken, and braten, and kartoffeln, and cranberry jam… with a gallantry that did honour to his nation”. (W. Thackeray)
In the analysed extract, stylistically of interest is the use of barbarisms. The events take place in a small German town where a boy with a remarkable appetite is made the focus of attention. By introducing several German words into his narrative, the author gives an indirect description of the peculiarities of the German menu and the environment in general.
“Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast,
Her sire an earl; her dame of princes blood.” (A. Seton)
The solemn, high-flown connotations of the utterance are due to the use of lexical archaisms, such as “to foster” (“nourish”, “bring up”), “sire” (“father”), and “dame” (“mother”). The partial inversion at the beginning of the sentence and two metonymies (“breast” and “blood”) add to the stylistic effect.
“My dad had a small insurance agency in Neport. He had moved there because his sister had married old Newport money and was a big wheel in the Preservation Society. At fifteen I’m an orphan, and Vic moves in. “From now on you’ll do as I tell you,” he says. It impressed me. Vic had never really shown any muscle before”. (N. Travis)
The communicative situation is highly informal. The vocabulary includes not only standard colloquial words and expressions, such as “dad”, “to show muscles” (which is based on metonymy) and the intensifier “really”, but also the substandard metaphor “a big wheel”. The latter also indicates the lack of respect of the speaker towards his aunt, which is further sustained by his metonymical qualification of her husband (“old Newport money”).
Stylistic Semasiology
“Then they came in. Two of them, a man with long fair moustaches and a silent dark man… Definitely, the moustache and I had nothing in common”. (D. Lessing).
At the level of stylistic semasiology, of interest is a case of genuine metonymy. A feature of a man which catches the eye - his moustache - stands for the man himself. The metonymy here implicates that the speaker knows nothing of the man in question; obviously, it is the first time those two have met.
“At the top of the steps… amber light flooded out upon the darkness”. (S. Fitzgerald).
The metaphors “amber” and “flooded out” are used by the author to create a colourful picture of the night and the dark hall, part of which is illuminated by a ray of light coming from the room upstairs. The metaphoric epithet “amber” substitutes the non-figurative “yellow” (similarity of colour). The figurative verb “flood out” stands for the traditional “illuminate”; this transfer is based on the funcational similarity of water flooding the earth and a ray lighting dark space.
“Never mind”, said the stranger, cutting the address very short, “ said enough - no more; smart chap that cabman - handled his fives well; but if I’d been your friend in the green jemmy - damn me - punch his head-, God I would - pig’d whisper - pieman too, - no gammon.”
This coherent speech was interrupted by the entrance of the Rochester coachman, to announce that… (Ch. Dickens)
The word “coherent”, which describes Mr. Jingles speech, is inconsistent with the actual utterance and therefore becomes self-contradictory. Here, irony as a trope (the use of a word in the sense opposite to its primary dictionary meaning) contributes to the general ironic colouring of the author’s narration.
“In the parlors he was unctuously received by the pastor and a committee of three, wearing morning clothes and a manner of Christian intellectuality”. (S. Lewis).
In the passage under analysis the author brings into play effective zeugma (“wearing morning clothes and a manner of Christian intellectuality”) to convey the ironic attitude of the protagonist to the situation and the members of the religious committee. The affected insincere atmosphere of the reception is further sustained by the high-flown epithet “unctuously”, which adds to the stylistic effect.
“I’m eating my heat out.”
“It’s evidently a diet that agrees with you. You are growing fat on it.” (W.S. Maugham).
The semantic and stylistic effect of pun here is due to simultaneous realization in close context of the phraseological and non-phraseological meanings of the phrase “to eat one’s hear out”. The first speaker uses it figuratively, while the second one intentionally interprets it as a free word combination, thus creating ironic connotations.
Stylistic Syntax
“Into a singularly restricted and indifferent environment Ida Zobel was born”. (Th. Dreiser).
The narration begin with partial inversion, promoting the adverbial modifier of place into the most conspicuous position, thus adding relevance and importance to the indication of the place of action.
“It is not possible to describe coherently what happened next: but I, for one, am not ashamed to confess that, though the fair blue sky was above me, and the green spring woods beneath me, and the kindest friends around me, yet I became terribly frightened, more frightened that I ever wish to become again, frightened in a way I never have known either before or after”. (E.M. Foster).
The syntax of this sentence paragraph shows several groups of parallel constructions, combined epiphoric repetition (“above me”, “beneath me”, “around me”), polysyndeton (“and… and…”), and anaphora (“frightened… frightened…”). These stylistic devices used in convergence create a definitely perceived rythm, which helps to render the atmosphere of overwhelming inexplicable horror dominating the passage. The stylistic effect is reinforced by the masterful use of climax creating gradual intensification of meaning.
“What - a daughter of his grow up like this! Be permitted to join in this prancing route of perdition! Never!” (Th. Dreiser).
The represented inner speech of the character culminates in a number of exclamatory one-member sentences, which emphasize the speaker’s emotions. The sentences are placed in inverted commas, but we perceive that the author’s presentation of the man’s words does not occur simultaneously with their utterance, and the pronoun “his” used instead of “mine” indicates the fact.
“Being narrow, sober, workaday Germans, they were annoyed by the groups of restless, seeking, eager and, as Zobel saw it, rather scandalous men and women who paraded the neighborhood streets … without a single thought apparently other than pleasure. And these young scamps and their girl-friends who sped about in automobiles. The loose indifferent parents. What was to become of such a nation?”(Th. Dreiser).
The subjectivity of Zobel’s evaluation is stressed by two parentheses (“as Zobel saw it” and “apparently”). They lessen the finality and disapprobation of otherwise negative qualifications of the alien (American) world. The structurally incomplete (elliptical) sentences and the rhetorical question at the end of the passage indicate the shift of narration from the author’s discourse to the personage’s represented speech.
Stylistic Devices of Different Levels Used in Convergence
Her mother, a severe, prim German woman, died when she was only three, leaving her to the care of her father and his sister… (Th. Drieser)
In the analysed sentence, two nonfigurative epithets (“severe” and “prim”) appear in detached apposition. This provides them with additional emphasis, produced by independent stress and intonation.
“Although nearly perfect, Mr. Murchinson had one little eccentricity, which he kept extremely private. It was a mere nothing, a thought, a whim; it seems almost unfair to mention it. The fact is he felt that nothing in the world could be nicer than to set fire to a house and watch it blaze.
What is the harm in that? Who has not had a similar bright vision at some time or another. There is no doubt about it, it would be nice, very nice indeed, absolutely delightful. But most of us are well broken in and we dismiss the idea as impracticable. Mr. Murchinson found that it took root in his mind and blossomed there like a sultry flower”. (John Collier. “Incident on a Lake”).
The extract is on the whole highly ironical. Ridiculing the “little eccentricity” of Mr. Murchinson, the author brings into play a number of various stylistic devices: the detached ironical epithet “nearly perfect” is followed by effective climax combined with asyndeton (“a mere nothing, a though, a whim… unfair to mention”). The striking descrepancy between the monstrous idea and the way it is perceived by the character is realized through anti-climax (“… nothing in the world could be nicer than set fire to a house…”) and further reinforced by two rhetorical questions (“What is the harm…? Who has not had a similar vision…?”). To crown it all, we had another case of climax (“nice, very nice indeed, absolutely delightful”).
To stress the personage’s obsession, the author resorts to metaphor and simile, which are used in convergence: “… it took root in his mind and blossomed there like a sultry flower”.
Functional Analysis
“Ever do any writing?” he asked.
“Only letters,” answered Anna, startled from her marking. It was obvious that Mr. Forster was disposed to talk, and Anna put down her own marking pencil. “Why? Do you?” she asked.
Mr. Foster waved a pudgy hand deprecatingly at the exercise book before him.
“ Oh! I’m always at it. Had a go at a pretty well everything in the writing line.”
“Have you had anything published?” asked Anna with proper awe. She was glad to see that Mr. Foster looked gratified and guessed, rightly, that he had.
“One or two little things,” he admitted with a very fair show of insouciance.
“How lovely!” said Anna enthusiastically. (“Fresh from the Country”)
The passage represents an informal dialogue between a young school teacher and her colleague. The personage’s discourse is interspersed with instances of the author’s narration, which is marked by the use of bookish words (“deprecatingly”, “gratified”, “awe”, “insouciance”, etc.) and well-organized lengthy sentences, such as the following one, complicated by detachment: “She was glad to see that Mr. Foster looked gratified and guessed, rightly, that he had.” The dialogue, on the contrary, abounds in short, one-member and elliptical, sentences (“Ever do any writing?” “How lovely!”). The vocabulary, too, participates in conveying the atmosphere of colloquial informality. Alongside with standard colloquial “had a go”, it includes interjections (“Oh!”), contracted forms (“I’m”), the colloquial intensifier “pretty”, and a word of highly generalized meaning (“little things”).
A case of understatement (“One or two little things”) in the end of the passage is used to render the affected modesty of the speaker, which is becomes clear from the subsequent author’s remark.
A Sample of Complex Stylistic Analysis
J. Galsworthy. The Broken Boot(E.M. Zeltin et. Al. English Graduation Course, 1972, pp.88-89)
The actor, Gilbert Caister, who had been “out” for six months, emerged from his east-coast seaside lodging about noon in the day”, after the opening of “Shooting the Rapids”,[1] on tour, in which he was playing Dr Dominick in the last act. A salary of four pounds a week would not, he was conscious, remake his fortunes, but a certain jauntiness had returned to the gait and manner of one employed again at last.
Fixing his monocle, he stopped before a fishmonger’s and, with a faint smile on his face, regarded a lobster. Ages since he had eaten a lobster! One could long for a lobster without paying, but the pleasure was not solid enough to detain him. He moved upstreet and stopped again, before a tailor’s window. Together with the actual tweeds, in which he could so easily fancy himself refitted, he could see a reflection of himself, in the faded brown suit wangled out of the production of “Marmaduke Mandeville”[2] the year before the war. The sunlight in this damned town was very strong, very hard on seams and buttonholes, on knees and elbows![3] Yet he received the ghost of aesthetic pleasure from the reflected elegance of a man long fed only twice a day, of an eyeglass well rimmed out from a soft brown eye, of a velour hat salved from the production of “Educating Simon” in 1912; and in front of the window he removed that hat, far under it was his new phenomenon not yet quite evaluated, his meche blanch[4] Was it an asset or the beginning of the end? It reclined backwards 6n the right side, conspicuous in his dark hair, above that shadowy face always interesting to Gilbert Caister. They said it came from atrophy of the — something nerve, an effect of the war, or of undernourished tissue. Rather distinguished, perhaps, but— I
He walked on, and became conscious that he had passed a
he knew. Turning, he saw it also turn on a short and dapper figure
- a face rosy, bright, round, with an air of cherubic knowledge, as of a getter-up of amateur theatricals.
Bryce-Green, by George!
“Caister? It is! Haven’t seen you since you left the old camp. Remember what sport we had over ‘Gotta-Grampus’?[5] By Jove! I am glad to see you. Doing anything with yourself? Come and have lunch with me.”
Вryce-Green, the wealthy patron, the moving spirit of entertain-iment in that south-coast convalescent camp. And drawling slightly, Caister answered:
“I shall be delighted.” But within him something did not drawl: “By God you're going to have a feed, my boy!”
And elegantly threadbare, roundabout and dapper — the two walked side by side.
Text Interpretation
The passage under analysis is taken from John Galsworthy’s story “The Broken Boot”. It is about an actor whose name is Gilbert Caister. For six months he had been without a job and a proper meal. He ran into a man whom he had come to know in a convalescent camp, a man who thought a lot of him as an actor and was tremendously happy to see him again.
To convey Caister’s state of mind on the noon when he “emerged” from his lodgings, the author brings into play an abundance of expressive stylistic means and means of speech characterization.
Caister was humiliated by having been out of job, by having to wear old clothes and being hungry. He did not want to acknowledge his poverty and fought the humiliation by assuming an ironic attitude towards himself and things happening to him. The irony is conveyed by lexical means: the epithet “faint” and the bookish word “regard” (instead of “look at”). The stylistic effect is is increased by the verb “long for” used in the context inappropriate with its high-flown connotations. Cf. Fixing his monocle, he stopped before a fishmonger’s and with a faint smile on his face, regarded a lobster…. One could long for a lobster without paying….
The metaphoric epithet “ghost” and the euphemistic metonymy “elegance” add to the stylistic effect: Yet he received the Ghost of aesthetic pleasure from the reflected elegance of a man long fed only twice a day…. The epithet “the Ghost of …pleasure” forms a specific structure characterized by reversed syntactic-semantic connections (inverted epithet). “Elegance” replaces “gauntiness” because Caister doe not like to think of himself as “gaunt”.
Irony is accentuated by a mixture of styles (formal, intentionally well-bred vs highly colloquial) in the following: “I shall be delighted.” But within him something did not drawl: “By God, you are going to have a feed , my boy!”
To show Caister’s attitude to his own distress and worry over his worn-out clothes, the author makes use of numerous stylistic devices: mixture of styles (cf. the use of colloquial “fancy himself” and bookish “refitted” in close context); the vulger intensifier “damned”; the anaphoric repetition of “very” and “on”, combined with parallelism: The sunlight of this damned town was very strong, very hard on sems and button-holes, on knees and elbows! Together with the actual tweeds, in which he could so easily fancy himself refitted….”
The list of devices employed in the second paragraph is by no means exhaustive. Find and interpret the meaning and function of the following:
· of a man long fed… of an eyeglasses well rimmed… of a velour hat salved…;
· under it was his new phenomenon…;
· meche blanche;
· Was it an asset or the beginning of the end?
· that shadowy face;
· atrophy, nerve, tissue;
· …perhaps, but.
When Caister ran into Bryce-Green, it was the latter’s face that attracted his attention. This idea is emphasized by the use of metonymy: …he had passed a face he knew. A chain of post-positive attributes with the metaphoric epithet “cherubic” gives a vivid and colourful description of Bryce-Green’s appearance: Turning, he saw it also turn on a short and dapper figure - a face rosy, bright, round, with an air of cherubic knowledge, as of a getter-up of amature theatricals.”
This description sets Bryce-Green at once in an apposition to Caister, as a prosperous well-fed, well-clothed man to a poor and nearly starving one. This idea is reinforced by the use of antithesis: And - elegantly threadbare, roundabout and dapper - the two walked side by side. It is a complex stylistic device, in which the first opposed part is constituted by another figure of speech, an oxymoron (“elegantly threadbare”). The antithesis is made prominent by detachment, which is marked in writing by paired dashes.
To conclude, one may say that within a mere page of the story Galsworthy displays an abundance of though and feeling, proving himself once again a brilliant stylist. The extract is a wonderful example of the author’s consistency in the realization of his creative scheme - to achieve and sustain ironic effect.
Functional Analysis
The text begins with the author’s discourse which constitutes the first paragraph of the story. The second paragraph is the author’s discourse interspersed with instanced of Caister’s represented speech. At the end of the extract, there is a fragment of the conversation between Caister and Bryce-Green (the personages’ discourse).
The author’s discourse is marked by lengthy sentences of complex structure, such as the following: The actor, Gilbert Caister, who had been “out” for six months emerged from his east-coast seaside lodging about noon in the day, after the opening of the “Shooting the Rapids”, on tour, in which he was palying Dr. Dominic in the last act. The bookish type of speech is also signalled by general bookish words: emerge, remake, jauntiness, regarded, refitted, aesthetic, elegance, phenomenon, reclined, conspicuous.
The use of words pertaining to the theatrical world creates a professional background: opening, on tour, act, production, amateur, theatricals, etc. Titles of plays, such as “Educating Simon”, “Gotta-Campus”, etc., add to the stylistic effect.
Caister’s represented speech is a peculiar blend of bookish and colloquial elements. On the one hand, there are no contracted forms in it, some sentences are rather lengthy and there are instances of bookish words; on the other hand, it contains elliptical sentences (Ages since he had eaten a lobster! Rather distinguished, perhaps…) and the vulger intensifier damned.
Colloquial elements abound in the personages discourse - Caister and bryce-Green’s dialogue. Among them we find contracted forms (aren’t, haven’t); interjections (By George, Jove, By God); colloquial words (What sport we had…, here “sport” stands for the neutral “fun”; …you are going to have a feed, my boy! “feed” replaces “meals”); elliptical sentences (Haven’t seen you… Doing anything with yourself?). All these elements serve to render the unofficial character of communication.
Раздел VI. ТЕСТЫ ДЛЯ САМОКОНТРОЛЯ
Test I
1. Travel, like whipped cream, is broadening; but after repeated helpings it is also nauseating, and the traveller, like the glutton, returns with thankfulness to a sturdier diet. (E. Queen)
2. “H’lo, h’lo,” croaked Aaron Dow, sitting tensely on the edge of his miserable cot. (E. Queen)
3. Never since the death of Edward Riscoe had she felt so alienated from Stephen; never since then had she been so in need of him. (A.Christie)
4. She was free in her prison of passion. (O. Wilde)
5. He could possibly have made up Rosemary - he could never have made up her mother. (S.Fitzgerald)
6. “Fostered she was with milk of Irish breast, Her sire an earl; her dame of prince’s blood.” (A.Seton)
7. There had been a huge musical festival - a festival for all the Midlands, and there had been a good few people from London too. (J. Tey)
8. “There are a few things so pleasant as a picnic lunch eaten in perfect comfort,” Elliot added sententiously. “The old Dutchess d’Uzes used to tell me that the most stubborn male becomes amendable to suggestion in these conditions. What will you give them for luncheon? “Stuffed eggs and a chicken sandwich.” “Nonsense. You can’t have a picnic without pate de foie gras.” (S. Maugham)
9. The two women hated one another. Ellie despised Frau Becker because she was a foundling and had been a servant, and bitterly resented her for being the mistress of the house and in a position to give orders. (S. Maugham)
10. Like all people who try to exhaust the subject, he exhausted his listeners. (O.Wilde)
Test II
1. “I wouldn’t listen to no such reports, miss Lizzie,” said the waiter smoothly from the narrow opening above his chin. (O'Henry)
2. “O Lord, how mysterious are thy ways! Thou hast chosen to train our, young brother not so much in prayer as in the struggles of the Olympic field..." (Elmer Gentry)
3. My little party did not go too badly. (S. Maugham)
4. “Where are you lunching Harry?” “At Aunt Agatha’s. I have asked myself and Mr. Gray. He is her latest protege.” (O. Wilde)
5. Only in one respect did Florence Enderby fail. (Reed)
6. ...for the first time in his life he heard silence - a loud, singing silence, oppressive as heavy guns or thunder. (S.Fitzgerald)
7. “Don’t you love him very much?” I asked at last. “I don’t know. I’m impatient with him. I’m exasperated with him. I keep longing for him.” (S. Maugham)
8. “Oh, you are much nicer than the rest of your horrid, rude, vulgar, dishonest family.” (O.Wilde)
9. He's nothing but a dirty little snob, and if there’s one thing in the world I detest and despise, it’s snobishness.” (S.Maugham)
10. The two cities were separated only by a thin well-bridged river; their tails curling over the banks met and mingled, and at the juncture, under the jealous eye of each, lay every fall the State Fair. (O.Fitzgerald)
Test III
1. Clop-clop-clop! Up the street came the Barton Leigh delivery wagon. Clop-clop! A man jumped out, dumped an iron anchor to the pavement, hurried along the street, turned away, turned back again, came toward them with a long square box in his hand. (O.Fitzgerald)
2. I couldn’t have missed that face of his, the old experienced weasel. (S.Fitzgerald)
3. He showed me photographs of Isabel, hefty but handsome in her wedding dress. (S. Maugham)
4. “What’s de big idea?” squealed Dow, shrinking back on his cot. “Trying to-to-“. (E. Queen)
5. “Some day, when you are old and wrinkled and ugly, when thought has seared your forehead with its lines, and passion branded your lips with its hideous fires, you will feel it, you will feel it terribly...” (O. Wilde)
6. Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. (O. Wilde)
7. Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them. (O. Wilde)
8. His whims are laws to everybody, except himself. (O.Wilde)
9. “What fun! If mother ever saw anybody like that come in the house, she'd just lie down and die.” (H. Melville)
10. “Don’t think of it Vandy,” he replied. “We are short and Art is long.” (O’Henry)
Test IV
1. Her eyes were like diamonds, keen and brilliant. Her voice, when she spoke, was very deep and soft, with a remote hoarseness that was not unpleasant. (E.Queen)
2. I knew after one look at his honest, stubborn face, that he would be hard to convince. My theory was made out of the whole cloth of logic; and this man would never drape himself in anything but the armor of evidence. (E.Queen)
3. “You’ve heard o’me, then?” went on father. “Well...” Dow struggled between the instinct to keep silent and the desire to talk. "I met a guy in stir was doin’ a rap for larc’ny. Said you - you kept him off the hot seat.” “In Algonquin?” “Year... Yes, sir.” (E.Queen)
4. “There is no such thing as good influence, Mr.Gray. All influence is immoral - immoral from the scientific point of view.” (O.Wilde)
5. Father looked at me, and I looked at him, and then we both bent over to read the message. (E.Queen)
6. Jeremy was mooning at my feet. I remember that he had hold of my ankle as we sat on the porch and was rhapsodizing about its slenderness in a very inane way… (E.Queen)
7. “You remind me of Samuel Johnson's definition of poetry. He said that the essence of poetry is invention - such invention, a prodigious poem, are you, Patience.” (E.Queen)
8. ...her income had increased so fast of late that it seemed to belittle his work. (S.Fitzgerald)
9. Dusk or daylight or unrelieved midnight, Dominic would have known her. (E.Peters)
10. Miss Medora resembled the rose which the autumnal frosts had spared the longest of all her sister blossoms. (O’Henry)
Test V
1. “Inspector, s’elp me!" The words tumbled out. "I been in the pen around dozen. It ain’t like a guy gets an ace. Twelve years is a hell of a long time. So I wants to wet my whistle. Ain’t had nothing but pertater water for so long I don't know what th’ real stuff tastes like.” Father explained to me later, that an ‘ace’ was prison jargon for a one-year sentence; and as for ‘potato water’, Warden Magnus told me subsequently that it was a vicious fermented brew home-made in secret by thirsty inmates out of potato peelings and other vegetable rinds. (E.Queen)
2. Mark Currier was a very fat, a very bald and a very astute gentleman of middle age. (E.Queen)
3. She hated the beach, resented the places where she had played planet to Dick's sun. (S.Fitzgerald)
4. She remembered a string of factories which she had passed on her way. The school was not unlike them at first sight, massive, immaculate, teeming with life, and yet impersonal. (Reed)
5. Scarlet woman! Thy sins be upon thy head! No longer are you going to get away with leading poor unfortunate young men into the sink and cesspool of iniquity. (Elmer Gentry)
6. He is some brainless beautiful creature, who should be always here in winter, when we have no flowers to look at, and always here in summer, when we want something to chill our intelligence. (O.Wilde)
7. Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one. (O.Wilde)
8. “I’ll tell you,” he said softly, “if you'll just tell me you’re glad to be here.” “Glad - just awful glad!” she whispered. (O.Fitzgerald)
9. Vice and virtue are to the artist materials for an art. (O.Wilde)
10. “How absurd! How could a man of my position be fair-minded toward you? You might as well speak of a Spaniard being fair-minded toward a piece of steak.” At this harsh observation the faces of the two dozen steaks fell, but the tall man continued... (O.Fitzgerald)
Test VI
1. Then the silence was broken by a voice in front of Rosemary. (S.Fitzgerald)
2. “Will you allow me to give you a piece of advice, Larry? It’s not anything I give often.” “It’s not anything I often take,” he answered with a grin. (S. Maugham)
3. Anna did not like to risk a rebuff by asking after Maurice, though she would dearly have loved to know if that amiable parasite was still with the same host. (Miss Reed)
4. It was between seven and eight o’clock on a March evening, and all over London the bars were being drawn from pit and gallery door. Bang, thud and clunk. Grim sounds to preface an evening’s amusement. (J.Tey)
5. “I want you to be very nice to her, Isabel.” “That’s asking for much. You’e crazy. She’s bad, bad, bad…” (S.Maugham)
6. “Poor Sybil! What a romance it had all been! She had often mimicked death on the stage. Then Death himself had touched her and taken her with him.” (O.Wilde)
7. There had been a huge musical festival - a festival for all the Midlands; and there had been a good few people from London too. (J.Tey)
8. Jane’s eyes and Michaels were round as saucers with surprise. “What was he saying?” they demanded breathlessly, both together. (P.Travers)
9. The man of the photograph was the man who had lived with Sorrel, was the man who had fled at sight of him in the Strand, was the man who had had all Sorrel’s money, and was almost certainly the man of the queue. (J.Tey)
10. “It’s my Day, Bert,” she said. “Didn’t you remember?” Bert was the Match-Man’s name - Herbert Alfred for Sundays. “Of course I remembered, Mary,” he said, but...” and he stopped and looked sadly into his cap. It lay on the ground beside his last picture and there was tuppence in it. (P.Travers)
Test VII
1. For the last few minutes he had been technically awake, but his brain, wrapped in the woolliness of sleep and conscious of the ungrateful chilliness of the morning, had denied him thought. (J.Tey)
2. Wilson shook his head decidedly. “We went to our limit, and he was still as fresh as a daisy. Maybe he does love his money, but he loves his own way even more.” (E.Peters)
3. A shutter opened suddenly in a room two stories above and an English voice spat distinctly, “Will you kaindlay stup tucking!” (S.Fitzgerald)
4. “He’s out most evenings.” “At the Youth Club?” asked Anna. “Not likely! I think he has found a sympathetic female ear somewhere and enjoys pouring out his troubles.” (Miss Reed)
5. You see, money to you means freedom, to me it means bondage. (S.Maugham)
6. Grant, who was dying to have a statement in black and white, explained that the man himself was anxious to give one and that giving it would surely harm him less than having it simmering his brain. (J.Tey)
7. “This kind of battle was invented by Lewis Carrol and Jules Verne and whoever wrote Undine... Why, this was a love battle, there was a century of middle-class love spent here. This was a love battle.” (S. Fitzgerald)
8. The evening darkened in the room. Noiselessly and with silver feet, the shadows crept in from the garden. (O.Wilde)
9. “You’ve got a Titian, haven’t you?” “We had. It’s in America now.” (S.Maugham)
10. He saw Nicole in the garden. Presently he must encounter her and the prospect gave him a leaden feeling. Before her he must keep up a perfect front, now and tomorrow, next week and next year. (S.Fitzgerald)
Test VIII
1. There he sat, a vast, crumpled, mountain of a man, spattered with cigarette ash, too lazy even to think straightforwardly. (Miss Reed)
2. Unlike American trains that were absorbed in the intense destiny of their own and scornful of people, this train was part of the country through which it passed. Its breath stirred the dust from the palm leaves, the cinders mingled with the dry dung in the gardens. (S.Fitzgerald)
3. His dream had begun in sombre majesty: navy blue uniforms crossed a dark plaza behind bands playing the second movement of Prokofieff's “Love of Three Oranges”. (S.Fitzgerald)
4. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield it. (O.Wilde)
5. Courage has gone out of our race. Perhaps we never really had it. The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion - these are the two things that govern us. And yet … (O.Wilde)
6. ...when they hear the story as put forward by Mrs Wallis' counsel - one of the most famous criminal defenders of the day - they'll weep bucketfuls and refuse to convict her. (J.Tey)
7. “That’s ‘ow she got ’er name - Ray Marcable. All the time she was dancing and singing and what not for him ‘e kept saying “Re-markable!” and so Rosie took that for ‘er name.” (J.Tey)
8. Then we left our napkins and empty glasses and a little of the past on the table, and hand in hand went into the moonlight. (S.Fitzgerald)
9. Every once in a while one of these contemporaries made a farewell round of calls before going up to New York or Philadelphia or Pittsburgh to go into business, but mostly they just stayed round in this languid paradise of dreamy skies and fierily evenings and noisy niggery street fairs - and especially of gracious soft-voiced girls who were brought up on memories instead of money.(S. Fitzgerald)
10. “I’m sorry dear,” said Harry malignantly apologetic, “but you know what I think of them.” (S.Fitzgerald)
Test IX
1. But Lady Brandon treats her guests exactly as an auctioneer treats his goods. (O.Wilde)
2. Andrew realized that he did not detest Denny as much as he had thought. (A. Cronin)
3. But a careful scrutiny revealed nothing; nothing but curiosity was apparent on any countenance of the audience. (J.Tey)
4. “No one’s said a thing,” objected Anna. “Surely, Miss Hobbs would know?” “Miss Hobbs’ lips are sealed untill she receives orders from Miss Enderby to unseal them,” Joan told her. (Reed)
5. Troubled and disappointed, he began to put the things back as he had found them. (J. Tey)
6. ...Not a tall man, hardly medium hight, but built like a bull, shoulder heavy, neckless, with a large head perpetually lowered for the charge. He ran head down at business, at life, at his enthusiasms, at his rivalries, at everyone who got in his way and everything that aquired a temporary or permanent significance for his pocket or his self-esteem. (E.Peters)
7. “Sit down, you dancing, prancing, shambling, scumbling fool parrot! Sit down!” (Ch.Dickens)
8. “What have you got tonight?” “It’s veal porkolt. Veal cubes, lotta onion, paprika, and tomato paste. You’ll love it. You’ll go nuts. It’s the best kinda stew I make. Henry’s rolls and everything, and on the plate I’m gonna put some soft cheese and a coupla gherkins.” (S. Gratton)
9. “They’re certainly going to hold on to her,” Nicole assured him briskly. “She did shoot the man.” (S. Fitzgerald)
10. There was a series of frightful explosions; then with a measured tup-tup-tup from the open cut-out, insolent, percussive and thrilling as a drum, the car and the girl and the young man whom they had recognized as Speed Paxton slid smoothly away. (S. Fitzgerald)
Test X
(All passages for analysis are taken from “Mary Poppins” by P Travers)
1. If you want to find Cherry-Tree Lane all you have to do is ask the Policeman at the cross-roads... And if you follow his directions exactly, you will be there - right in the middle of Cherry-Tree Lane, where the houses run down one side and the Park runs down the other and the cherry-trees go dancing right down the middle.
2. I should get somebody to put in the Morning Paper the news that Jane and Michael and John and Barbara Banks (to say nothing of their Mother) require the best possible Nannie at the lowest possible wage and at once.
3. Michael could not restrain himself. “What a funny bag!” he said, pinching it with his fingers. “Carpet,” said Mary Poppins, putting her key in the lock. “To carry carpets in, you mean?” No. Made of.” “Oh,” said Michael. “I see.” But he didn’t quite.
4. Mr. Wigg smiled contentedly. “It is usual, I think, to begin with bread-and-butter,” he said to Jane and Michael, “but as it’s my birthday we will begin the wrong way - which I always think is the right way - with the Cake!”
5. “The day out every third Thursday,” said Mrs Banks. “Two till five.” Mary Poppins eyed her sternly. “The best people, ma’am,” she said, “give every second Thursday, and one till six. And those I shall take or...” Mary Poppins paused, and Mrs. Banks knew what the pause meant.
6. “I can see you’re rather surprised,” said Mr Wigg. And, indeed, their mouths were so wide open with astonishment that Mr. Wigg, if he had been a little smaller, might almost have fallen into one of them.
7. ...that was how the Banks family came to live at Number Seventeen, with Mrs. Brill to cook for them, and Ellen to lay the tables, and Robertson Ay to cut the lawn and clean the knives and polish the shoes and, as Mr Banks always said, “to waste his time and my money.”
8. The Red Cow – that’s the name she went by... And very important and prosperous she was, too (so my Mother said). She lived in the best field in the whole district - a large one full of buttercups the size of saucers and dandelions standing up in it like soldiers. Every time she ate the head off one soldier, another grew up in its place, with a green military coat and a yellow busby.
9. But Mary Poppins’s eyes were fixed upon him and Michael suddenly discovered that you could not look at Marry Poppins and disobey her. There was something strange and extraordinary about her - something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting.
10. Mr. Wigg sighed, too. A great, long, heavy sigh. “Well, isn’t that a pity?” he said soberly. “It’s very sad that you’ve got to go home. I never enjoyed an afternoon so much - did you?” Never,” said Michael... “Never, never,” said Jane, as she stood on the tip-toe and kissed Mr Wiggs withered-apple cheeks. “Never, never, never, never...!”
КЛЮЧИ К ТЕСТАМ ДЛЯ САМОКОНТРОЛЯ
Тест 1.
1. Сравнение, параллелизм, обособление.
2. Фонетическое варьирование, обособление.
3. Антитеза, параллелизм, анафора.
4. Оксюморон, метафора, аллитерация.
5. Антитеза, параллелизм.
6. Архаизмы, книжная лексика, метонимия, инверсия.
7. Подхват.
8. Варваризмы, книжная лексика.
9. Синонимы-заменители.
10. Каламбур, обособление.
Тест 2.
1. Двойное отрицание, метонимия.
2. Архаизмы, книжная лексика.
3. Литота.
4. Варваризмы, эллиптические предложения.
5. Инверсия, транспозиция вспомогательного глагола do.
6. Оксюморон, обособление.
7. Анафора, эпифора, разрядка.
8. Нарастание (или синонимы уточнители), асиндетон.
9. Синонимы-уточнители.
10. Олицетворение (развернутое).
Тест 3.
1. Ономатопея, асиндетон.
2. Метафора, обособление.
3. Аллитерации, эпитеты, обособление.
4. Фонетическое варьирование.
5. Метафора, нарастание.
6. Хиазм, метафора.
7. Односоставные предложения, эмфатическая инверсия, синонимы-уточнители, метафора.
8. Разрядка.
9. Гипербола.
10. Антитеза.
Тест 4.
1. Сравнение, литота, обособление.
2. Развернутая метафора.
3. Фонетическое варьирование, жаргонизмы.
4. Подхват.
5. Хиазм.
6. Метафора.
7. Сравнение, подхват.
8. Антитеза.
9. Полисиндетон, инверсия, аллитерация.
10. Сравнение.
Тест 5.
1. Фонетическое варьирование, жаргонизмы.
2. Параллелизм, анафора.
3. Развернутая метафора, синонимы-заменители.
4. Литота, обособление.
5. Книжная лексика, архаизмы.
6. Аллитерация, метафора.
7. Литола, антитеза.
8. Нарастание, эллипс.
9. Антитеза, аллитерация.
10. Метонимия.
Тест 6.
1. Метонимия.
2. Каламбур, антитеза.
3. Оксюморон.
4. Номинативные предложения, ономатопея, асиндетон.
5. Нарастание.
6. Олицетворение, эмфатическая инверсия.
7. Подхват.
8. Гипербола, сравнение.
9. Подхват.
10. Апосиопеза.
Тест 7.
1. Метафора.
2. Сравнение.
3. Метафора, фонетическое варьирование.
4. Метонимия, стертая метафора, эллипс.
5. Антитеза.
6. Метафорическая гипербола.
7. Обрамление, метафора.
8. Олицетворение, инверсия с обособлением.
9. Метонимическая антономасия.
10. Метафорический эпитет, нарастание.
Тест 8.
1. Метафора, инвертированный эпитет, гипербола.
2. Олицетворение.
3. Метонимия.
4. Разрядка.
5. Апосиопеза, параллелизм, анафора.
6. Гипербола.
7. Просодические средства и фонетическое варьирование.
8. Зевгма, полисиндетон.
9. Метафора, метонимический эпитет.
10. Оксюморон.
Тест 9.
1. Сравнение, параллелизм.
2. Литота.
3. Подхват.
4. Метафора.
5. Обособление, синонимы-уточнители.
6. Метафора.
7. Асиндетон, обрамление, постор морфем с целью эмфазы.
8. Односоставные предложения, фонетическое варьирование.
9. Транспозиция вспомогательного глагола do.
10. Сравнение, ономатопея.
Тест 10.
1. Каламбур, метафора.
2. Парентеза, антитеза.
3. Номинативные и эллиптические предложения, метонимия.
4. Обратная антономасия, антитеза.
5. Апосиопеза.
6. Мейозис, гипербола.
7. Параллелизм, зевгма.
8. Инверсия, синонимы-уточнители, сравнение, метафора.
9. Синонимы-уточнители, антитеза.
10. Номинативные предложения, метафорический эпитет, нарастание.
Раздел VII. ОТРЫВКИ ДЛЯ
САМОСТОЯТЕЛЬНОГО АНАЛИЗА
#1
And morning brought him nothing but exhilaration. As he opened his eyes on the daylight, through the open chink at the top of his window he could see the brown moors sliding slowly past, and the chug-chug of the hitherto racing train told of its conquest of the Grampians. A clear, cold air that sparkled, greeted him as he dressed, and over breakfast he watched the brown barrenness with its background of vivid sky and dazzling snow change to pine forest - flat black slabs stuck mathematically on the hillsides like patches of woolwork - and then to birches; birches that stepped down the mountain-sides as escort for some stream, or birches that trailed their light draperies of an unbelievable new green in little woods carpeted with fine turf. And so ith a rush, as the train took heart on the down grade, to fields again - wide fields in broad straths and little stony fields tacked to hillsides - and lochs, and rivers, and a green country side. (J.Tey)
#2
“Well, she’s a lucky devil, Mary Raymond, and if she doesn’t like it, she has very poor taste.” Oh, if she doesn't like it,” said Grant, "she can just fib and say she does, and we'll never be a bit the wiser. All women are expert fibbers.” “Ark at ‘im!” said Miss Lethbridge. “Poor disillusioned creature!” “Well, isn’t it true? Your social life is one long series of fibs. You are very sorry - You are not at home - You would have come, but - You wish someone would stay longer. If you aren’t fibbing to your friends, you are fibbing to your maids.” “I may fib to my friends,” said Mrs. Redcliffe, “but I most certainly do not fib to my maids!” “Don’t you?” said Grant, turning idly to look at her. (J. Tey)
#3
It was between seven and eight o'clock on a March evening, and all over London the bars were being drawn from pit and gallery doors. Bang, thud and clank. Grim sound to preface an evening’s amusement. But no last trump could have so galvanized the weary attendants of Thespis and Terpsichore standing in patient column of four before the gates of promise. Here and there, of course, there was no column. At the Irving, five people spread themselves over the two steps and sacrificed in warmth what they gained in comfort; Greek tragedy was not popular. At the Playbox there was noone; the Playbox was exclusive and ignored the existence of pits. At the Arena, which had a three weeks ballet season, there were ten persons for the gallery and a long queue for the pit. But at the Woffington both human strings tailed away apparently into infinity. Long ago a lordly official had come down the pit queue and with a gesture of his outstreched arm that seemed to guillotine hope, had said, “All after here standing room only.” Having thus, with a mere contraction of his deltoid muscle, separated the sheep from the goats, he retired in Olympian state to the front of the theatre, where beyond the glass doors there was warmth and shelter. But none moved away from the long queue. (J. Tey)
#4
Every soul in London, it seemed, was trying to crowd into the Woffington to cheer the show just once again. To see if Golly Golan had put a new gag into his triumph of foolery - Gollan, who had been rescued from a life on the road by a daring manager, and had been given his chance, and had taken it. To sun themselves yet once more in the loveliness and sparkle of Ray Markable, that comet, that two years ago had blazed out of the void into the zenith and had dimmed the known and constant stars. Ray danced like a blown leaf, and her little aloof smile had killed the fashion for dentifrice advertisements in six months. “Her indefinable charm,” her critics called it, but her followers called it many extravagant things, and defined it to each other with hand-waving and facial contortions when words proved inadequate to convey the whole of her fiery quality. Now she was going to America, like all the good things, and after the last two years London without Ray Markable would be an unthinkable desert. Who would not stand for ever just to see her once more? (J. Tey)
#5
“Chap fainted,” said someone. No one moved for a moment or two. Minding one’s own business in crowd today is as much an instinct of self-preservation as a chameleon’s versatility. Perhaps someone would claim the chap. But noone did; and so a man with more social instinct or more self-importance than the rest moved forward to help the collapsed one. He was about to bend over the limp heap when he stopped as if stung and recoiled hastily. A woman shrieked three times, horribly; and the pushing, heaving queue froze suddenly to immobility. In the white clear light of he naked electric in the roof, the man’s body, left alone by the instinctive withdrawal of the others, lay revealed in every detail. And rising slantwise from the grey tweed of his coat was a little silver thing that winked wickedly in the baleful light. It was the handle of a dagger. (J.Tey)
#6
“And about the person who stabbed him. Anything peculiar about the stabbing?”
“No, except that the man was strong and left-handed.”
“Not a woman?”
“No, it would need more strength than a woman has to drive the blade in as it has been driven. You see, there was no room for a back-sweep of the arm. The blow had to be delivered from a position of rest. Oh no, it was a man’s work. And a determined man’s, too.”
“Can you tell me anything about the dead man himself?” asked Grant, who liked to hear a scientific opinion on any subject.
“Not much. Well nourished - prosperous, I should say.”
“Intelligent?”
“Yes, very, I should think.”
“What type?”
“What type of occupation, do you mean?”
“No, I can deduce that for myself. What type of - temperament, I suppose you’d call it?’
“Oh, I see.” (J. Tey)
#7
Although nearly perfect, Mr.Murchison had one little eccentricity, which he kept extremely rivate. It was a mere nothing, a thought, a whim; it seems almost unfair to mention it. The fact is he felt that nothing in the world could be nicer, than to set fire to a house and watch it blaze. What is the harm in that? Who has not had a similar bright vision at some time or other? There is no doubt about it, it would be nice, very nice indeed, absolutely delightful. But most of us are well broken in and we dismiss the idea as impracticable. Mr. Murchison found that it took root in his mind and blossomed there like a sultry flower. (J. Coolier)
#8
“Ever do any writing?” he asked.
“Only letters,” answered Anna, startled from her marking. It was obvious that Mr.Foster was disposed to talk, and Anna put down her own marking pencil. “Why? Do you?” she asked. Mr. Foster waved a pudgy hand deprecatingly at the exercise-book before him.
‘"Oh! I'm always at it.