среда, 26 ноября 2014 г.
I like this novel very much. It is rich in different EM and SD, which help to cover the main idea. I consider “A Shameful Affair” to be one of those novels or short stories which are worth reading. Though it ends in strange way, the author persuades the reader to invent the continuation, the plot is absolutely understandable. As for its instructiveness I can say that this novel necessary for young generation.
As for the stylistic syntax
there are numerous cases of the usage of syntactic constructions which posses
stylistic properties:
Emphatic constructions:
“She, Mildred Orme, who
ought really…”
“Snubbed by a farmhand! a
tramp, perhaps.”
“…clever young women of
twenty, who are handsome”.
Detachment:
He vas a goot boy vat you can trust, dat Hans."
Rhetoric
constructions:
“Are there only
sight and sound to tell such things?”
“Publish her own confusion? No!”
“What could she
do? Turn and run, as a little child might? Spring into the wheat, as some
frightened four-footed creature would?”
Polysyndeton:
His shoulders were broad and square and his limbs
strong and clean.
Asyndeton:
It was summer time; she was idle; she was piqued, and
that was the beginning of the shameful affair.
Repetition:
"If you have a father, or brother, or any one, in
short, to whom you may say such things "
“Then, why ever it happened, or however it happened.”
Parallel constructions:
“He was young, and brown, of course, as the sun had
made him. He had nice blue eyes. His fair hair was dishevelled. His shoulders
were broad and square and his limbs strong and clean.”
“Last year he chose to drive an engine back and forth
across the plains. This year he tills the soil with laborers.”
“The house itself was big and broad, as country houses
should be. The master was big and broad, too.”
Anticlimax:
“…his arms were
holding Mildred and he kissed her lips… it was ten times or only once… him
disappear with rapid strides….”
Speaking about expressive
means and stylistic devices it is necessary to underline their splendid usage.
They help to present the characters, to create the general atmosphere of the
novel. Here you are to observe the cases of epithets:
Mildred
- “kindly dignity”;
- “wavy bronzebrown bang”;
- “her face milk-white”;
- “the clumsy farmhands”;
- “the rough attire”;
- “unmannerly farmhand”;
- “disagreeable-looking man”
- “the undulating wheat”
- “a reflected golden light”;
- “the bending wheat”;
- “the gentle breeze”
Hyperbole - “he has a heart of gold, if he is the first crank in America." (characterization of Fred); “I am the most consummate hound that walks the earth."
Simile:
· “The house itself was big and broad, as country houses should be.”
· “This was no such farm as one reads about in humorous fiction.”
· “…..undulating wheat gleamed in the sun like a golden sea….”
· “She remained like one who has drunk much wine".
Metaphor - it is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics. The novel presents numerous examples of the usage of the metaphor:
The nature
- “the trill that it answered to the gentle breeze”;
- “to seek in this retired spot the repose”
- “he has a heart of gold”;
- “Then a sudden, quick wave came beating into his brown throat and staining it crimson”;
- “the sun had made him …brown”.
Mildred
Litotes:
|
The
peculiarities of characters’ speech can present the personages in more vivid
way. Mildred’s speech is full of complicate syntactic constructions ("It
won't disturb you if I stand here a moment, to see what success you will
have?", "But, Mrs. Kraummer, I don't want you to think I'm a baby, as
you say a coward, as you mean. Ask the man if he will drive me to church
tomorrow. You see, I'm not so very much afraid of him…"); there are
colloquial words (“paper”, “remember”, “promise”) but still we can observe
words which are not so often used in every-day communication
(“disagreeable-looking”, “coward” etc.). Concerning Mrs Kraummer, she is prbaly
from Germany (“"Aber,"
offered good Mrs. Kraummer, "Hans Platzfeldt will drive you to church, oder verever you vants. He vas a goot boy vat you can trust, dat Hans."). The
young fellow Fred speaks in ordinary manner, he is a worker and perhaps not so
educated as Mildred, but still he is very polite ("No, madam.").
The next character is a farmhand, young fellow Fred. He is handsome (“He was young, and brown, of course, as the sun had made him. He had nice blue eyes. His fair hair was disheveled. His shoulders were broad and square and his limbs strong and clean. A not unpicturesque figure in the rough attire that bared his throat to view and gave perfect freedom to his every motion”). He is in some way curious (only he picked up the letter). He is kind (“he has a heart of gold, if he is the first crank in America”), bu he is not so clever for Mildred (“He doesn't read 'in books' says they are spectacles for the shortsighted to look at life through”). He is still looking for himself (“Last year he chose to drive an engine back and forth across the plains. This year he tills the soil with laborers. Next year it will be something else as insane because he likes to live more lives than one kind, and other Quixotic reasons”). We see that firstly he doesn’t pay any attention to Mildred, but then he kisses her and leaves her. All in all they meet again and ask the girl if she forgets him and forgive him. But Mildred is so odd that she breaks off ties between them and runs. He is absolutely confused.
We also here Mrs Kraummer, mistress of the house. She is kind to Mildred. Judging by her surname and the way she speaks I can guess that she is a German.
Mildred is the main character of the story. She is young, cute and smart: “clever young women of twenty”.She is a socially conventional and sexually repressed young woman who has come to the Kraummer farm to escape the sexual demands that were made on her in civilized, urban society. Despite of the fact that she is intelligent her attitude toward farmhands is arrogant: ” Farmhands are not so very nice to look at, and she was nothing of an anthropologist.”. She likes one farmhand and tried to hide it firstly: ” But once when the half dozen men came along, a paper which she had laid carelessly upon the railing was blown across their path. One of them picked it up, and when he had mounted the steps restored it to her. He was young, and brown, of course, as the sun had made him. He had nice blue eyes. His fair hair was dishevelled. His shoulders were broad and square and his limbs strong and clean. A not unpicturesque figure in the rough attire that bared his throat to view and gave perfect freedom to his every motion”. But then she decides not to restrain her fillings and makes their meeting “occasional”: “All the other farmhands had gone forth in Sunday attire. Perhaps this one had none better than these working clothes that he wore. A feminine commiseration swept her at the thought. He spoke never a word. She wondered how many hours he could sit there, so patiently waiting for fish to come to his hook. For her part, the situation began to pall, and she wanted to change it at last.”. So here we can observe direct characterization (“She could have cried for vexation. Snubbed by a farmhand! a tramp, perhaps. She, Mildred Orme, who ought really to have been with the rest of the family at Narragansett who had come to seek in this retired spot the repose that would enable her to follow exalted lines of thought. She marveled at the problematic nature of farmhands.”) and indirect (“Yet when the clumsy farmhands all came tramping up the steps and crossed the porch in going to their meal that was served within, she never looked at them. Why should she? Farmhands are not so very nice to look at, and she was nothing of an anthropologist.”).
In terms of the plot of the novel it is obvious that the story consists of three parts, each of them presents the logic changing of the events and the intensification of them. I would like to introduce the features of the plot in such a way.
The 1st part of the novel is more likely the exposition and complication where we can see:
· The description of the nature, the farm and its masters (“The house itself was big and broad, as country houses should be. The master was big and broad, too. The mistress was small and thin, and it was always she who went out at noon to pull the great clanging bell that called the farmhands in to dinner.”)
· The girl, hiding from the urban society (“To be sure, clever young women of twenty, who are handsome, besides, who have refused their half dozen offers and are settling down to the conviction that life is a tedious affair, are not going to care a straw whether farmhands look at them or not….”)
· The relationship between Mildred and Mrs Kraummer (to prove it – it is their conversation)
· The moment when Mildred notices the young fellow (“But once when the half dozen men came along, a paper which she had laid carelessly upon the railing was blown across their path. One of them picked it up, and when he had mounted the steps restored it to her. He was young, and brown, of course, as the sun had made him.”)
The last point becomes turning and leads us to the 2nd part of the novel, which, as for me, is the climax of the story:
· Mildred goes for a walk deliberately – to meet the young fellow (“In the woods it was sweet and solemn and cool. And there beside the river was the wretch who had annoyed her, first, with his indifference, then with the sudden boldness of his glance.”)
· They meet when the man is fishing (“"Are you fishing?" she asked politely and with kindly dignity, which she supposed would define her position toward him. The inquiry lacked not pertinence, seeing that he sat motionless, with a pole in his hand and his eyes fixed on a cork that bobbed aimlessly on the water……."Yes, madam," was his brief reply.”)
· They kiss and he leaves her (“Then, why ever it happened, or how ever it happened, his arms were holding Mildred and he kissed her lips. She did not know if it was ten times or only once.”)
Then we come to the 3d part of the story – reversal and resolution:
· Mildred is confused, can’t calm down (“And because she feared not to forget it, Mildred wept that night. All day long a hideous truth had been thrusting itself upon her that made her ask herself if she could be mad. She feared it.”)
· She receives the letter but doesn’t find the appeasing (“Mildred tried to think to feel that the intelligence which this letter brought to her would take somewhat of the sting from the shame that tortured her. But it did not. She knew that it could not.”)
· She tries to find calming talking to the “reason” of her suffering, but she fails (“"Some day," she repeated, almost inaudibly, looking seemingly through him, but not at him "some day perhaps; when I shall have forgiven myself."…….. He stood motionless, watching her slim, straight figure lessening by degrees as she walked slowly away from him. He was wondering what she meant. Then a sudden, quick wave came beating into his brown throat and staining it crimson, when he guessed what it might be.”)
Then we see her leaving him. He is absolutely led astray. He is in despair. The reader is also confused, it seems the author persuades us to invent our own finishing of the story.
Concerning
the textual type of the novel it is the combination of description (“The house
itself was big and broad, as country houses should be. The master was big and
broad, too. The mistress was small and thin, and it was always she who went out
at noon to pull the great clanging bell that called the farmhands in to dinner”),
narration (“Mildred did not make these several observations in the half second
that she looked at him in courteous acknowledgment. It took her as many days to
note them all. For she signaled him out each time that he passed her, meaning
to give him a condescending little smile, as she knew how. But he never looked
at her….”) and dialogues or small conversations ("Who are these men, Mrs.
Kraummer, that work for you? Where do you pick them up?" etc). This
combination helps the reader to get the idea
of the novel, to see the dynamic development of the events.
From the
point of view of presentation it is the 3d person narration, which means that
the author present the characters in more objective way: “He stood motionless,
watching her slim, straight figure lessening by degrees as she walked slowly
away from him. He was wondering what she meant.” We can see here just
description of Fred’s actions or state of mind, but not the criticism of the
author because of his motionless. But still we can observe the subjective
evaluation of the personages: “But Mildred would not bend the outward
conditions of her life to serve any shameful whim that chanced to visit her
soul, like an ugly dream. She would avoid nothing. She would go and come as
always”.
It is also
important to point out that settings are replacing all the time. It is connected
with that fact that events change, the main character is involved in different
situations which take place in different locations. The story begins from the
description of the farm; then we see the presentation of Mildred’s walking to
the river: “In the woods it was sweet and solemn and cool. And there beside the
river was the wretch who had annoyed her, first, with his indifference, then
with the sudden boldness of his glance.” Later we see her again at home (I mean
at the farm) and then – anew her walking: “In the gathering twilight she walked
again through the wheat that was heavy and fragrant with dew. The path was very
long and very narrow”.
The events in this novel take place in Narragansett, where the Kraummer’s farm is situated. There is nothing fantastic about the setting as it present the real farm, its masters, nature, people working here. So the setting is rather realistic. The young girl is depicted here as an fragile thing. Firstly we see an excellent presentation of the beauty of the nature surrounding the farm. Weather conditions help to describe the situation in such poetic way: “This was no such farm as one reads about in humorous fiction. Here were swelling acres where the undulating wheat gleamed in the sun like a golden sea. For silver there was the Meramec or, better, it was pure crystal, for here and there one might look clean through it down to where the pebbles lay like green and yellow gems….” . It is also interesting how the author draws the oppositions between the surrounding nature, the house or the farm and the master of the house: “The house itself was big and broad, as country houses should be. The master was big and broad, too. The mistress was small and thin…”. So we see usual description of the life of ordinary people.
The story describes the life of Mildred Orme. It is a young lovely girl, she is a guest at Kraummer’s farm. She was a victim of the sexual demands that were made on her in civilized, urban society. Now she is able to relax and to enjoy the nature. Firstly she really does it, but then she meets a young man and her desires rise.
The theme of this particular
story may be identified as the feministic believes of a young girl, her attempt
to resist the temptation. Ties of young generation, its attitude towards the
world, the reality is also under analysis.
Through her stories, Kate
Chopin wrote her autobiography and documented her surroundings; she lived in a
time when her surroundings included the abolitionist movements and the
emergence of feminism. Her ideas and descriptions were not true word for word,
yet there was an element of nonfiction lingering throughout each story. Chopin
took strong interest in her surroundings and put many of her observations to
words. Jane Le Marquand saw Chopin's writings as a new feminist voice, while
other intellectuals recognize it as the voice of an individual who happens to
be a woman. Marquand writes, "Chopin undermines patriarchy by endowing the
Other, the woman, with an individual identity and a sense of self, a sense of
self to which the letters she leaves behind give voice. The 'official' version
of her life, that constructed by the men around her, is challenged and overthrown
by the woman of the story." Chopin may have
been using her creative writing skills to express a point of view regarding her
belief in the strength of women. The idea of creative nonfiction might be seen
as relevant in this case. In order for a story to be autobiographical, or even
biographical, Marquand writes, there has to be a nonfictional element, which
more often than not exaggerates the truth to spark and hold interest for the
readers. Kate Chopin may have felt just as surprised by the contemporary characterization
of her work as feminist as she had been in her own time by the stamp of
immorality. Critics tend to regard writers as individuals with larger points of
view addressed to factions in society.
The text analysis is
dedicated to the novel by Kate Chopin “Shameful Affair”. She was a talented and
prolific short story writer but is best known for her novel The Awakening
(1899), a hauntingly prescient tale of a woman unfulfilled by the mundane yet highly
celebrated "feminine role," and her painful realization that the
constraints of her gender blocked her ability to seek a more fulfilling life.
Her short stories were well received in her own time and were published by some
of America’s most prestigious magazines—Vogue, the Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s
Young People, Youth’s Companion, and the Century. A few stories were syndicated
by the American Press Association. Her stories appeared also in her two
published collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897), both of
which received good reviews from critics across the country. About a third of
her stories are children’s stories—those published in or submitted to
children’s magazines or those similar in subject or theme to those that were.
By the late 1890s Kate Chopin was well known among American readers of magazine
fiction.
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