Российский университет дружбы народов

Институт иностранных языков

Направление: лингвистика

Stylistic analysis
of

Chapter II
The Postumous papers of the Pickwick club
Charles Dickens.

Булатовой Анасиасии, 402ЛД

Москва 2009
The passage is an extract from Dickens’ novel “The posthumous papers of the
Pickwick club” from the chapter II which originally was called “The First Day's
Journey, And The First Evening's Adventures; With Their Consequences”. Here we
are able to see the outset of the novel and we get to know the main character of the
novel – Mr. Samual Pickwick. The description of Mr. Pickwick is a brilliant
example of Dickens’ biting irony. While representing him, Dickens mocks him,
revealing him as a “great man” who reflects early morning on philosophical
questions and who “is ready for the reception of any discoveries worthy of being
noted down”. The irony is hidden in the comparison of Mr. Pickwick with the sun
which “burst from his slumbers”. We also notice repetition of the word “sun”
relative at first to the sun itself and then to Mr. Pickwick. It increases the irony. But
he isn’t just subject of mockery, but also the personification of joy. The choice of
epithets employed by Dickens to describe “the great man” reveals his ironic but
also appealing attitude to him. One should note a peculiar use of the word “to put”
in the first paragraph which isn’t use in its direct meaning to cause to be (in a
position or place). It is used as if we didn’t speak about a man, but about an
inanimate think. It shows the Mr. Pickwick’s neglect to his own appearance or
material values at all.
The description of the cab driver of the second passage makes the metaphor and
the sense of inanimate think stronger. He is described as “a strange specimen of the
human race, in a sackcloth coat… and number round his neck”. We see an example
of non-omniscient narrator who know everything about the character and reveals
them through telling, that’s mean that he himself speaks about characters without
stepping aside and letting them reveal themselves through actions. There used the
prolonged metaphor of Mr. Pickwick being compared in the some cases with
inanimate think. We can see it from the selection of words used by Dickens when
he states that “Mr. Pickwick and his portmanteau were thrown into the vehicle”.
Here Mr. Pickwick and is inseparable from his own things.
Then we notice the fine example of showing when author steps aside and lets
character reveal himself through his own actions. We may note the exquisite
curiosity of Mr. Pickwick and even inquisitive and prying. It is revealed through
repetitions of the word “reiterate” and “searching for further information”, “To
note down”, “out came the note-book again”, and at last “Mr. Pickwick entered
every word of this statement in his note-book, with the view of communicating it
to the club”. Here we can also see the outset of getting to know the members of the
club, who were waiting for their “illustrious leader”. That epithets shows how
much did they appreciate Mr. Pickwick who had founded the “Pickwick club”.
Author is also use logical and figurative periphrasis - Is a device which according
to Webster’s dictionary denotes the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible
shorter or plainer form of expression. It is also called circumlocution. Periphrases
aims at pointing to one of the seemingly insignificant or barely noticeable features
or properties of the given object and intensifies this property by naming the object
by the property. The example of logical periphrasis in this chapter is - The
punctual servant of all work – sun. Periphrasis are used to increase the irony of the
narration.
In the description of driver we can see the finest example of simile. To use a simile
is to characterize one object by bringing it into contact with another object
belonging to an entirely different class of things. Here it comes “to spar away like
clockwork”. The cabman’s speech is also worth looking through. He speaks with
mistaken pronunciation of the words, often swallowing the sounds: 'and then arter
aggerawatin' me to assault him, gets three witnesses here to prove it. But I'll give it
him, if I've six months for it. Come on!' It is made to produce an effect of a man
from a lower social class by using him such lexical stylistic device as colloquial
words.
The description of a man saved Mr. Pickwick from the enraged crowd arise the
peculiar interest to wit here is used synecdoche which is a form of metonymy- a
figure of speech in which a part is substituted for a whole or a whole for a part.
“Come along, then” said he of the green coat.
In his speech, as he lead Mr. Pickwick away, the syntax stylistic device was used to
wit - ellipsis. Elliptical are those sentences in which one or both principal parts
(subject and predicate) are felt as missing. It is used especially in colloquial style
of speech. It is used with certain stylistic aims in view. Thus it imparts a kind of
emotional tension to the author’s narration. Here it contributes to the acceleration
of the tempo in speech to create the sensation of a hurry and agitation of the man.
All the panoply of stylistic devices used in this chapter are put together in order to
create the humorous, ironic impact on the reader.