The Guilty Party

(by O. Henry )
The text under consideration is “The Guilty Party” – a short story by the American writer O.
Henry (pseudonym of William Sydney Porter) whose tales romanticized the common place—in
particular the life of ordinary people in New York City. His stories expressed the effect of
coincidence on character through humor, grim or ironic, and often had surprise endings (sting-in-
the-tail).
The present short story contains three episodes. In the first scene, a little girl Lizzie asks her
father, who claims to be very tired, to play checkers with her, but he refuses and sends her to
play in the street. In the next scene, Liz, who is already an adult, murders her fiancé and commits
suicide. Finally, in the third episode of the short story, the anonymous narrator dwells on his
dream in which the Higher Court announces Liz discharged of her crimes, and her father is found
guilty for letting his child play in the streets.
This short story belongs to the belles-lettres functional style, the main aim of which is to give
readers aesthetic pleasure, to make them think and to entertain by appealing to their emotions.
As for the plot structure, the story starts with classical exposition and the usage of an indefinite
article in the beginning of the text is suggestive of it: A Red-haired, unshaven, untidy man sat in
a rocking chair by a window. He had just lighted a pipe, and was puffing blue clouds with great
satisfaction. He had removed his shoes and donned a pair of blue, faded carpet-slippers. The
next element of the plot is complication, which is expressed with the dialogue between a little
girl and her parents. Complication is followed by rising action up to the climax (Liz murders
her fiancé). The falling action is followed by denouement (Liz throws herself in the river). The
narrator’s dream about the trial of Liz and her father represents an epilogue of the short story.
The time of action is represented by simultaneous and prospective temporal planes in the given
short story. Simultaneous temporal plane is introduced in the text with the help of such
grammatical means as Past Simple tense (sat, lightened, folded, cried etc.), Past Continuous
tense (was puffing, was cooking) and Past Perfect tense (had lightened, had removed) in the
narration and Present Simple tense (aren’t tired, don’t like, have, comes, relates etc.), Present
Perfect tense (has been in the house) in the dialogue. There are some lexical markers that also
contribute to the simultaneous temporal plane; for instance, such direct lexical markers as
“supper”, “twilight”, “at dusk” and indirect, such as “all day”, “when he comes home” (Can't
a man who works hard all day have a little rest when he comes home?). All these lexical markers
are suggestive of the fact that the action takes place in the evening time. The prospective
temporal plane is expressed in the text with the help of such grammatical means as Future
Simple tense (won’t you play, no, I won’t, you’ll be switched) and Future-in-the-past (would be
any use, would you like to be).
The spatial continuum of the text is created with the help of both direct and indirect spatial
markers. In the first part of the short story (exposition and complication), the action takes place
mainly in the house and such direct (the house, home, adjoining room) and indirect (a window,
carpet-slippers, the door) markers of a closed space are suggestive of it. As for the other spatial
markers employed in the first part of the text, they are direct markers of an open space, such as:
street, outside, playground, sidewalk, East Side, Chrystie Street. The name “East Side” provides
reader with understanding that the action takes place in the volatile area of New York City. In
the second part of the story (from rising action up to denouement), we come across such direct
spatial markers as: the hall, Small Hours Social Club, street, big city, and East River. Finally, in
the epilogue, we can observe such explicit spatial marker as “the courtroom” and implicit
markers, such as: the next world, the Ninth avenue, officer angel, bailiff angel, spirits. All the
implicit spatial makers help the readers to understand that the action in the epilogue takes place
in the afterlife.
As for the types of narration, author’s narrative and dialogue can be observed in the given short
story. Author’s narrative is anonymous 3rd p. sing. and entrusted, 1st p. in the epilogue (I
dreamed the rest of this story). Dialogue imitates oral spontaneous speech and characterizes the
personages. The author employs graphon in the main characters’ speech to emphasize the social
class they belong to: They learn too much there that ain't good for 'em. "Let her go out and play
like the rest of 'em if she wants to be amused," said the red-haired, unshaven, untidy man. There
are also some exclamations and rhetorical questions that imitate oral speech as well: —whom,
do you think? Why, Liz! Now, wasn't that a silly dream?
Such narrative compositional forms as narration, description (elements) and argumentation are
present in the given text. Narrative proper presents the unfolding of the plot. We can also
observe some element of the description (portrait): A Red-haired, unshaven, untidy man sat in a
rocking chair by a window…He had removed his shoes and donned a pair of blue, faded carpet-
slippers… A mighty host of children danced and ran and played in the street. Some in rags, some
in clean white and beribboned… Out from the circle of spectators in the hall leaped F ate in a green
silk skirt, under the nom de guerre of "Liz." Her eyes were hard and blacker than jet.
Argumentation is used to present the author’s thoughts about the situation in general: And then
followed the big city's biggest shame, its most ancient and rotten surviving canker, its pollution
and disgrace, its blight and perversion, its forever infamy and guilt, fostered, unreproved and
cherished, handed down from a long-ago century of the basest barbarity—the Hue and Cry.
Nowhere but in the big cities does it survive, and here most of all, where the ultimate perfection
of culture, citizenship and alleged superiority joins, bawling, in the chase. The anaphoric
repetition in this extract (“its”) gives much emphasis to the narration. Argumentation also
connects the main part of the text with the epilogue: It's mighty funny what kind of dreams one
has sometimes. Poets call them visions, but a vision is only a dream in blank verse.
As for the characters of the story, the main one is Liz. In the beginning of the story she is
described as a shy girl twelve year old girl (A little girl of twelve came up timidly to the man…).
But as an adult, she has quite a rough and short-tempered character. That can be seen even in her
eyes (Her eyes were hard and blacker than jet). In the throes of anger she stabs her fiancé Kid
without any hesitation (She did not scream or waver. Most unwomanly, she cried out one oath—
the Kid's own favorite oath—and in his own deep voice…as far as the length of her knife blade
and the strength of her arm permitted). All these words chosen to describe Liz suggest that her
behavior has been influenced by growing up in the streets of East Side, where, as it is
metaphorically expressed by the author, “as twilight falls, Satan sets up his recruiting office”.
Such stylistic devices as antithesis and anaphoric repetition in the following sentence (Some in
rags, some in clean white and beribboned, some wild and restless as young hawks, some gentle-
faced and shrinking, some shrieking rude and sinful words, some listening, awed, but soon,
grown familiar, to embrace—here were the children playing in the corridors of the House of
Sin.) underline that every child can make their own choice, but this choice is highly influenced
by the attitude the children get from their parents. Liz’s parents have never paid much attention
their daughter, thus the end of her story is tragic (Knowing her way, and hungry for her surcease,
she darted down the familiar ways until at last her feet struck the dull solidity of the rotting pier.
And then it was but a few more panting steps—and good mother East River took Liz to her
bosom…).
Liz’s parents are represented in the short story as additional characters. Though we know, that
her father’s name is John ("John," she said, "I don't like for Lizzie to play in the street), the
author constantly refers to him as “a red-haired, unshaven, untidy man”. It can be suggested that
by omitting this character’s name the author underlines that the story is based on a general
situation that could have happened in many families of the East Side. The father’s portrait and
the fact that he is wearing “faded carpet-slippers” also provide readers with understanding that
their family is poor. Liz’s mother seems to be more concerned about her child (“I don't like for
Lizzie to play in the street. They learn too much there that ain't good for 'em. She's been in the
house all day long.”). But cleaning and cooking all day long, as an ordinary 19th century woman,
she has no time to play with her daughter as well.
Among the secondary characters we can also point out: Kid (Liz’s fiancé), Tommy (the waiter at
Small Hours Social Club) and the characters from the epilogue: the court officer (bailiff angel,
Special Terrestrial Officer the Reverend Jones), a plain-clothes man, spirits and the anonymous
narrator. While describing the characters in the court room the author employs the stylistic
device of simile to stress that the imaginary world is close to the real one: Up stepped a plain-
clothes man—there were lots of 'em there, dressed exactly like preachers and hustling us spirits
around just like cops do on earth…
The other stylistic devices that can be distinguished in the present short story are: metaphors
(Satan sets up his recruiting office; the children playing in the corridors of the House of Sin; the
names of the bird “stork”, which stands for life and “vulture”, which symbolizes death),
periphrasis (the big city's biggest shame; you'll be switched to the pot-pie squad),
personification (good mother East River took Liz to her bosom), detachment (the Kid's own
favorite oath). Such stylistic devices as parallel constructions (Well may the wolf in the big city
stand outside the door. Well may his heart, the gentler, falter at the siege), inversion (With the
morbid thirst of the confirmed daily news drinker…; And next came the primal instinct of self-
preservation…), asyndeton (They pursued—a shrieking mob of fathers, mothers, lovers and
maidens—howling, yelling, calling, whistling, crying for blood) and polysyndeton (…I suppose I
had been riding on the Ninth avenue elevated or taking patent medicine or trying to pull Jim
Jeffries's nose, or doing some such little injudicious stunt) also make the narration more
emphatic.
Such stylistic device as framing also has to be mentioned, as in the beginning and in the end of
the story we observe such phrase as “play in the street(s)”. This phrase is important for the
reader because it underlines that Liz’s tragic story is the fault of her father, who let her play in
the street. The phrase also helps to convey the author’s message: parents are responsible for their
children and should pay attention to them.
The thematic vocabulary of the text consists of such words as: home, street, East Side, House
of Sin, big city, the next world, and courtroom. The key words are: an opposition “family” and
“street”, “guilty”.