Quot;ERNESTINE" BY THEODORE DREISER

The story for analysis is called "Ernestine" and written by Theodore Dreiser, who shows what the female success conceals.

The plot of the story centers around a woman who sacrifices her career in theatre for the existing world of cinema, where she hopes to win great fame. But her initial success leads her total failure.

So the subject matter is a person and his aspiration in career. And the idea is that ambitions often ruin a human being.

As for the composition it is not chronological, for it deals with the foreshadowing at the beginning of the story. This part of the text displays the author's attitude to his character, who is sure to make mistakes or to be lead to some degradation. The use of such phrases as "eventually and perforce", "via related compulsions" and the use of the passive construction in the sentence "If anyone or anything is to be indicted, let it be life" are aimed at the attempts to persuade the reader that a person is not a ruler of his/her destiny, but a product of the society and circumstances.

As for me, I don't share the author's point of view. At first I'd like to attract your attention to the epithets used by the narrator to describe the girl: "very young and not very sophisticated" and the verb to condescend in "Hers was a person who condescends to take notice of a domain offered for her inspection". These epithets and the verb serve as proofs of the fact that she wasn't a naive girl, she was young, but had some experience of life and knew her own worth (had a high opinion of herself).

The following sentence is also of great importance "The first time I saw Ernestine she was coming down the steps of the Sixth Avenue Elevated Station". The title "Elevated Station" and the phrasal verb "to come down" are symbolic here, for they are the evidence of the fact she didn't cognize all negative sides of "the joyous profession", but she has taken the road of it, and the use of the Past Continuous proves that.

In due course she starts to realize her own power: "Her temperament as well as her beauty was focal and she knew it". Her fame gives her an opportunity to have a high opinion of herself, that's why there is no wonder she becomes "too cool and too rain".

Quot;LUCK" BY MARK TWAIN

Analysis 1.

The story "Luck" is written by Mark Twain who takes the part of a satirist there.

In the text the framed composition is used, as the author makes us acquainted to a clergyman, who will tell a story of one of the heroes of England.

The writing is about a silly person who managed to achieve the top of his fame, making blunders, and about an instructor of the military school who contributed to the elevation of the first in life.

In the title the bitter irony is implied, for such luck doesn't fill us with positive emotions, it makes the reader consternated, for he becomes conscious at any moment the population of the whole country can become a victim of hasty and thoughtless decisions of powerful people.

So sarcasm is felt in the affected admiration: "What a fascination there is in a renowned name!" The use of adverbs "suddenly" and "forever" in the sentence "…his name shot suddenly to the zenith from a Crimean battlefield, to remain forever celebrated" is also the evidence of the feigned delight.

The author raises a social problem and exposes the stupidity of society in which "not wisdom, but luck rules over our lives." (Cicero)

The plot of the story begins with the assertion: "he's an absolute fool", then come series of complication:

1. "He went through on that purely superficial 'cram' ";

2. "he took the first prize at Maths";

3. "He was actually gazetted to a captaincy";

4. "down went our colonel … Scoresby was next in rank".

The climax is likely to be: "An entire and unsuspected Russian army in reserve". And the denouement is supposed to be the clergyman's conclusion: "Every one of them is the record of some shouting stupidity or other; and, taken together, they are proof that the very best thing in all this world that can befall a man is to be born lucky".

Analysis 2.

Mark Twain is one of the most important figures of American life and generally of American culture. By invisible threads he is connected with the process of his country's development, with its national peculiarities and social contradictions and this deep contact goes through the whole of his creation.

One of his short stories named "Luck" centers round a man who had a success to be born lucky and then it helped him to get to the top of the tree. That's why the subject matter of the story is a role of luck in a human life.

The story made an impression on me to have taken place in real life and the use of proper names and some historical facts contribute to this realistic effect:

Woolwich, London, the Crimean battlefield, the Crimean war, the Russian army.

And the detail that the author withheld the real name and titles of the main character gives the reader the idea that such a person exists in the history.

From the very beginning the major character Lieutenant-General Lord Arthur Scoresby is portrayed by the author as a very prominent person and he conveys this idea using a synonymic row: "illustrious, renowned".

Generally, the first paragraph of the story describes the significance of the main character, his sublimity over other common people. That is the purpose why the author adheres to periphrases: a demi-god.

Besides, the reader grasps the idea about the narrator's attitude towards this man. This is admiration and worship, so deep and sincere that no more was required to the narrator but to keep silence and have a chance to see this person.

The use of a synonymic row: "scanning, searching, noting" and repetition with polysyndeton "to look, and look and look" - demonstrates the attitude. Moreover, describing the qualities of the major hero the narrator adheres to abstract nouns with a very positive connotation which create an image of a very pleasant and respected person: "the quietness, the reserve, the noble gravity, the simple honesty".

To say more, Scoresby was so unassuming and modest, that couldn't realize his greatness, and to underline this fact the author makes use of anaphoric repetition: "the sweet consciousness of his greatness, unconsciousness of the hundreds of eyes, unconsciousness of the worship".

These stylistic devices and also the use of epithets "noble, simple, deep, loving, sincere, admiring, sweet" help to arouse in the reader the same feelings, emotions, attitudes that the narrator has. But on the other hand, the image of Scoresby seems rather ideal, hyperbolized that can make us suspend, doubt its reality.

And really the author destroys all our illusions concerning this man with the words "Privately - he's an absolute fool", which sound as anticlimax. But we are inclined to believe them as the author convinces us that it's true. The choice of words contributes to this effect: "a man of strict veracity…and his judgment of men was good, beyond doubt or question".

So according to the Reverand's words Scoresby is the embodiment of stupidity which under some lucky circumstances can seem to be genius and exceptionality, rareness.

On the one hand, the narrator demonstrates a correct, true image of Scoresby. The use of synonyms helps to bring the idea out: "stupidity, ignorance"; the repetition: "he didn't know anything"; ordinary repetition of a word "blunders"; periphrases "a wooden-head, this immortal fool, the supremest ass".

But on the other hand his stupidity was compensated by a great deal of luck that it shocked the Reverand who knew Scoresby's abilities exactly, and he couldn't believe this fact. The use of anaphoric repetition: "he went through with flying colors on examination day, he went through on that purely superficial cram" - contributes to describing that emotional state of the Reverand.

With the same purpose the author makes a choice of words: "it was made reel".

He couldn't believe that a person can be so lucky in life because it looked rather incredible. The author brings this to the reader's notice using antithesis "by some strangely lucky accident - an accident not likely to happen twice in a century" and using epithet "this phenomenal and astonishing luckiness".

We can say that the character of Scoresby enjoys the sympathy of the Reverand and the reader. At the beginning the narrator says about him, using epithet "He was evidently good and sweet and lovable and guileless". And the use of polysyndeton contributes to the effect that nothing negative can be said about this person. The narrator repeats this sentence at the end of the story and we grasp that his attitude towards Scoresby didn't change at all.

Such a person can arouse only a feeling of pity, a desire to help him, to support and the Reverand wasn't an exception. He even tries to justify his actions by these feelings: "it was exceedingly painful to see him, a harmless act of charity, I resolved to make his death as easy as I could".

But at the same time he felt guilty and miserable and the allusion to Frankenstein completely explains his emotional state: he felt as if he created a human creature dangerous for other people and that country.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1979