Основы интерпретации художественного текста (на материале английского языка). Учебно-методическое пособие

hesitant, sensitive and unyielding. Contradictory features within a character make it true-to-life and convincing.

The main character is the most relevant in a literary work, since it is through his fate that the message is conveyed. The minor characters are subordinate, they are generally introduced to reveal some aspects of the main character, or his relationship with people.

Complete descriptions of absolutely all the actions, thoughts, feelings of the characters in fiction are impossible and unnecessary. The writer selects only those that have special meaning in relation to the message of the story. Moreover, a full and photographic description is often substituted by a detail. Depending on the value which details have in function, one should distinguish between the so-called artistic details and particularities.

The a r t i s t i c d e t a i l is always suggestive. It therefore has a larger meaning than its surface meaning, as implies a great deal more than is directly expressed by it. An artistic detail acquires expressive force and has both direct and indirect meaning. It is a poetic representation of a whole scene. In this sense an artistic detail may be treated as a metonymic expression of the whole. An artistic detail, just as any micro-image, is stimulating to the imagination.

A few artistic details may suggest a whole life-story. Thus, the ―swollen‖ face, feet and hands with ―fingers worked to the bone‖, which Priestley mentions about Mrs. Cross (in Angel Pavement) tell us much of her hart life as a whole page of her life-story would. The sharpness of those artistic details simulates the reader‘s imagination and creates the image of a woman exhausted by a life full of hardships.

At the same time an artistic detail contributes to individualization and verisimilitude. It creates the sense of reality, the sense of getting to know a concrete real individuality with its specific characteristics. An artistic detail is therefore both implicative and individualizing.

In fiction not all details are artistic details. There often occur details that cannon be treated as poetic representations of the whole (such as the colour of the eyes of a character, the time at which he left his home). They serve to add something new about a character, or place, or event. Such details are called

p a r t i c u l a r i t i e s. They are incidental in the sense that it is difficult (or impossible) to explain the writer‘s choice of this rather than that colour, or time. Nevertheless, particularities are not absolutely irrelevant. They contribute to verisimilitude, as they help to create a realistic picture of a person or event. Particularities are used for representing reality in a concrete form.

Therefore, an artistic detail is significant beyond its literal meaning and has expressive force, whereas a particularity signifies only what is directly expressed by it and has no implication. However, both artistic details and particularities contribute to verisimilitude and credibility of the story, as they individualize, particularize and specify the characters, object and events, thus representing actual life in all its diversity. They encourage acceptance on the part of the reader and increase convincingness of what is described.

One of the most essential factors in literature is the convincingness of the characters.

Their behaviour, thoughts and feelings will arouse the reader‘s response if he believes them. ―The foundation of good fiction is character-creating and nothing else… Style counts;

plot counts; originality of outlook counts. But none of these counts anything like so much as the convincingness of the characters. If the characters are real, the novel will have a chance; if they are not, oblivion will be its portion… ‖

The characters may be described from different aspects: physical, emotional, moral, spiritual, social. The description of the different aspects of a character is known as c h a r a c t e r i s a t i o n. There are two main types of characterization: d i r e c t and i n d e r e c t. When the author rates the character himself, it is direct characterization. For example, when J. Priestley says that Golspie ―was dogmatic, rough, domineering, and was apt to jeer and sneer‖, he uses the direct method of characterization. Direct characterization may be made by a character in the story. But when the author shows us the character in action, lets us hear him and evaluate him for ourselves, the author uses the indirect method of characterization.

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The various means of characterization are as follows:

A character in fiction is not just a static portrait, he acts. Since action, movement, change, development always occur in fiction, action serves as the main means of characterization. People are generally judged by their deeds. Actions are the most effective means of character presentation. They may reveal the character from different aspects.

For example, the actions of Matfield in Angel Pavement show that physically she is strong, healthy, energetic, active, spirited; emotionally she is bitter, dissatisfied, depressed; in spite of her more or less satisfactory education, mentally she is a mediocrity (though she fancies herself sophisticated and shrewd); morally she is honest, strong-willed; spiritually Matfield is shallow as she is doped by cheap literature and is given to illusion, all her ideals are affected by the adventure stories she is fond of.

Actions include small gestures. In Chapter I Matfield`s resoluteness, decisiveness and dissatisfaction are suggested by her gestures; ―… she flung down a library book, … rummaged in her bag, … said ―Curse!‖ , then closed the bag with a sharp snap, seized her gloves and marched them over to her coat‖.

Action includes a thought, a word, a decision, an impulse and a whole event. For example, Matfield`s decision to have a weekend with the brigandish Golspie is an action, her impulse to make a change in her life is also an action. Each of these actions characterized a definite aspect of her personality.

2. Speech characteristics.

Speech characteristics reveal the social and intellectual standing of the character, his age, education and occupation, his state of minds and feelings, his attitude and relationship with his interlocutors.

When analysing speech characteristics, one should be alter for:

(1)style markers, such as (a) markers of official style (―I presume‖, ―I beg your pardon‖, etc.); (b) markers of informal Conversational style: contracted forms, colloquialisms, elliptical sentences, tag constructions ( as ―you know‖), initiating signals (as ―Well‖, ―Oh‖,), hesitation pauses, false starts – all of which normally occur in spontaneous colloquial speech and often remain unnoticed, but in ―fictional conversation‖ they may acquire a certain function, as they create verisimilitude end may indicate some features of the speaker‘s character, his state of mind his attitude and his attitude to others;

(2)markers of the emotional state of the character: amphetic inversion, the use of emotionally coloured words, the use of breaks-in-the-narrative that stand for silence (e.g. :and I asked her if she‘d rather I… didn‘t get married ―, ―and there I stayed in the middle of the road … starring‖, - the pause lays emphasis on the word‘s that follow the pause), the tailing off into silence which reflects deep emotions or doubt, the use of italics, interjections; hesitation pauses and false starts if they frequent may be a sign of nervousness, irresoluteness or great excitement;

(3)attitudinal markers: words denoting attitudes ( as ―resent‖, ―despise‖, ―hate‖, ―adore‖ etc.), intensifiers ( as ―very‖, ―absolutely‖ etc.);

(4)markers of the character‘s educational level: Bookish words, rough words, slang, vulgarisms, deviations from the standard;

(5)markers of regional and dialectal speech, which the speaker as to his origin, nationality and social standing: foreign words, local words, graphons;

(6)markers of the character`s occupation: terms, jargonisms;

(7)markers of the speaker‘s idiolect (i.e. his individual speech peculiarities), which serve as a means of individualization and verisimilitude.

If we turn to Mistaken Identity, we can see how skilfully M.Twain used speech peculiarities as a means of characterization. The markers of informal conversational style

(―Years ago I arrived one day …‖. ―asked… if I could have some poor little corner somewhere‖, ―a couple of armchairs‖ etc.), the markers of dialectal speech (―dey‖ for ―there‖, ―dat‖ for ―that‖,

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―sah‖ for ―sir‖ etc., which are typical of ―Black English‖), the numerous markers of the emotional state of the characters and their attitudes to one another contribute to creating verisimilitude. The reader gets the impression of hearing the characters and witnessing the scenes. Besides, the reader gets all the necessary information about the characters: their feelings, mood, relations with one another, their social and intellectual standing, and even their origin.

In one of his pamphlets M.Twain wrote that conversation in fiction should ―sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meanings, also a discoverable purpose, and show a relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject in hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tail, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say.‖ The story Mistaken Identity may well serve as an illustration of all the requirements that the writer sets. His characters are well-conceived not only due to their speech characteristics, but also due to the exactness in the choice and presentation of their actions. They are defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency.‖

3. Psychological portrayal and analysis of motive.

The penetration into the mind of the character, description of his mental processes and subtle psychological changes that motivate his actions, the penetration into his thoughts – all that is an effective means of characterization that writers very often resort to. Priestley‘s Angel Pavement abounds in illustrations of psychological portrayal. For example, the description of Miss Matfield`s state of mind when she realized at the station that she had been waiting for Golspie in vain, standing there with a suitcase and a cheap imitation of a wedding ring in her bag, while Golspie was miles away from London ―not carrying if she spent the rest of her life in

Victoria Station. Never before had she felt such bitter contempt for herself. She could have cried and cried not because he had gone and she would probably never set eyes on him again, but because his sudden indifference, at this time of all times, left her feeling pitiably small and silly. The misery of it was like the onslaught of some unexpected, terrible disease. Her mangled pride bled and ached inside her, so that she felt faint.‖ This description of her psychological state and thoughts not only reveals the shame and humiliation that she experienced, it also characterizes Matfield as a sensitive creature capable of experiencing profound and acute such things.

The psychological state of a character is generally revealed by means of inner represented speech in the form of either free indirect speech or free direct speech. In the following example J.Priestley resorts to free indirect speech to reveal Turgis`s state when he was dismissed: ―His job was gone. What could he do? A bit of typing and clerking, that was all and anybody could do that; even girls could do it, … just as well as he would … Something had gone wrong. Where, how had it gone wrong? He could be as happy as anybody, if only he had a chance to be; and why hadn‘t he a chance to be?‖. His thoughts reveal his despair, his awareness of the injustices that were done to him. It also reveals his ability to think clearly and to realize how unfair life was to him.

4. Description of the outword appearance, the portrayal of a character.

In fiction there exist some relationships between the character and his appearance. Thus, features as ―hard eyes‖ or a ―cruel mouth like a scar‖ create the picture of a man who is capable of mean and wicked actions. The writer often marks some suitable suites in the character`s portrait which is suggestive of his nature. In literature physical often suggested moral, mental or spiritual characteristics. For example, Turgis from Angel Pavement – a weak-willed daydreamer who is doped by trashy Hollywood films – is introduced to the reader in the following way: ―This was Turgis, the clerk … a thinnish, awkward young man, with … poor shoulders, … a small, still babyish mouth, usually open, … a drooping rather than retreating chin. … the faint grey film that seemed to cover and subdue him…‖ All that suggests that he is feeble, defenseless, irresolute, weak-willed, unintelligent. Whereas Miss Matfield`s description is as follows: ―What they saw was a girl of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, or twenty-nine, with decided eyebrows a smouldering eye, … a mouth that was a discontented crimson curve and a

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firm round chin that was ready to double itself at any moment.‖ All that suggests a resolute, decisive personage, though dissatisfied with her life.

5. Description of the word of things that surround the character.

The character`s room, clothing and other belongings may also serve as a means of characterization. For example, ―the blue surge suite that bugged and sagged and shone, … the pulpy look about his shoes … which soaked up the rain‖ characterize Turgis as a miserable creature, who lives in need, with no one to care to him. It adds to his portrait and helps the reader to understand the character. Or again, the description of the books that Miss Matfield was so fond of – ―the exotic and adventurous tales‖ with ―coral reefs, jungles and strong, adventurous brigantish hero‖ is a key to understanding her idea of happiness. It explains why Mr.Golspie claimed her attention, it reveals that she was also dopped by the chap literature which she so often turned to, and that she was not at all sophisticated as she tried to appear.

Domestic interiors of the setting are something treated as metonymic, or metaphoric, expressions of character. ―A man‘s house is an extension of himself. Describe it and you have described him … These houses expressed their owners; they affect as atmosphere those who must live in them…‖

6. The use of a foil.

The writer may introduce a foil as a means of characterization. The foil accentuates the opposed features of the character he is contrasted to.

7. The meaning of characters.

The main of characters may also serve as a means of characterization. The name may be deliberately chosen to fit a certain character. Take, for example, Fielding`s Sir Benjamin Backbite, or Dickens`s Mr. and Mrs. Murdstone (murder + stone), or O`Henry`s Shark Dodson. Such names are suggestive, as they bring into play the associations which the words they are composed of have. For instance, Shark has acquired symbolic meaning. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1983) defines ―shark‖ as follows: ―a person clever at getting money from others in dishonest or merciless ways, as by landing money at high rates‖. The use of proper name to express a general idea is called antonomasia.

All the means of characterization writers resort to, enable the reader to visualize and understand the characters, to think, feel and worry with them as they face their problems, to trace the changes and growth in their persons.

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LECTURE 3. NARRATIVE METHOD

THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

The narrative method involves such aspects as (a) who narrates the story and (b) the way the narrator stands in relation to the events and to the other characters of the story.

We are all well aware of the fact that the same people and events may seem quite different when seen by various people or from different angles. Like in photography, the effect may be absolutely different if a picture is taken from below or above the usual eye level. In the same way the author can vary the narrative method depending on what he wants his readers to concentrate on. He can tell the story from the point of view of a character in the story, or from without — as an onlooker.

The author may select either of the following four types of narrators: (1) the main character,

(2) a minor character (3) the omniscient author, (4) the observer-author.

When the main character tells his story, the events of the story are presented to the reader through his perception. The author in this case places himself in the position of the main character and tells of things that only the main character saw and felt. (E.g. Jane Eyre by Ch. Bronte, The Catcher in the Rye by J. Salinger).

When a minor character, who participates in the actions, narrates the story, the events are described through the perception of this character. The author places himself in the position of a minor character and gives this character's version of the events and personages. (E.g. The Pawnbroker's Wife by M. Spark)

The author may narrate his story anonymously, analysing and interpreting the character's motives and feelings. The reader sees what goes on in the minds of all the characters.

He is then guided by what is known to be the omniscient (or analytic) author. The omniscient author reproduces the characters' thoughts and comments on their actions. (E.g. Angel Pavement by J. Priestley, The Cop and the Anthem by O'Henry).

The story may be told in such a way that we are given the impression of witnessing the events as they happen — we see the actions and hear the conversations, but we never enter directly into the minds of any of the characters. In this case the reader is guided by the observerauthor. The observer-author merely records the speech and actions of the characters without analysing them (as it is often done in E. Hemingway's stories).

The following table shows the interrelationship between the narrative types and the types of narrators.

It may be seen from the table that there are common features between the four types of narrators. When the story is told by the main character or the omniscient author, the events are analysed internally, reflecting the main character's point of view. When the narrator is either a minor character or the observer-author, the story is an outside observation of events and does not reflect the main character's feelings and attitude, his point of view. When told by a character in the story, the story is a first-person narrative. When told by the author, it is a third-person narrative.

If the story is a first-person narrative, it is told from the narrator's point of view and the reader gets a biased understanding of the events and the other characters, he cause he sees them

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through the perception of the character who narrates. At the same time any story always reveals the author's point of view even if it is implied. The character's and the author's viewpoints may or may not coincide. The point of view of the author may even be contrary to that of the narrator, as in The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield. The story is narrated by a maid who proves to be naive. Though the reader learns no more about her life than she herself tells, he suspects that the maid is misjudging people, that she, so to say, measures them according to her own yardstick. The more the maid praises and justifies her cruel grandfather and her egoistic mistress, the more obvious is her naivety, the clearer is the fact that she is utterly mistaken and that she does not realize how those people ill-treat her, how miserable her life has always been. The discrepancy between the maid's view of the way things are and the reader's opinion is the irony of her life. Indirectly (through this irony) K. Mansfield makes it clear that she does not share the maid's point of view and invites the reader to reject it, too.

Therefore, when the author shifts the responsibility of telling the story to a first-person narrator, he actually provides his reader with two versions of one and the same story: (1) the explicity expressed subjective version (the narrator's version) and (2) the implied objective version, which the skilled reader is expected to derive. To understand the implied objective version one should take into account which type of narrator the story-teller is and whether he is a reliable narrator or an unreliable one.

Several advantages of the first two methods (i.e. the first-person narrative made by one of the characters) should be mentioned.

A first-person narrative is a very effective means of revealing the personality of the character who narrates. The narrator tells what he thinks and feels, and the reader easily understands his motives, his nature. The writer without resorting to analysis gets the advantage of defining this character more closely. He does not have to say whether the character is sensitive, easily affected or self-controlled, kind or cruel, he simply lets the character demonstrate his features. That becomes clear and visible to the reader, and this first-hand testimony increases the immediacy and freshness of the impression.

Secondly, these two narrative methods increase the credibility of the story. The narrator's statements gain in weight and are more readily accepted by the reader, for they are backed by the narrator's presence in the described events — he relates what he himself has seen.

Thirdly, a story told by a first-person narrator tends to be more confiding. The narrator often assumes the informal tone, addresses the reader directly and establishes a personal relationship with him. The reader is treated trustfully as one to whom the narrator confides his personal impressions and thoughts. This can be clearly seen in The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield. On account of all that, it is the inner world of the character-narrator that is generally in the focus of interest.

However, the possibilities of the first-person narrator are limited. One of the basic limitations is that a story told by a character is limited to what that character could reasonably be expected to know. The first-person narrator is a person, and he can see and hear only what would be possible for a person to see and hear in his situation. He cannot enter into the minds of the other characters, he cannot know all that they do and say.

The first-person narrator may be reliable or unreliable. He may misinterpret some events, which he sometimes cannot fully under-stand. He relates them and mediatates about them from his subjective point of view. The reader, therefore, gets a biased view of the other characters (as in the case of The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield). But this limitation may turn into an advantage: the reader is stimulated to reflect and pronounce his own judgement. The fact that the character who narrates has less experience than the reader creates an irony. If The Lady's Maid had not been told by the maid herself, if she had not been so naive, and if her life-story had been told by a dispassionate narrator, it is doubtful that the story would arouse such deep emotional response and convey its message so effectively.

There are no limitations on the freedom of the omniscient a u t h o r. He is all-seeing and allknowing. He can follow any character to a locked room or a desert island. He may get inside his

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character's minds, add his own analysis of their motives and actions. It is the author's voice, his evaluations, his opinion of the events and characters that the reader hears and, therefore, the reader can easily analyse the author's point of view.

Moreover, the omniscient author may wander away from the subject of the narrative to state his personal view or to make a general statement. Such a statement is known as the author's digression.

A digression usually involves a change of tense from the past (the usual tense in stories and novels) to the generic 'timeless' present. In this way the author directly conveys his presence as a guide and interpreter. The story The Cop and the Anthem by O'Henry can serve as an illustration of the possibilities of the omniscient author. Here the omniscient author resorts to digressions. He does not only relate the events, he tells the reader what his character longs for and plans to do. To convey Soapy's thoughts the omniscient author uses indirect speech: "... A roasted mallard duck, thought Soapy, would be about the thing ...", inner represented speech: "...

Disconsolate, Soapy ceased his unavailing racket. Would a policeman lay hands on him? In his fancy the Island seemed an unattainable Arcadia ..."

The reader generally places complete reliance on all the judgements made by the omniscient author and adopts his point of view. The objectivity of the author's evidence is taken for granted. At the same time the reader gets the possibility to accompany the characters anywhere, to see what happens to them when they are alone, to know what goes on in their minds and what they think about one another. It means that the omniscient author reveals the viewpoints of the characters, too.

The omniscient author may also assume a detached attitude and tell the readers all about his characters, concealing his own point of view. For example, the story The Pleasures of Solitude by J. Cheever is told by a detached omniscient author, who describes what the protagonist saw, felt, thought and did, without giving his own analysis of her actions.

In many modern short stories since A.P. Chekhov the omniscient author appears to have a limited omniscient point of view. The author chooses one character, whose thoughts and actions are analysed, giving no analysis of the other characters. The author therefore may be partially omniscient.

The omniscient author may tell the story so vividly that his presence is forgotten, the characters and the scenes become visible.

Such are the advantages of the narrative made by the omniscient author. In the case of the observer-author, the story is a scene or a series of scenes, narrated by an onlooker who does not interfere for any comments or reflections of these events. The main focus of interest is the study of actions and events. The advantage of this narrative method is that the observer-author lets the reader see, hear, and judge the characters and their actions for himself. He stimulates the reader to form his own impression and make his own judgements.

Stories told by the observer-author may be presented in either of the following two forms:

(1) the d r a m a t i c, or (2) the pictorial form.

A story is said to have a dramatic form, when one scene follows another and the characters act and speak as in drama. (In drama nobody comments and explains the scenes, they appear). Arrangement in Black and White by D. Parker and The Killers by E. Hemingway serve as examples.

A story is considered to have a pictorial form, when the observer-author pictures the scenes, but he tells of what anyone might see and hear in his position without entering into the minds of any of the characters, without analysing their motives. (Indian Camp by E. Hemingway illustrates the pictorial form of presentation).

In one and the same story the author may vary the narrative method, sometimes giving us one character's version of events (,or point of view) and sometimes that of another, sometimes assuming omniscience and sometimes narrating as an onlooker.

Thus in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber when des¬cribing a lion hunt Hemingway lets the reader see things through the eyes of the lion, whereas the events preceding

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Macomber's death are given through the perception of Macomber himself. There are, therefore, several shifts in the point of view.

The narrative method determines the dominant point of view. Depending on who tells the story, the dominant point of view may be either that of the character (if he tells the story), or that of the author (if the story is told by the author). The dominant point of view does not rule out the possibility of introducing other viewpoints into the story. If the viewpoints are presented as independent, the story is said to be "polyphonic". However, the dominant point of view generally subordinates the other viewpoints. Recall The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield, where the viewpoints of the lady and the grandfather are re-evaluated by Ellen. Such re-evaluations may turn out to be misjudgements.

The narrative method condition's the language of the story. Thus if the story is told by an omniscient author, the language is always literary. When the story is told by a character the language becomes a means of characterization (as direct speech always characterizes the speaker) It reflects the narrator's education, occupation, emotional state and his attitude. The social standing of the character is marked by the use of either " standard or non-standard lexical units and syntactic structures. In The Lady's Maid the markers of her social standing are as follows: "if only the pansies was there ...", "we was living", "all of a tremble", "a ducky little brooch" and others. The use of rare and specialized vocabulary serves as a marker of the character's occupation (or education; level, or both). In the case of The Lady's Maid these are "No, madam' "... is it, madam". The emotive and evaluative lexical units (such as "she's too good", "the sweetest lady", "poor grandfather", etc.) reflect the feelings of the narrator, her attitude to the people she descibes. In this particular story some of the evaluative units appear to be reappraised, as the narrator's point of view is unreliable (she misinterprets even and misjudges people). From the way Ellen's lady and grandfather are| presented it becomes clear that the lady is by no means "too good" on the contrary, she is hypocritical, cunning and egoistic; the ,grandfather appears to be mean, calculating and deserves no justification his cruelty.

One has to keep in mind that the language of a first-person narrative requires careful attention not only because it characterizes the narrator, but also because it is a means of representing the world through the eyes of that character. It therefore reflects his outlook (which may be naive, or primitive, or limited), his pattern of cognition, his psychology. That is why most stories related by the main character are deeply psychological.

Moreover, the narrative method may affect presentational sequencing of events. Thus the omniscient author will arrange the events of the story as they occur in chronological order. A first-person narrative more often than not is disrupted by digressions, or may have haphazard transitions from one topic to another, or may contain flashbacks to past events (as in the case of the Lady's Maid). The events are then presented in psychological order.

Apart from that, the narrative method may also affect the sequenc ing of literary representational forms. If we turn to The Lady's Mau again, we can see that it is a complex pattern of narration, descrip direct speech and reasoning, but it does not include the author's dig ressions because the author has shifted the responsibility of telling the story to the major character. Whereas in a story told by the omniscient author (e.g. The Cop and the Anthem) one may find all the literary! respesentational forms.

Whether a story is convincing and exciting, whether it produces a vivid and enduring impression, whether it arouses interest and emotional response — all that relies heavily on the narrative method employed by the author.

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LECTURE 4. TONAL SYSTEM

THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

There is no art without emotion. Fiction (as all other art-forms) appeals to the reader through the senses and evokes responsive emotions, In fiction the representation of reality, as has already been noted, is always a subjective reflection. Fiction is therefore affected by the author's view of the world, his outlook, his personal attitude to it. That is why in fiction the representation of reality can never be entirely neutral. In every literary work the writer's feelings and emotions are reflected in the tone, attitude and atmosphere.

Atmosphere is the general mo6d of a literary work. It is affected by such strands of a literary work as the plot, setting, characters, details, symbols, and language means. Thus, in The Oval Portrait E.A. Poe sets the story in a remote turret of an abandoned castle. The main event takes place at midnight. The oval portrait is in a niche and "in deep shade". All these details, the language and the fantastic history of the portrait create the mysterious atmosphere (or mood) of the tale.

The author's attitude is his view of the characters and actions. It reflects .his judgement of them. The author's attitude establishes the moral standards according to which the reader is to make his judgements about the problems raised in the story. The reader is expected to share the author's attitude.

The attitude of a writer to his subject matter determines the tone of the story. The tone is the light in which the characters and events are depicted. The tone, therefore, is closely related to atmosphere and attitude.

Tone in oral speech is a component of intonation and is one of the prosodic means of expressing the speaker's attitude to the subject matter (i.e. to what is being said) and to his interlocutor (i.e. to whom it is said). Tone is so important in oral communication that it can overrule the sense of the grammatical structure of an utterance or the lexical meanings of words. Thus "You like it? " pronounced with a rising tone is taken for a question though the word-order, i.e.; the grammatical structure is that of a statement. "Yes" with a falling tone means "It is so". "Yes" pronounced with a falling-rising tone signifies "It may be so in fiction tone also expresses the relationship between the author (or narrator) and the subject matter. Hence the tone may be sympathetic or impassive, cheerful or serious, vigorous or matter-of-fact, humorous or melancholy and so on. On the other hand, tone expresses the relationship between the author (or narrator) and the reader. Hence the tone may be familiar or official. There are scales in the variations of tone. Thus, the tone may be casual, familiar, impolite, defiant, offensive, it may be sarcastic, ironical, sneering or bitter.

Tone in oral speech is primarily conveyed by modulations of the voice pitch, whereas in written speech the tone is mainly conveyed verbally, primarily by emotionally colored words. For example, the indices of the sombre and gloomy tone in The Oval Portrait are such words as "gloom", "deep midnight", "deep shadow", "dreamy stupor", "vague yet deep shadow", "vague and quaint words", etc.

The tone in the fantastic history of the oval portrait is lyrical and dramatic. Its indices are as

socket of the lamp"); epithets ("rarest beauty", "lone turret", "fervid and burning pleasure", "mighty marvel"); metaphors ("the light dripped", "withered the health and spirits of the bride", "lost in reveries"); poetic words, such as "wrought", "took glory in his work", "beheld"; poetic structures, such as "wrought day and night to depict her, who so loved him", "there were admitted none into the turret", "were drawn from the cheeks of her, who sat ...", "but little

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remained to do"; intensifiers, as in "the light which fell so ghastly", "to depict her who so loved him", "so surpassingly well", "very pallid", "on and

still on"; polysyndeton, as in "And he was a passionate, and wild, and moody man", "he grew tremulous and very pallid, and aghast, and crying...".

The fantastic history is remarkably rhythmical due to the numerous parallel constructions ("loving and cherishing all things, hating only ..., dreading only ..."), anaphora ("But she was humble ... But he ... "), doublets ("all light and smiles", "humble and obedient", "from hour to hour", "from day to day"), triplets ("she saw, and loved, and wedded the painter", "he, passionate, studious, austere", "pallet and brushes and other toward instruments' V' passionate, and wild, and moody"), alliteration of sonorants ("all light and smiles, and frolicsome as the young fawn, loving", "yet she smiled on, and still on uncomplainingly"). The syntax and the subtle choice of vocabulary seem to obey a strict orderly arrangement which results in brilliant rhythm, a lyrical and dramatic tone, a style which is characteristic of "poetic prose" i.e. an elaborately constructed prose with devices of poetry.

The interaction of rhythm, style and tone generally establishes and maintains a mood or an atmosphere. In The Oval Potrtait this interaction sets the events in a distant time and a mysterious place, tunes the reader to romantic descriptions and arouses fantastic expectations. Tone-shifts often occur in fiction and may accompany not only a change in the subject, but also a change in the narrative method or in the style. In The Oval Portrait tone-shifts accompany the changes in both the narrative method and style (the first part of the tale is a first-person narration with stylistic features typical of emotive prose, whereas the second part is a third-person narration written in the conventional style of English folk tales).

Humor and irony require special attention. A humorous tone is created by an apt usage of deliberate exaggerations (or hyper-bole), a round-about way of naming things (or periphrasis), unexpected comparison (or simile), jargonisms, dialectal words, words which sound amusing in the particular situation because they do not belong in it. The usage of these means often produces a humorous effect and testifies to the inventiveness and wit of the author. For example, in O'Henry's story The Cop and the Anthem humor is attained by unexpected occurrence of foreign and learned words in very homely situations: "It seemed that his route to the coveted Island was not to be an epicurean one. Some other way of entering limbo must be thought of." Or again, "The persecuted young woman had but to beckon a finger and Soapy would be practically en route for his insular haven". Unexpected combinations of words, such as "insular haven" or "He seemed doomed to liberty" also contribute to the humorous effect.

But humor may be achieved even when the tone is not humorous. Some writers as M. Twain, St. Leacock often develop humor using a mock-serious tone, maintaining all the while a perfectly "straight face". In such cases humor is developed through situation and character. Humor may be attained by a funny incident when a character finds himself in an amusing or ridiculous situation, or by a comical personage who says or does absurd things. Humor may be achieved by unexpected turns of events which catch the reader off guard, amazing and amusing him.

The object of humor is generally a funny incident or an odd feature of human character. When the writer ridicules social vices and weaknesses of human nature that are typical of social groups or classes, the humor is then ironical or satirical humor. Mistaken Identity serves to be an illustration of satirical humor. In a most amusing way the writer ridicules such socially conditioned vices as servility and vanity. Humor is intended to improve imperfections by means of laughter, whereas irony always conveys an obviously negative attitude and is intended to mock and satirize.

Irony is identified as a double sense which arises from contrast. It is a wide-ranging phenomenon and may be achieved both by linguistic and extra-linguistic means. Verbal (or linguistic) irony is manifested in a word or a sentence which in a particular context acquires a meaning opposite of what it generally has. Irony in such a case suggests the discrepancy between

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