Interpretation of literary

III. Poetic Details and Stylistic Devices. Exposing social inequality 
and evils resulting from it, the author chose contrast as an underlying 
literary device which logically opposses the characters of 2 
irreconcilable classes. 
Even, at the very beginning of the story, when Nathan and 
Tony, both still belonged to the working class, the author gives 

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characterological details in distinct opposition: qualities valuable for the 
propertied class—qualities unacceptable (or the propertied class (steady, 
silent, dignified—happy-go-lucky). Even this depicting detail".,, wore 
cloth uppers to his best boots", which seems insignificant at first sight 
accentuates Nathan's orderliness, thrift and reserve (evidently all 
pressbuttons are clasped), the qualities indispensable for a bourgeois. At 
the same time the depicting detail describing Tony through the 
meliorative epithet "handsome" doesn't denote a feature by which capital 
sets great store and that is convincingly proved by the ugly looks of the 
"grand man" married by Olive. The depicting details expressed through 
the pejorative epithets and simile "small, sharp nose", "bouncing red 
cheeks", "as two hills hide a barn in a valley" show that his repulsive
looks didn't prevent him from acquiring wealth, while Tony with his 
good looks remained poor. 
Speaking of the poetic details we must remark their scarcity. For 
instance, there is only one implication detail "The trustee went on 
lending the Braddle money to the country". Coppard defines the money 
as Braddle's but not Regent's because he wants to stress the fact that it 
was accumulated from the profits created by the Braddlc workers. The 
authenticity details are also very rare; "2 young men lived in Braddle", 
the Regents lived just outside Braddle", "Olive of the same age as 
Nancy" etc. It is necessary to point out that Braddle is given as a very 
vague authenticity detail, its geographic position on the map is not even 
mentioned, maybe it is a non-existent town. This fact fulfils a special 
function in the pamphlet. It helps to generalize the events and to show 
that the case of Braddle is typical of the entire country. 
The contrast between the two characters is further realized 
through abundant stylistic devices. 
The metaphor "... carried the good will of Patience in his handsome 
face", hyperbole"... in his pocket at the end of his nickel •watch-chain"
characterize Tony as a frank, open-hearted fellow overpowered by 
his feelings, while Nathan was a soberminded calculating person.
He wasn't heart-broken after Patience's refusal and "... turned his 
attention to other things, among them la a girl ...". The stylistic device 
"bathos" used here makes it possible to join together concepts belonging 
to different classes "inanimate-animate", a girl is non-chalantly reduced 
to the level of a thing. That reveals Nathan's unromantic, businesslike 
approach to matrimonial affairs and the metonymy "Nathan married 
that (a neat little fortune) illustrates his commercial grasping nature, 

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However his wife appreciated his qualities because they were birds of a 
feather and she was rather a shrewd, sharp-witted person, anxious for 
social advancement, as the negatively-charged epithets "... a cute 
ambitious wife" prove it, 
After Nathan's marriage the contrast in social position and wealth 
between the 2 young men grows very fast. It is expressed very vividly 
by the triple repetition of the identical phrase "Tony went on working at 
the mill" that is mentioned 3 times within one paragraph accentuating 
every step in Nathan's career: 1. Manager of the department, 2. joint 
managers, 3. owner of the entire concern. 
The deliberate alliteration "possessions-position" in one sentence 
also contributes to the contrast, pointing to Tony's falling standard of 
living due to the growing number of dependants in his family. 
The contrast between the 2 antagonistic classes is particularly vivid 
in the 2 sentences: "Almost everybody in Braddle. . . nor sullen". The 
first sentence emphasizing the consequences of constant labour with the 
help of polysyndeton and gradation "white and thin and sullen is 
opposed to the second, the anaphora "everybody" preceded by the 
negation serves as a signal of opposition; "sparkled" is opposed to 
"sullen", "neither white and, sullen" is opposed to "white and... sullen". 
The contrast comes to its apogee when the author shows how 
capitalists and workers helped the country. The capitalists lent mo ney 
and workers gave their sons. The recurrent phrase "Dan was killed in 
battle; his sister Nancy took his place at the mill". "Albert Edward was 
killed in battle; his mother took his place at the mill"—shows that it was 
a regular occurence and a mass phenomenon, the workers submissively 
reconciled themselves to their lot and didn't protest against it. They took 
it for granted that they must bring to the alter of war their own lives and 
the lives of their children, while the sacrifices of the capitalists were 
confined only to lending money which eventually returned in large sums 
of interest. 
Stylistic-devices in the sentence "The country gave Patience a widow's 
pension as ... grief" also perform very important artistic functions. The 
metonymy "the country" is used in the meaning of the Ministry of Social 
maintenance, which is closely connected with the main stylistic device 
of the sentence—bathos "gave a widow's pension as well as a touching 
inducement to marry again. Such heterogeneous concepts as pension 
(concerning the material sphere) and "inducement to marry again" 
(dealing with a very delicate sphere of human relations) are treated here 

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as phenomena of equal rank, as elements belonging to one class. That 
helps the author to reveal his critical attitude to the ruling officials, who 
looked upon women from the working class as coarse and rough, 
insensitive and emotionally unvulnerable. The sarcastic epithet 
"touching (inducement)" shows that although the advice was given in a 
very gentle manner, yet its impropriety and inaptitude are obvious and 
the author considers it a mockery of the widow's inconsolable distress 
after the death of her three beloved people. The sentence ends in an 
anticlimax which shows that contrary to the expectations of the kind 
well-wishers the heart-broken widow ceased to live. The anticlimax 
shows a callous and bureaucratic approach of the government officials to 
the victims of the war.