Sample of analysis: He has a bit of a Jekyll and Hide

Sample of analysis:

He has a bit of a Jekyll and Hide, our Austin. I think Dorina is afraid of him (Murdoch “An accidental man”).

In this fragment, the category of intertextuality is realized with the help of literary allusion. The literary allusion is expressed by proper names “Jekyll and Hide”. To understand the meaning of this allusion the reader is supposed to be familiar with a short story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide” by R.L. Stivenson. The hero of the story is of a dual character. Sometimes he appears to be a good-natured person (Dr. Jekyll), and sometimes he is an embodiment of evil (Mr. Hide). In this context the proper nouns “Jekyll and Hide” reveal the characteristic features of the personage and symbolize the concepts of “Goodness and Evil”.

Dear Pomona,

Uncle Herry has got a alotment and grow vegetables. He says what makes the mold is worms. You know we pulled all the worms out off our garden and chukked them over Miss Natehbols wall. Well, you better get some more quick a lot ask George to help you and I bring some seeds home when I comes next week by the excursion on Moms birthday.

You sincerely brother John Flynn.

The information structure of this text is built on the correlation of factual and pragmatic information. Factual information tells us about worms’ benefit to soil and the boy’s wish to do gardening at home. More significant here is, however, pragmatic information that implicitly contains knowledge about the addresser. The abundance of grammar mistakes in this letter is indicative of a low educational level and social status of the boy. At the same time this letter characterizes the boy as a loving son striving to help his mother, and as a smart keen-witted boy of a practical turn of mind.

Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. No, you couldn't have called her beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces... She was young, brilliant, extremely modern, exquisitely well dressed, amazingly well read in the newest of the new books and her parties were the most delicious mixture of the really important people and... artists - quaint creatures, discoveries of hers, some of them too terrifying for words, but others quite presentable and amusing” (Mansfield, Cup of Tea).

Here the personage’s characteristics are given in the string of the epithets, which accumulate emotions strengthening the effect of each subsequent word. It should be noted that even neutral words (young, modern, new) used in the environment of the emotively charged epithets have become stylistically marked units. Though on the whole the extract seems to have a positive evaluation of the personage, the reader cannot help noticing a subtle shade of irony. The ironical effect is achieved mainly by a stylistic device called aposiopesis. Aposiopesis is a break in the narrative used for some stylistic effect. Here the breaks in the narrative are caused by euphemistic considerations, the author’s unwillingness to proceed and give some negative characteristics of the personages. The clash between explicit positive and implicit negative evaluations entails emotions of irony and humour: (Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces…; well read in the newest of the new books; delicious mixture of the really important people; artists - quaint creatures, discoveries of hers, some of them too terrifying for words).

Although it was so brilliantly fine - the blue sky powdered with gold and great spots of light like white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques - Miss Brill was glad that she had decided on her fur. The air was motionless, but when you opened your mouth there was just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip, and now and again a leaf came drifting - from nowhere, from the sky. Miss Brill put up her hand and touched her fur. Dear little thing! It was nice to feel it again. She had taken it out of its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth-powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes. "What has been happening to me?" said the sad little eyes. Oh, how sweet it was to see them snap at her again from the red eiderdown! ... But the nose, which was of some black composition, wasn't at all firm. It must have had a knock, somehow. Never mind - a little dab of black sealing-wax when the time came - when it was absolutely necessary ... Little rogue! Yes, she really felt like that about it. Little rogue biting its tail just by her left ear. She could have taken it off and laid it on her lap and stroked it. She felt a tingling in her hands and arms, but that came from walking, she supposed. And when she breathed, something light and sad - no, not sad, exactly - something gentle seemed to move in her bosom.

This passage is highly emotive, full of imagery and implicit information. The first lines tell us about the inner psychological state of the heroine. She seems to be quite happy with her life. The abundance of SD such as epithet (brilliantly fine); metaphor (the blue sky powdered with gold); similes (great spots of light like white wine splashed over, a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip); exclamatory sentences (Dear little thing!; Little rogue!) provide evidence to a high emotional tension of this extract.

The story doesn’t contain any explicit information about Miss Brill’s age, profession, social and marital status. However, this information can be inferred from the image structure of the whole text. Miss Brill is an elderly woman and this can be proved by some descriptive details (felt a tingling in her hands and arms; when she breathed, something…. seemed to move in her bosom; old thing). Besides some depicting details of the season of the year (a faint chill; a leaf came drifting; the slender trees with yellow leaves down drooping) enable the reader to set associative links between the autumn (the period of beginning to decline) and ageing Miss Brill.