Stylistic Features of Oscar Wilde`s Wrightings, Детальна інформація

Mrs. Allonby: Ah, Ernest has a chin. He has a very

strong chin, a square chin. Ernest’s chin is far too square.

Lady S.: But do you really think a man’s chin can be

too square? I think a man should look very strong and

that his should be quite square.” (p.115)

As a rule, when two meanings of the word are played upon, one of them is direct, the other is figurative, which can be illustrated by some of the above mentioned examples. So, we can see, that irony and pun also play the very important role in Wilde’s plays. The effect of these stylistic devices is based on the author’s attitude to the English bourgeois society. Thus irony and pun help Wilde to show that majority of his heroes are the typical representatives of the bourgeois society: thoughtless, frivolous, greedy, envious, mercenary people. They call themselves “Ladies and gentlemen”, but with the help of these stylistic devices Wilde shows that intelligence is their mask. Credit must be given to Wilde for being brilliant in his witticism. A play upon contrasts and contradictions lies at the basis of author’s sarcastic method in portraying his characters. The dynamic quality of Wilde’s plays is increased by the frequent ironical sentences and puns. These stylistic devices convey the vivid sense of reality in the picture of the 19-th century English upper-class society.

Wilde’s realism with its wonderful epigrams and paradoxes, brilliant irony and amusing puns initiates the beginning of a new era in the development of the English play.

EPITHET

Epithet is another stylistic device used by Oscar Wilde.

According to Prof. Galperin I.R., Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used to characterise an object and pointing out to the reader and frequently imposing on him.15

According to Prof. Sosnovskaya V.B., Epithet is an attributive characterisation of a person, thing or phenomenon. It is, as a rule, simple in form. In the majority of cases it consists of one word: adjective or adverb, modifying respectively nouns or verbs.16

e.g. “I tell you that had it ever occurred to me, that such a

monstrous suspicion would have entered your mind, I

would have died rather than have crossed your life.”

(p.64)

Epithet on the whole shows purely individual emotional attitude of the speaker towards the object spoken of, it describes the object as it appears to the speaker. Epithet expresses a characteristic of an object, both existing and imaginary. Its basic features are its emotiveness and subjectivity: the characteristic attached to the object to qualify it is always chosen by the speaker himself.

e.g. “Mabel Chiltern is a perfect example of the English type

of prettiness, the apple-blossom type”. (p.175)

“It means a very brilliant future in store for you”.(p.97)

“What an appalling philosophy that sounds!” (p.179)

“But I tell you that the only bitter words that ever came

from those sweet lips of hers were on your account,

and I hate to see you next her”. (p.80)

According to these examples, we can say that Epithet is a word or word combination which in its attributive use discloses the individual emotionally coloured attitude of the writer to the object he describes. It is a form of subjective evaluation. It is a description brief and compact which singles out the things described.

e.g. “Lips that have lost the note of joy, eyes that are

blinded by tears, chill hands and icy heart”. (p. 60)

“If we have enough of them, they will forgive us

everything, even our gigantic intellects”. (p. 142)

“And now tell me, what makes you leave you brilliant

Vienna for our gloomy London”. (p.180)