Stylistic Analysis of the Text

Stylistic analysis of the passage.

He was worried now - there was a quality of nervous despair in Daisy's letters. She didn't see why he couldn't come. She was feeling the pressure of the world outside, and she wanted to see him and feel his presence beside her and be reassured that she was doing the right thing after all.

For Daisy was young and her artificial world was redolent of orchids and pleasant, cheerful snobbery and orchestras which set the rhythm of the year, summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life in new tunes. All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the "Beale Street Blues" while a hundred pairs of golden and silver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the gray tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low, sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor.

Through this twilight universe Daisy began to move again with the season; suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among dying orchids on the floor beside her bed. And all the time something within her was crying for a decision. She wanted her life shaped now, immediately- and the decision must be made by some force - of love, of money, of unquestionable practicality - that was close at hand.

That force took shape in the middle of spring with the arrival of Tom Buchanan. There was a wholesome bulkiness about his person and his position, and Daisy was flattered. Doubtless there was a certain struggle and a certain relief. The letter reached Gatsby while he was still at Oxford.

(“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Extralingual parameters of the texts

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is an American author of novels and short stories. He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night and his most famous, the celebrated classic, The Great Gatsby. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the Twenties.

Functional style (genre)

“The Great Gatsby” is a novel. Style – belles-lettres.

The basic concept of the text

The novel describes the life of American society after World War I and is the critique of the “American Dream”. American society enjoyed prosperity during the "roaring" 1920s as the economy was rising.

Lexico-semantic representation of the textual collision (internal/external conflict)

Although Fitzgerald, like Nick Carraway in his novel, idolized the riches and glamour of the age, he was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and the lack of morality that went with it. This represents the internal conflict of the hero. External conflict lies in the coexistence of the hero with the society of that time.

Compositional segmentation of the text

The composition of the text is retrospective – the author often steps back from chronological sequence of events.

The author often shifts from past to present tenses. Composition is made up of events and descriptions.

Author’s speech

It is narration from the first person singular.

In the passage analyzed Nick Carraway, a narrator, talks about Gatsby and Daisy.

Character’s speech

In the passage analyzed is the monologue of the hero, Nick Carraway.

Means and devices used to actualize sense and create images

Lexical level (lexical stylistic devices):

Metaphors:

summing up the sadness and suggestiveness of life;

saxophones wailed;

slippers shuffled;

shining dust;

rooms throbbed;

dying orchids;

Epithet:

artificial world

Synecdoche:

She was feeling the pressure of the world

Oxymoron:

pleasant, cheerful snobbery

low, sweet fever

Hyperbole:

She was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men

Zeugma:

drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress

Antithesis:

there was a certain struggle and a certain relief