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A guide for understanding

AESTHETIC FEATURES

Aesthetic Features refers to those aspects of texts that prompt emotional

and critical reactions. As such, the aesthetic is closely tied to
reader/audience positioning. They are largely “poetic” features. Aesthetic
features and stylistic devices may draw upon and interplay with textual
features used for other purposes.

&

STYLISTIC DEVICES

Stylistic devices are aspects of texts (such as words, sentences, images),

how they are arranged, and how they affect meaning. Examples of
stylistic devices include: narrative viewpoint, approaches to
characterisation, structure of stanzas, juxtaposition, nominalisation and
lexical choice in literature and writing.
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Aesthetic features and stylistic devices – English Syllabus definitions

Engaging with aesthetic texts ‘allows us to rehearse different ways of seeing the world and different
emotional reactions’ (Misson & Morgan 2006, p. 136). Such engagement is crucial for developing empathy.

The aesthetic is far more than that which is simply ‘beautiful’ in a text. It refers to the complex relationship
between perception and sensation, and encompasses a wide range of emotional and critical responses to
texts.

Aesthetic features and stylistic devices refer to those aspects of texts that prompt emotional and critical
reactions. As such, the aesthetic is closely tied to reader/audience positioning. Aesthetic features and
stylistic devices may draw upon and interplay with textual features already used for other purposes.

The experience of reading aesthetic texts and the experience of writing them are closely interrelated. The
more students engage with the aesthetic dimension of texts, the more they learn to read with their own
writing in mind, and write with their reader in mind.

Creators of aesthetic texts, including students as writers, engage in a creative process when crafting texts.
This process involves manipulating, refining, and experimenting with language choices and text structures
to produce more successful texts.

Style refers to the distinctive ways in which aspects of texts are arranged, the ways particular techniques
and forms have been used to create an imaginative reality, and how these arrangements, techniques and
forms affect the reading or viewing experience of an audience. Style can distinguish the work of individual
writers, the work of a particular period, or works of a particular genre or type of text.

Examples of aesthetic features include:

• poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, imagery, metaphor, personification, simile, symbolism
• written devices such as imagery, irony, metaphor, motif, personification, representation, symbolism
• spoken devices such as imagery, motif, rhetoric, symbolism
• film devices such as costuming, editing, imagery, motif, photography, screenplay, symbolism
• dramatic devices such as costuming, dialogue, motif, style, symbolism.
Stylistic devices can be any literary device or technique, such as:

• text structures
• juxtaposition, e.g. of two contrasting settings
• approaches to narration
• the use of narrative viewpoint
• approaches to characterisation
• use of figurative devices
• use of rhetorical devices, e.g. repetition
• control of sentence length and form
• literary patterns and variations
• sound devices
• visual devices.
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Aesthetic features
Aesthetic Features refers to those aspects of texts that prompt emotional and critical reactions; as such, the
aesthetic is closely tied to reader/audience positioning; aesthetic features and stylistic devices may draw
upon and interplay with textual features used for other purposes. They are mostly “poetic” features.

Examples of aesthetic features include:

poetic devices written devices spoken devices film devices dramatic devices
alliteration imagery images costuming costuming
assonance irony motifs editing dialogue
imagery metaphors rhetoric imagery motifs
metaphors motifs symbolism motifs style
personification personification photography symbolism
simile representation screenplay props
symbolism symbolism symbolism stagecraft

Stylistic Devices
Stylistic Devices aspects of texts (such as words, sentences, images), how they are arranged, and how they affect
meaning; examples of stylistic devices include narrative viewpoint, approaches to characterisation, structure of
stanzas, juxtaposition, nominalisation and lexical choice In literature and writing. Stylistic Elements are the use of
any of a variety of techniques to give an auxiliary meaning, idea, or feeling to the literal or written.
Contents

1 Figurative language 2.6 Onomatopoeia

1.1 Simile 3 Structure
1.2 Metaphor 3.1 Formal structure
1.3 Synecdoche 3.2 Storyline and plot
1.4 Metonymy 3.3 Plot structure
1.5 Personification 3.3.1 Flashback
1.6 Apostrophe 3.3.2 Frame story
1.7 Charactonym 3.4 Foreshadowing
1.8 Symbol 3.5 Allusion
1.9 Allegory 4 Irony
1.10 Imagery 4.1 Verbal irony
1.11 Motif 4.2 Situational irony
1.12 Paradox 4.3 Dramatic irony
2 Sound techniques 5 Register
2.1 Rhyme
5.1 Diction
2.2 Alliteration
5.2 Syntax
2.3 Assonance
2.4 Consonance 5.3 Voice
2.5 Rhythm 5.4 Tone

Figurative language
A figure of speech is any way of saying something other than the ordinary way. Figurative language is language
using figures of speech.
Simile
The easiest stylistic device to identify is a simile, signalled by use of the words "like" or "as". A simile is a comparison
used to attract the reader's attention and describe something in descriptive terms.
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Example: "From up here on the fourteenth floor, my brother Charley looks like an insect scurrying among other
insects."
Example: The beast had eyes as big as baseballs and teeth as long as knives.
Example: She put her hand to the boy's head, which was steaming like a hot train.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a comparison that does not use the words "like" or "as". Metaphors can span over multiple sentences.
Example: "That boy is like a machine." is a simile but "That boy is a machine!" is a metaphor.
Synecdoche
Synecdoche occurs when a part of something is used to refer to the whole. Many examples of synecdoche are
idioms, common to the language.
Example: Workers can be referred to as 'pairs of hands', and a vehicle as one's 'wheels'.
Metonymy
Metonymy is similar to synecdoche, but instead of a part representing the whole, a related object or part of a related
object is used to represent the whole. Often it is used to represent the whole of an abstract idea.
Example: The phrase "The king's guns were aimed at the enemy," using 'guns' to represent infantry.
Example: The word 'crown' may be used metonymically to refer to the king or queen, and at times to the law of the
land.
Personification
Giving human or animal characteristics to inanimate objects.
Example: The wind whistled through the trees. (Wind cannot whistle, humans whistle.)
Apostrophe
Similar to 'personification' but direct. The speaker addresses someone absent or dead, or addresses an inanimate or
abstract object as if it were human.
Charactonym
This is when the name of a character has a symbolic meaning. For example, in Dickens' Great Expectations, Miss
Havisham has a sham, or lives a life full of pretence. In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Rev. Dimmesdale
metaphorically fades away (dims) as the novel progresses, while Chillingworth has a cold (chilled) heart.
Symbol
A symbol may be an object, a person, a situation, an action, a word, or an idea that has literal meaning in the story as
well as an alternative identity that represents something else.[4] It is used as an expressive way to depict an idea.
The symbol generally conveys an emotional response far beyond what the word, idea, or image itself dictates.
Example: A heart standing for love. (One might say "It broke my heart" rather than "I was really upset")
Example: A sunrise portraying new hope. ("All their fears melted in the face of the newly risen sun.")
Allegory
An allegory is a story that has a second meaning, usually by endowing characters, objects or events with symbolic
significance. The entire story functions symbolically; often a pattern relates each literal item to a corresponding
abstract idea or principle. Although the surface story may have its own interest, the author's major interest is in the
ulterior meaning.
Imagery
This is when the author invokes sensory details. Often, this is simply to draw a reader more deeply into a story by
helping the reader visualize what is being described. However, imagery may also symbolize important ideas in a
story.
For example, the plot of the Animal Farm is based on a series of images which gave expression to the experience of
totalitarianism.
Motif
When a word, phrase, image, or idea is repeated throughout a work or several works of literature.
For example, in Ray Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains", he describes a futuristic "smart house" in a
post-nuclear-war time period. All life is dead except for one dog, which dies in the course of the story. However,
Bradbury mentions mice, snakes, robins, swallows, giraffes, antelopes, and many other animals in the course of the
story. This animal motif establishes a contrast between the past, when life was flourishing, and the story's present,
when all life is dead.
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Motifs may also be used to establish mood (as the blood motif in Shakespeare's Macbeth), for foreshadowing (as
when Mary Shelley, in Frankenstein, mentions the moon almost every time the creature is about to appear), to
support the theme (as when, in Sophocles' drama Oedipus Rex, the motif of prophecy strengthens the theme of the
irresistibility of the gods), or for other purposes.
Paradox
In literary terminology, a paradox is an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless somehow true. [6] Paradox can
take the form of an oxymoron, overstatement or understatement. Paradox can blend into irony.

Sound techniques
Rhyme
The repetition of identical or similar sounds, usually accented vowel sounds and succeeding consonant sounds at the
end of words, and often at the ends of lines of prose or poetry.
For example, in the following lines from a poem by A.E. Housman, the last words of both lines rhyme with each
other.
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words.
Example: "...many a man is making friends with death/ Even as I speak, for lack of love alone." (Edna St. Vincent
Millay's "Sonnet 30").
Alliteration is used by an author to create emphasis, to add beauty to the writing style, and occasionally to aid in
shaping the mood. It is also used to create a rhythm and musical effect on the reader's mind as well.
Assonance
Similar to alliteration, in which vowel sounds are repeated. They are usually in the middle of a word.
Example: "batter that mattered", "the blue bulging plug."
Consonance
Similar to alliteration, but the consonants are at the ends of words.
Example: "odds and ends", "short and sweet".
Rhythm
It is most important in poetry, but also used in prose for emphasis and aesthetic gain.
Example: The fallibly irrevocable cat met its intrinsic match in the oppositional form of a dog.
Onomatopoeia
This includes words that sound like their meaning, or imitations of sounds.
Example: "The bees were buzzing"

Structure
Formal structure
Formal structure refers to the forms of a text. In the first place, a text is either a novel, a drama, a poem (a form of
poem) or some other "form" of literature or a film, a documentary, a televised series etc. However, this term can
also refer to the length of lines, stanzas, or cantos in poems, as well as sentences, paragraphs, or chapters in prose.
Furthermore, such visible structures as dialogue versus narration are also considered part of formal structure.
Storyline and plot
The storyline is the chronological account of events that follow each other in the narrative. Plot includes the
storyline, and is more; it includes the way in which elements in the story interact to create complexity, intrigue, and
surprise. Plot is often created by having separate threads of storyline interact at critical times and in unpredictable
ways, creating unexpected twists and turns in the overall storyline.
Plot structure
Plot structure refers to the configuration of a plot in terms of its exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and
resolution/denouement. For example, Dickens' novel Great Expectations is noted for having only a single page of
exposition before the rising action begins, while The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien has an unusually lengthy
falling action. Plot can also be structured by use of devices such as flashbacks, framing and epistolary elements.
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Flashback
A flashback (which is one of the most easily recognized utilization of plot structure) is a scene in a writing which
occurs outside of the current timeline, before the events that are actually occurring in the story. It is used to explain
plot elements, give background and context to a scene, or explain characteristics of characters or events.
For instance, one chapter may be at the present time in a character's life, and then the next chapter might be the
character's life years ago. The second chapter gives meaning to the first, as it explains other events the character
experienced and thus puts present events in context. In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, the first short chapter
occurs in the narrative's real time; most of the remainder of the book is a flashback.
Frame story
When there is a lengthy flashback comprising more than half of the text, a frame story is the portion outside the
flashback. For example, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein uses the adventures of a sea captain as a frame story for the
famous tale of the scientist and his creation. Occasionally, an author will have an unfinished frame, such as in Henry
James's "The Turn of the Screw". The lack of a finishing frame in this story has the effect of leaving the reader
disoriented, adding to the disturbed mood of the story.
Foreshadowing
This is when the author drops clues about what is to come in a story, which builds tension and the reader's suspense
throughout the book.
Example: The boy kissed his mother and warmly embraced her, oblivious to the fact that this was the last time he
would ever see her.
Allusion
Allusion is a reference to something from history or literature.

Irony
Verbal irony
This is the simplest form of irony, in which the speaker says the opposite of what he or she intends. There are several
forms, including euphemism, understatement, sarcasm, and some forms of humour.
Situational irony
This is when the author creates a surprise that is the perfect opposite of what one would expect, often creating
either humour or an eerie feeling. For example, in Steinbeck's novel The Pearl, one would think that Kino and Juana
would have become happy and successful after discovering the "Pearl of the World", with all its value. However,
their lives changed dramatically for the worse after discovering it.
Similarly, in Shakespeare's Hamlet, the title character almost kills King Claudius at one point, but resists because
Claudius is praying and therefore may go to heaven. As Hamlet wants Claudius to go to hell, he waits. A few
moments later, after Hamlet leaves the stage, Claudius reveals that he doesn't really mean his prayers ("words
without thoughts never to heaven go"), so Hamlet should have killed him after all.
The way to remember the name is that it's for an ironic situation.
Dramatic irony
Dramatic Irony is when the reader knows something important about the story that one or more characters in the
story do not know. For example, in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, the drama of Act V comes from the fact
that the audience knows Juliet is alive, but Romeo thinks she's dead. If the audience had thought, like Romeo, that
she was dead, the scene would not have had anywhere near the same power.
Likewise, in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", the energy at the end of the story comes from the fact that we
know the narrator killed the old man, while the guests are oblivious. If we were as oblivious as the guests, there
would be virtually no point to the story.
The way to remember the name is that dramatic irony adds to the drama of the story.
See Irony for a more detailed discussion, and definitions of other forms of irony.

Register
Diction
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Diction is the choice of specific words to communicate not only meaning, but emotion as well. Authors writing their
texts consider not only a word's denotation, but also its connotation. For example, a person may be described as
stubborn or tenacious, both of which have the same basic meaning, but are opposite in terms of their emotional
background (the first is an insult, while the second is a compliment). Similarly, a bargain-seeker may be described as
either thrifty (compliment) or stingy (insult). An author's diction is extremely important in discovering the narrator's
tone, or attitude.
Syntax
Sentences can be long or short, written in the active voice or passive voice, composed as simple, compound,
complex, or compound-complex. They may also include such techniques as inversion or such structures as appositive
phrases, verbal phrases (gerund, participle, and infinitive), and subordinate clauses (noun, adjective, and adverb).
These tools can be highly effective in achieving an author's purpose.
Example: The ghetto was ruled by neither German nor Jew; it was ruled by delusion. (From Night, by Elie Wiesel)
In this sentence, Wiesel uses two parallel independent clauses written in the passive voice. The first clause
establishes suspense about who actually rules the ghetto, and then the first few words of the second clause set up
the reader with the expectation of an answer, which is metaphorically revealed only in the final word of the
sentence.
Voice
In grammar, there are two voices: active and passive. These terms can be applied to whole sentences or to verbs.
Verbs also have tense, aspect and mode. There are three tenses: past, present and future. There are two main
aspects: perfect and progressive. Some grammarians refer to aspects as tenses, but this is not strictly correct, as the
perfect and progressive aspects convey information other than time. There are many modes (also called moods).
Some important ones are: declarative, affirmative, negative, emphatic, conditional, imperative, interrogative and
subjunctive.
Tone
Tone expresses the writer's or speaker's attitude toward the subject, the reader, or herself or himself.
Rhetorical device
Is a technique that an author or speaker uses to convey to the listener or reader a meaning with the goal of
persuading them towards considering a topic from a different perspective, using sentences designed to encourage or
provoke an emotional display of a given perspective or action. Rhetorical devices can be used to evoke an emotional
response in the audience, but that is not their primary purpose.

Example: Animal Farm: Use of Aesthetic & Stylistic Devices.

 George Orwell's Animal Farm is an allegoric fairy tale type novella that uses irony, satire, and allegory to portray
the true identity of media censored Communist Russia.
 Orwell despised all forms of oppressive governance and was himself disillusioned by the abuse of power he had
seen. In his allegorical fable then he uses satire to show his disapproval of the "system." Satire makes light of a
very serious issue by making it almost ridiculous and is a literary technique widely used.
 Unfortunately, things aren't peaceful for long. When Napoleon gets drunk, this is situational irony because the
catalyst for the revolution was Jones being a drunkard and neglecting the farm. An example of dramatic irony is
when the commandments are changed.
 The whole book of Animal Farm is a metaphor for the Russian revolution. Many of the characters in George
Orwell's book represent real people. Animalism is the same idea as communism; both were supposed to fix
problems, all people and animals were meant to be equal, with no owners, no rich, no poor.
 The plot structure of Animal Farm is fairly simple and straightforward. The first chapters are concerned with the
rising action, when the animals rebel and seize the farm, when Snowball and Napoleon vie for leadership, when
Snowball is expelled, and when Napoleon sets himself up as the dictatorial leader of the farm
 The language Orwell uses in Animal Farm is simple, clear and accessible. Description and dialogue are kept to a
minimum and Orwell avoids sentimentality - even the most heart-breaking sections of the text are very direct in
style. ... Through the pigs, Orwell shows how rhetoric can be a powerful tool of manipulation.
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 Squealer uses language to keep Napoleon in power. His use of language helps to construct truth that is
acceptable to the power structure. He uses language as a means to consolidate power. ... It is in this light that
Squealer uses language and its enhancing of social control.
 Rhetoric is used throughout Napoleon's rise to power. It is used to keep the animals (excluding pigs, of course)
from realizing the chasm between what really is happening and what they want to happen. ... Napoleon uses
Squealer to spread his propaganda
 The point is that an allusion can be inferred from the reader's perspective. However, if you want the allusion
that Orwell had in mind when he wrote Animal Farm, the most significant allusion is with the U.S.S.R. (now
Russia). Napoleon represents Stalin and Snowball is Trotsky.
 An allegory is a narrative that uses literary devices to unveil hidden meanings. Animal Farm is an allegorical
commentary on what went wrong when Czarist Russia evolved into Communist Russia.
 Animal Farm, known at the beginning and the end of the novel as the Manor Farm, symbolizes Russia and the
Soviet Union under Communist Party rule. But more generally, Animal Farm stands for any human society, be it
capitalist, socialist, fascist, or communist.
 Old Major who symbolizes a representative of Marxist and Leninist ideology and who initiated the revolution.
“He was twelve years old and had lately grown rather stout, but he was still a majestic-looking pig, with a wise
and benevolent appearance in spite of the fact that his tushes had never been cut”. (p. 2)
 The windmill in Animal Farm symbolizes industry and technology in the Soviet Union. Snowball, like Leon
Trotsky, has big, exciting ideas on how to improve productivity and make life better for the animals
 In Animal Farm, the milk and apples symbolize the unfairness of the system that the pigs run. In a larger sense,
the milk and apples symbolize the graft that the communist party elite, including Stalin, carried out in the Soviet
Union.
 The whip comes to symbolise the animals' revolution. When Mr Jones has gone, the animals throw the whips
into a fire and this shows that the whip is a symbol of their new-found freedom. Later, in Chapter Ten, Napoleon
is seen carrying a whip.
 The story is told from the point of view of the common animals of Animal Farm, though it refers to them in the
third person plural as “they.” tone. For the most part, the tone of the novel is objective, stating external facts
and rarely digressing into philosophical meditations.
 Animal Farm, a novel by George Orwell, was a story of courage and corrupt government. It was set on a farm in
England. This setting is very important to the story itself and the characters in it. ... They form a government
where the most intelligent pigs are in control.
 Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s
major themes. Animal Farm is filled with songs, poems, and slogans, including Major’s stirring “Beasts of
England,” Minimus’s ode to Napoleon, the sheep’s chants, and Minimus’s revised anthem, “Animal Farm, Animal
Farm.” All of these songs serve as propaganda, one of the major conduits of social control. By making the
working-class animals speak the same words at the same time, the pigs evoke an atmosphere of grandeur and
nobility associated with the recited text’s subject matter. The songs also erode the animals’ sense of individuality
and keep them focused on the tasks by which they will purportedly achieve freedom. State Ritual
As Animal Farm shifts gears from its early revolutionary fervour to a phase of consolidation of power in the
hands of the few, national rituals become an ever more common part of the farm’s social life. Military awards,
large parades, and new songs all proliferate as the state attempts to reinforce the loyalty of the animals. The
increasing frequency of the rituals bespeaks the extent to which the working class in the novella becomes ever
more reliant on the ruling class to define their group identity and values.
 Squealer peppers his speeches with rhetorical questions which he intends to answer himself. “You do not
imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? – “Do you know what would
happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back!” – “surely there is no
one among you who wants to see Jones come back?” Additionally, Old Major uses rhetorical questions to great
effect: '”Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours?” – “But is this simply the order of nature? Is it
because this land of ours is so poor, that it cannot afford a decent life to those who dwell upon it?” – “Why then
do we continue in this miserable condition?” – “And you, Clover, where are those four foals-you bore, who
should have been the support and pleasure of your old age?” – “What then must we do?”
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Example: Of Mice & Men: Use of Aesthetic & Stylistic Devices.

 While Of Mice and Men occurs in a very specific time and place, each of the characters can be thought of as
symbolizing broader populations.
 Steinbeck does use an omniscient point of view in his writings in Of Mice and Men. He also denotes certain
foreshadowing that might go unnoticed if the reader is not paying attention. Steinbeck's descriptions are rich
and detailed and he utilizes adjectives that give a description to everything.
 There are several examples of verbal irony in Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. In chapter one Lennie insists that he
can go live in a cave when George becomes angry about the dead mouse Lennie has been carrying.
 John Steinbeck actually used personification in his book "Of Mice and Men". On page 17 was a line of
personification, "The sycamore leaves whispered in the wind." Meaning that the sycamore leaves made noise as
the wind passed by them.
 Foreshadowing: The dead mice indicate that death may occur later on in the novel. Because he does not realize
his own strength, Lennie additionally kills a puppy, and eventually Curley's wife. Another event that indicates
foreshadowing is also in the first chapter of the story.
 Steinbeck also uses imagery to advance the plot of the story and introduce conflict. One such example is the
tactile imagery that is used. Lennie loves to touch soft things. He is described as petting a dead mouse in his
pocket, and later he loves to feel the soft fur of his puppy.
 Another symbol is the rabbits. ... His love of soft things leads to his death. Also, one of the symbols in the novel
Of Mice and Men is Candy's old dog being shot.
 The farm symbolizes the possibility of freedom, self-reliance, and protection from the cruelties of the world.
 Lennie’s puppy is one of several symbols that represent the victory of the strong over the weak.
 Candy’s dog symbolizes the fate awaiting anyone who has outlived his or her purpose.
 Women are a motif for the Corrupting Power of Women. George believes their enticing sexuality, he believes,
tempts men to behave in ways they would otherwise not.
 The motif of Loneliness and Companionship is seen with many of the characters admit to suffering from
profound loneliness.
 Steinbeck explores the motif of strength and weakness throughout the novella.
 Steinbeck uses poetic language to build the imagery of the opening scene of the farm. Through his description of
“Golden Foothill slopes”, a river that “runs deep and green” and “sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent
limbs”, Steinbeck is showing the natural beauty of the setting.
 In contrast, the diction between Lennie and George uses swear words, as George tells Lennie “Jesus Christ,
you’re a crazy bastard!” Through this juxtaposition, Steinbeck also provides a stark backdrop to the violent
language and feelings that characters like George have against women.
 Steinbeck used diction that illustrates the uneducated backgrounds of Lennie and George. In their dialogue, he
spells words incorrectly to show how the characters pronounce the word: For example, “Jes’” instead of “Just”
and “awready” instead of “already”
 Steinbeck uses figurative language to repeatedly make comparisons between Lennie and animals in the form of
metaphors. For example, Steinbeck describes Lennie as “snorting into the water like a horse” and “dabbled his
big paw in the water.”
 Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men in a play format, using a circular pattern of locales, condensed narration,
minimal action descriptions, dramatic lighting, and foreshadowing to connect his plot.
 The locales are perfectly balanced in a circular pattern. There are six scenes in groups of two, producing three
"acts." The first and last scene take place near the bank of the river so that the plot comes full circle. In the
middle are two scenes in the bunkhouse, and two scenes in the barn, the latter including Crooks' room which is
in the barn.
 In each of these scenes, Steinbeck develops an interesting pattern of general to specific. For example, in the first
scene by the river, Steinbeck begins with a "camera shot" of the entire scene so the reader can take in the
mountains, the sun, the river, and all of nature in the vicinity. Then he focuses in on a path and then — still more
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— on two men walking down that path. At the end of the first scene the author does just the opposite. The focus
is on the two men settling down for the night and then the "camera" pulls out and expands the scene to include
the night, the fire, and hills
 Two other stage conventions include the entrances and exits by characters and, at the beginning of each scene,
the setting descriptions. In each scene are entrances and exits by the characters. For example, when Chapter 4
opens, Crooks is sitting in his room applying liniment to his back. Next, Lennie appears in the open doorway,
waiting to be asked in. Eventually, other characters make entrances: Candy and Curley's wife. Then Curley's wife
exits, George enters, and the three men exit, leaving Crooks alone once again.
 A dramatic format is used also for the beginning of scenes. Each starts with a sparse description of the setting,
much like a playwright would do at the beginning of a play scene. The first and last scenes have descriptions of
nature and set the atmosphere for the action. In between these scenes are brief setting descriptions of the
bunkhouse and Crooks' room in the barn and the barn itself.
 The whole novel contains very little narration. Instead, Steinbeck relies heavily on the words and actions of his
characters. A careful study of each chapter reveals that, after the initial description of the setting, most pages
contain almost all dialogue with very short introductory phrases.
 The lighting could also be attributed to theatrical technique. The first and last scenes use the light in nature for
the focus of the lighting in the scenes. In the third chapter, the bunkhouse is dark, and it is evening.
When George and Slim come in, Slim turns on the electric light over the card table. The focus is on the
conversation at the card table with the darkness all around. From that darkness, come the voices of Lennie and
Candy, but the main focus of the scene is in the middle of the room at the card table where the light is used to
draw the reader's attention to the main arena of action. Light and darkness work through the novel to focus the
reader's attention, much like light and darkness on the stage accomplish a similar purpose.
 Overall, Steinbeck's novel is tightly structured and intentionally written in an arrangement that uses theatre
conventions to produce unity and convey a message.

Example: “War Poetry”: Use of Aesthetic & Stylistic Devices.

 Words to describe images might include: vivid, graphic, forceful, unexpected, unusual, unadorned, stark, harsh,
gentle, peaceful, beautiful, romantic, simple or clear.

 ‘Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed  ‘And flashed his beam across the livid face.
through sludge’ Terribly glaring up’
 ‘Gently its touch awoke him once’  ‘their shadows are tracing the blue curve of the
 ‘The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells’ Pacific’
 ‘Morning rolls them in the foam’  ‘In hearts at peace under an English heaven’
 ‘ the last signature of men’

 Imagery is created by:

Words
 'guttering' ' froth-corrupted' 'pallor' 'flowers'
Sometimes they are made into a list which gives them the strength of numbers, even though each word in itself
may be simple and/or lack elaboration: 'Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes too vague to know'; 'curly heads', Kinky
hairs, crew-cuts, balding non-corns.’

Phrases

 ‘no prayers nor bells'  ' the clays of a cold star'

 'obscene as cancer'  ‘agony dying hard'
 'on to small towns'  'green plastic bag
 'a shafted stair"
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Similes

 'like old beggars under sacks'  'like leaves from a wintering tree'
 'like a man in fire or lime'

Metaphors

 'spider grief swings in his bitter geometry'  'prying torch with patching glare'
 'the steaming chow mein'  'unloading hell behind him'
 'enlisted on the other front'

Personification

 'The kind old sun will know'  'Dawn's ghost'

 'O what made fatuous sunbeams toil / To break  'The breath of the wet season has washed their
earth's sleep at all?' inscriptions'
 'the monstrous anger of the guns'  ' the knuckled hills'
 'bugles calling for them from sad shires'

Transferred epithets

 'innocent tongues' Oxymoron

 'desperate glory'  'rosy gloom'
 'the old, ridiculous curvatures of earth'  'an ecstacy of fumbling'

Remember, it is the EFFECT that the words produce that is important. Put another way, what you as a commentator,
or critic, of a poem are judging is the way in which the poet has been able to strengthen and enrich what he wants to
say by the WAY he has said it.

Your judgment will take in not only the denotation (meaning) and connotation (associations of meaning) of words,
but also the sounds of words.

Sounds
 enhance the appeal of poetry
 add to the meaning by emphasizing the moods and feelings and tone in the work
 add to the vividness of imagery.

Sounds can:
 be repeated: assonance, consonance, alliteration,
 imitate: onomatopoeia, rhyme. rhyme, eye rhyme, half rhyme, internal rhyme,
 create rhythms
 produce various effects (this category overlaps with the ones above) -
Some sounds are intrinsically soft (m., p, th in thin)
“ “ “ “ clicking (k)
“ “ “ “ hissing (s, z, sh)
“ “ “ “ plosive (p, b. t, d, ch, j in judge)
“ “ “ “ liquid (l, r)
“ “ “ “ humming(m,n, ing)

 Give a feeling of speed or slowness · e"g. Many long vowel sounds close together will slow down the speed
at which the line(s) can be said.

 If you put several of the same sounds together, you will produce an effect (that should enhance the meaning
of the phrase or line:
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 ‘stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle'  ‘If I should die, think only this of me / That
 ‘The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells’ there’s some corner of a foreign field /
 'And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds' That is forever England’'
 'Gently its touch awoke him once /  'And laughter learned of friends; and
Whispering of fields unsown’
gentleness / In hearts at peace, under an
 'Woke. once, the clays of a cold star’ English heaven’
 ‘ The convoys of dead sailors come’  ‘All day, day after day they’re bringing
 'To pluck them from the shallows and them home / they’re picking them up,
bury them in burrows’ those they can find, and bringing them
 "To the dazed, muttering creatures home"
underground / Who hear the boom of  ‘In their sterile housing they tilt towards
shells in a muffled sound’ these like skiers
 ‘ He winked his prying torch with patching  ‘telegrams tremble like leaves from a
glare / From side to side, and sniffed the wintering tree’
unwholesome air’'  ‘Come gargling from the froth-corrupted
 ‘Tins, boxes, bottles, shapes to vague to lungs / Obscene as cancer, bitter as the
know / A mirror smashed, the mattress cud / Of vile incurable sores on innocent
from a bed’ tongues’ ‘And watch the white eyes
 'And flashed his beam across the livid writhing in his face / His hanging face, like
face/ Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet a devil’s sick of sin’
wore / Agony dying hard ten days before’

How do you write about sounds when discussing a poem?

An example using ‘Beach Burial':
Apart from the stark images such as "nakedness', 'driven stakes of tide-wood', Slessor expresses the pity
that the 'convoys of dead sailors' arouse in him by using soft images and soft sounds, made more gentle by
the use of fairly regular rhythm. It alters where the meaning requires it, such as, ' but morning rolls them in
the foam' and half rhymes, 'at night they sway and wander in the waters far under'. The war scene is also
effectively evoked by the onomatopoeia of ‘sob and clubbing of the gunfire’.