середа, 3 грудня 2014 р.
lexical devices
In order to portray the characters and to describe the setting convincingly the author used a wide variety of lexical devices:
Epithets: “odorous masses”, “well-bred voices”, “upward look”; “convincing beauty”, “drawling words”, “virginal charm”; “a swift, scarifying retrospect” used to expressive languages.
Metaphors: “all the garbs of pretence and egoism”, “the ruins of his self-conceit” used to express idea of the characters.
Hyperbole: “For the thousandth time he remarshalled in his mind” is to shows obsession on the problem.
Simile:“White favors like starsupon their coats shone through the gloom of the apartment”. to show preparations for event.“He had absorbed the oblation as a desert drinks the rain”, “How she fluttered like a snared bird when he laid his mightiness at her feet!” is the emotions of the women.
Oxymoron: “unworthy,sullen exultation” describes the psychological state.
Rhetoric questions: “Where was his fault?”, “Who had been to blame?”, “But why ?”, “Why had it ended thus?” to shows the mood of character.
Inversion: “Thus, and wider from this on, they had drifted apart”.: “On the table stood a singular-looking green plant in a red earthen jar.”, “For the thousandth time he remarshalled in his mind…” underlines action and place.
Personification: “…he had absorbed the oblation as a desert drinks the rain that can coax from it no promise of blossom or fruit” to shows the admiration of girl.
"The Cactus"
As is typical of the writings of O. Henry, "The Cactus" has a surprise ending. This surprise results because of the character trait about which Trysdale berates himself: "his fatuous and tardily mourned egoism." Becouse "The Cactus" is one of the greatest critiques of egotism and hypocritical conceit by O’Henry. The basic storyline is simple. Trysdale, a young man, noble, wealthy and cultured, realizes that his girl friend is excessively devoted to him and sort of worships him. She showers him with all sorts of superlative appellations and Trysdale very fondly accepts them, as naturally as the desert sand soaks up rain. He takes her for granted, since the guiding principle of his life is vanity. ‘She had always insisted on placing him upon a pedestal, and he had accepted her homage with royal dignity’. Ultimately the day comes when Trysdale proposes to her. He is sure that she would be too eager to accept him readily. She showed all kinds of emotional jubilation and her body language too had been one of eager consent.’ How glad, how shy, how tremulous she was….(There was) unmistakable consent in her eyes’, but it is her feminine modesty and coyness that results in her statement that she would send her answer the day after. The next day, Trysdale desperately awaited her reply, and his notion of himself as ‘the indulgent, confident victor’ was being deeply hurt. However, she sent through her groom a cactus plant with a tag ‘bearing a barbarous foreign or botanical name’ which he simply did not care for. Trysdale had taken the cactus as a mark of refusal or betrayal.
The story is set in Trysdale’s drawing room after the marriage ceremony of this girl was over and the scent of the huge bunches of flowers piled in the church was still haunting him. He was filled with bitterness and chagrin, trying to ruminate upon the reason for his loss and how lovingly the girl had given her to the bridegroom in a public ceremony within the church. Trysdale was deeply distressed and looked unhappy. With him, at the present moment, was his friend who happens to be the brother of the bride, who coincidentally finds the tag on the cactus and says that it was a common cactus in South America where he lived, and that the word on the tag was not a biological name, but a common Spanish word with which the plant is called. That word ‘Ventomarme’ means in Spanish “come and take me”. Trysdale now realizes his fault at ignoring the tag and the cactus sent by his proposed girl friend and instead expecting her assent in the way he expected her to give it. In his vanity Trysdale had ignored the call of bliss in his life and it was now too late to realize it.
The crux of the matter lies in a short interface between the two a long time ago. In those days of courtship or rather worship on the part of the girl, she had once asked him why he had not revealed to her his great knowledge of the Spanish language. This had been reported to her by a foolish admirer of Trysdale, one captain Carruthers. Trysdale knew very well that this was not true, that all his Spanish was mugged up from hackneyed Spanish phrases which he often learnt from the dictionaries and used them only to show off. But Trysdale was too proud to tell her the truth. She, therefore, was under the impression that he was a master of Spanish and had, therefore, very romantically assented to his proposal in the Spanish language which he had failed to comprehend, thus giving her a false impression of being rejected by him.
The story is set in Trysdale’s drawing room after the marriage ceremony of this girl was over and the scent of the huge bunches of flowers piled in the church was still haunting him. He was filled with bitterness and chagrin, trying to ruminate upon the reason for his loss and how lovingly the girl had given her to the bridegroom in a public ceremony within the church. Trysdale was deeply distressed and looked unhappy. With him, at the present moment, was his friend who happens to be the brother of the bride, who coincidentally finds the tag on the cactus and says that it was a common cactus in South America where he lived, and that the word on the tag was not a biological name, but a common Spanish word with which the plant is called. That word ‘Ventomarme’ means in Spanish “come and take me”. Trysdale now realizes his fault at ignoring the tag and the cactus sent by his proposed girl friend and instead expecting her assent in the way he expected her to give it. In his vanity Trysdale had ignored the call of bliss in his life and it was now too late to realize it.
The crux of the matter lies in a short interface between the two a long time ago. In those days of courtship or rather worship on the part of the girl, she had once asked him why he had not revealed to her his great knowledge of the Spanish language. This had been reported to her by a foolish admirer of Trysdale, one captain Carruthers. Trysdale knew very well that this was not true, that all his Spanish was mugged up from hackneyed Spanish phrases which he often learnt from the dictionaries and used them only to show off. But Trysdale was too proud to tell her the truth. She, therefore, was under the impression that he was a master of Spanish and had, therefore, very romantically assented to his proposal in the Spanish language which he had failed to comprehend, thus giving her a false impression of being rejected by him.
love demands truth and openness of heart
O’Henry suggests through "The Cactus" that love demands truth and openness of heart. Hypocrisy and pride are the anathema to the world of love.
субота, 25 жовтня 2014 р.
American author of hundreds of short stories
O. Henry, pseudonym of William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), noted American author of hundreds of short stories.
William Sidney Porter was born 11 September, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina, to physician Algernon Sidney Porter (1825-1888) and Mary Jane Virginia Swaim (1833-1865). The two brothers of William were Shirley Worth (1860) and David Weir (1865) who both died in early childhood. Mary was a graduate of Greensboro Female College (founded in 1838) now Greensboro College. She wrote poetry and had a promising artistic temperament with a natural eye for drawing and painting, surely a talent which young Will inherited. She ran her household with a firm but loving hand. Tragically she died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty when Will was only three years old. His father Sidney was a gentle and good humoured man, gregarious, and generous to a fault. Absent-minded with a long flowing beard, he travelled Guilford county visiting his patients. As was the custom of the time, he never sent invoices to his patients; they were expected to settle once a year. Without his wife to stay on top of their accounts, finances dwindled and Sidney started to drink.
After Mary's death, widower Sidney and his shy, freckle-faced son moved to his mother's farm, that of Will's paternal grandmother Ruth Coffyn Worth Porter (1805-1890). Sidney became increasingly occupied with various inventions he was developing, poking about in his workshop with such contraptions as a perpetual motion water wheel. Also living at the farm was Will's aunt, Evalina Maria Porter or "Miss Lina" as she was known. She would become the most influential person in the first 20 years of Will's life. She became teacher, parent, and mentor to him. She had started a school at her mother's home that was soon established in it's own building on the Porter property. Will studied the basics there, writing and arithmetic, and he read classic literature and poetry. He was very clever with a pencil and loved to draw caricatures.
At the age of fifteen Porter began working as a clerk in his uncle Clark Porter's store. The combined pharmacy, soda fountain, tobacco shop, and newsstand was the local gathering spot. Porter became immersed in the social scene, entertaining the customers with stories and drawing caricatures of them for which he became well known. He saw the humour in the everyday, and made notes of all the colourful characters he encountered, fodder for his future stories. He also obtained a pharmacist license in 1881. Small town life was not to hold him for long, however, and he had developed a persistent cough. Thinking that a change of climate would do him well, at the age of eighteen he moved to Texas, settling in Austin in 1884. He was already writing short stories while he held a number of jobs including pharmacist before working with the Texas Land Office. Around this time he met Athol Estes Roach. They married in 1887 and had a daughter, Margaret Worth (d.1927), in 1889. With a steady income Porter was now able to focus on his writing. In 1891 he began work as a bank teller with the First National Bank. The Porter's were living in the house which is now known as the O Henry House Museum. In 1894 Porter launched a humorous weekly magazine The Rolling Stone (no relation to the current magazine, founded in 1967.) It featured political and every day satirical articles and cartoons, all by Will himself, which he also published. 1895 found the Porter's living in Houston, Texas, where Porter started a column in the Houston Post.
After time spent in Honduras, during which Porter coined the term "banana republic", he had to return to Texas to face charges of embezzlement. His wife was also was suffering from tuberculosis and he rushed to see her. Athol died in July of 1897. At that time Margaret was living with Athol's parents. They then moved to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Margaret never knew that her father had spent time in prison. She was always told he was away on business. After inconsistencies were found with Porter's First National Bank records, Porter was charged with embezzlement. In 1898 he began a five-year sentence in Columbus, Ohio federal prison. Around this time he changed his name to Sydney. The following year, in 1899, from prison, Porter began his short story career by contributing "Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking" to McClure's Magazine. Thereafter a number of his stories written in prison appeared in print, always under a pseudonym, his favourite being "O. Henry". The general public did not know of his prison term until after his death.After being released from prison in just three years, Porter moved on to the next chapter in his life: New York City. This was where he really came into his own and all his previous life's experience served to inspire stories. Porter crafted everyday tales of myriad characters, many recurring, based in New York City with humour, wit, and realism. His stories often have a surprise or twist ending, and Porter's fans looked forward to more in such publications as World,Ainslee's, and McClure's. Porter has been compared to other masters of the short story including Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, Bret Harte, Rudyard Kipling, Mark Twain, and French author Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893). Porter also wrote numerous stories set in Western and South and Central America. Despite many of his works being panned by the critics he was becoming one of America's most popular short story authors. So much so that several collections were published including Cabbages and Kings (1904), The Four Million (1909),Options (1909), Roads of Destiny (1909), The Trimmed Lamp (1910), Strictly Business: More Stories of the Four Million (1910), Whirligigs (1910), Sixes and Sevens (1911), The Gentle Grafter (1919) and Rolling Stones (1919).
Troubled by ill-health and heavy drinking for many years, surely Porter was happy when he married his childhood sweetheart from Greensboro, Sara (Sallie) Lindsey Coleman, in 1907. But Porter was living an extravagant lifestyle amid increasing pressure to keep his commitments to publishers for more and more stories. This stress plus added financial problems led to Sara leaving in him in 1909. William Sidney Porter died of cirrhosis on 5 June, 1910. A funeral was held in New York City. He now lies buried at the Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina. His daughter was later buried beside him. His last complete short story is "Let Me Feel Your Pulse". The O. Henry Museum in Austen, Texas, open to the public, serves to preserve artifacts and archival materials related to O. Henry.
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