浅谈傲慢与偏见中的修辞技巧

Enjoy the Beauty of Rhetoric -------Try to talk about the rhetoric skills in pried and prejudice I. Introduction 1. Jane Austen Jane Austen, English writer, who first gave the novel its modern character through the treatment of everyday life. Although Austen was widely read in her lifetime, she published her works anonymously. The most urgent preoccupation of her young, well-bred heroines is courtship, and finally marriage. Austen's best-known books include Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1816). Virginia Woolf called her "the most perfect artist among women." Jane Austen was born in Steventon, Hampshire, where her father was a rector. She was the second daughter and seventh child in a family of eight. The first 25 years of her life Austen spent in Hampshire. She was tutored at home. Her parents were avid readers and she received a broader education than many women of her time. On her father's retirement, the family moved to Bath. Austen focused on middle-class provincial life with humor and understanding. She depicted the life of minor landed gentry, country clergymen and their families, in which marriage mainly determined women's social status. Most important for her were those little matters, as Emma says, "on which the daily happiness of private life depends." Although Austen restricted to family matters, and she passed the historical events of the Napoleonic wars, her wit and observant narrative touch has been inexhaustible delight to readers. Of her six great novels, four were published anonymously during her lifetime. At her death on July 18, 1817 in Winchester, Austen was writing the unfinished Sanditon. Austen was buried in Winchester Cathedral. 2. Pride and Prejudice Pride and Prejudice is a very popular novel by Jane Austen and it was read widely all over the world. This novel is written in 1813. The marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth reveals the characteristics which constitutes a successful marriage. In the beginning, Elizabeth and Darcy were distant from each other because of their prejudice. The series of events which they both experienced gave them the opportunity to understand one another and the time to reconcile their feelings for each other. An important reason that pride and prejudice become one of the world’s top ten famous novel is skillfully use variety of rhetorical skills. Several major rhetoric are Irony, repetition and antisense. II. Rhetorical irony skill Austin inherited the irony traditional of European literature, with a high degree of artistic consciousness, created more success irony art. In her novel, irony nor only used in mock intonation and sarcastic words, but also used in characters. 1. The irony of the macroscopic themes At the beginning of pride and prejudice we can see such sentence “It is truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” There are four kinds of marriage in the novel, four types and all happy ending, speak out the true colors of marriage in the laughter. Through the speech performance of the characters, we can see that it is ordinary and boring marriage, construct the theme of irony. 2. The irony of the microscopic diction The plot of pride and prejudice consist of a series of dramatic scenes. Among them we can see irony everywhere, in the ball, having dinner, taking a walk……these scenes are not consisted of scenery or the description of the character, but the characters’ dialogue and chat, the plot is the collection of dialogues. The most typical dialogue between Elizabeth and Collins is the section that Collins proposes marriage to Elizabeth. Collins pious unburden”……I picked you to be my life partner almost when I first into the room.” “When I can control my own feelings, let’s first talk about my reasons to get married and the marriage plans for I came to Hertfordshire.” No one does propose funny like him, performing a scene of farce and irony self-evident. Unfortunately, Elizabeth refuses him, she said” your proposal makes me feel pleasure, but it is a pity that I have no ideas but decline.” But he has no sense of propriety and said ’seriously’ “When young girls first meet somebody’s marriage proposal, even heart willing to promise, the oral always rejected; sometimes even refused two or three times.” At the same time he show off his status and property, once again, was rejected. Regrettably he still brazen-faced said her refuse encourage him to go on. He likes a drowned mouse after Elizabeth repudiate with stern words, in order to keep face, he got an unreal excuse to step down” I think as long as your parents promise me, you will never refuse.” In the process of proposal, the irony is very striking, the author and readers all know Elizabeth will rejected, only Collins think his proposal will be success, the results are very different with his ideas, so to achieve the purpose of irony. III. Reiteration rhetorical skills Generally speaking that the words of novel should be concise and avoid repetition. However sometimes in order to achieve the effect of emphasize, special repetitive can be used. This is a common rhetoric. Usually it is a linguistic behavior of the users. We can see this rhetoric frequently in pride and prejudice. E.g. The rest of the evening was spent in conjecturing how soon he would return Mr.Bennet’s visit，and determining when they should ask him to dinner. In a few days Mr.Bingley returned Mr.Bennet’s visit，and sat about ten minutes with him in his library. Here is a pair of word repetition, that is, “Mr.Bennet’s visit”—— “Mr.Bennet’s visit”. This two terms formed a remote bridge in the paper, not only ensure the anaphor and antecedent are the same word in form, and ensure that the referents are consistent. We can see that the primitive reproduction not only build relevance between above or below in form directly, and identity of the object make the reader understand the novel easily. What’s more the primitive reproduction provide an important and direct clue of the develop of the novel plot. E.g. “I do not believe a word of it，my dear. If he had been so very agreeable，he would have talked to Mrs. Long. But I can guess how it was; every body says that he is ate up with pride， and I dare say he had heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep a carriage，and had come to the ball in a hack chaise.”…… “His pride，”said Miss Lucas，“does not offend me so much as pride often does，because there is an excuse for it.”…… “That is very true，”replied Elizabeth，“and I could easily forgive his pride，if he had not mortified mine.” “Pride，”observed Mary，who piqued herself upon the solidity of her reflections，“is a very common failing I believe. By all that I have ever read，”…… This is a dialogue between Miss Bonnet’s family and their neighbors Miss Lucas. They talk about Mr. Darcy, although the views about Mr. Darcy are different, but almost everyone’s words are mentioned the noun “pride”. Because the primitive repetition the readers can understand the theme of dialogue easily, at the same time, the primitive repetitive, emphasis on Mr. Darcy’s character. E.g. “She has nothing，in short， to recommend her， but being an excellent walker4I shall never forget her appearance this morning. She really looked almost wild.” “She did indeed， Louisa. I could hardly keep my countenance. Very nonsensical to come at all! Why must she be scampering about the country because her sister had a cold? Her hair so untidy so blowsy.” “Yes，and her petticoat I hope you saw her petticoat6six inches deep in mud，I am absolutely certain; and the gown which had been let down to hide it6，not doing its office.” The paragraph in above appeared a group of common reference “she”, “an excellent walker”, simple rewrite “wild”, “untidy” and “blowsy”, simple repetition “Her petticoat” and repeated “she” and “her” several times. These show that the Bentleys see highly of themselves and like satirize others. They are very warm and kind on the surface, but always do something bad privately. IV. Antisense rhetorical skills Antisense rhetorical means opposite or compare meanings between anaphor and antecedent and thereby build a kind of meaning relation between two words. E.g. For Mrs.Bennet，with more perseverance than politeness，protested he must be entirely mistaken…… but Sir William's good breeding carried him through it all; and though he begged leave to be positive as to the truth of his information，he listened to all their impertinence with the most forbearing courtesy. In the example, the nominal chain for antonymy relational is “perseverance”—“forbearing courtesy”. When Mrs. Bennet knew that Mr. Collins would marry her daughter Elizabeth, but finally got the new of Mr. Collins and Miss Lucas’s engagement, she just couldn’t believe that and become very depressed and disappointed, and even lose manner when she talk with others. Miss Lucas’s father Mr. William’s feelings and behavior was opposite with Mrs. Bennett, he become very respectful and courteous, because he is very happy that his daughter married with a good husband. The different mentality and image of these two characters are vivid and bright; achieve a humorous effect, at the same time leave a deep impression for readers. V. Conclusion Pride and prejudice is a treasure of the world literature. Because the appreciate level and presentation of mine are limited, I can’t make a further study of pride and prejudice. But from the analysis on above we can see that Austin use many kinds of rhetoric skills, make the story vivid and amusing, at the same time arouse readers’ interests and give the readers a deep effect.