Thursday, January 27, 2011

Jane Austen's style--class exercise

Locate a passage which illustrates one aspect of Jane Austen's style: look for one of the following:
  • significant diction (vocabulary choice);
  • syntax (e.g. parallel structure within balanced sentences, use of relative clauses)
  • verbal irony used for satiric effect, esp toward a character
  • character revealed through dialogue
  • character revealed through narrative statement
  • a passage whose tone you can identify and comment upon
  • figurative or rhetorical devices
Create a brief comment on the significance of the passage you have chosen. How does it add to the overall "effect" of the writing at this point in the novel?