Stylistic devices

   In order to portray the characters, to describe the setting, to reveal the idea and  to render the general mood of the story vividly and convincingly the author of the analysed text resorts to the following devices:

LEXICAL

EPITHETS: Despairing regrets

Bewildering dreams

A sphinxlike smile – Epithet based on the simile

Irritated glance

A violent effort

A frightened exclamation

Immoderate desire

Awakened desires

Deserted anteroom

Mad fear

Hollow face

Chilly manner

Dainty fingers

Pretty hard life

These epithets are used to make the presented events in the story more true to life, vivid and expressive to the reader. They help to the reader to see the mood of the whole story.

HYPERBOLY: Very greatest ladies

Wild with joy

Mounted the stairs

String of diamonds

No doubt that it is used here for the purpose of intensification, for the reader better to feel the moment or event happened.

METAPHOR: Ancient silk (curtains)

SYNECDOCHY: "And what do you wish me to put on my back?"

OXYMORON: uttered a cry of joy. This stylistic device shows the emotional state of the main character.

COMPARISON: The girl was one of those pretty and charming young creatures who sometimes are born, as if by a slip of fate, into a family of clerks.

"She had become like all the other strong, hard, coarse women of poor households."

…She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station…

…there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich.

She was prettier than any other woman present…

IRONY: “Oh my poor Mathilde! But mine was imitation. It was worth at the most five hundred francs!”

Irony used here formally shows the positive or neutral attitude of the narrator to the main character and her ambitious and the joke  the fate had played with her. Also it reveals the real face of Madame Forestier.

PHONETIC:

ALLITERATION:

Madame Loisel seemed sad, uneasy, anxious.

He stopped, distracted, seeing that his wife was weeping.

She removed her wraps before the glass so as to see herself once more in all her glory.

The examples of alliteration is used to intensify the rhythmical effect.

ONOMATOPOEIA: “…she threw the invitation on the table crossly, muttering:

"What do you wish me to do with that?..”

In this case the usage of onomatopoeia underlines the Mathilde’s emotions. It shows that she was upset and didn’t know what to do.

The story is full of different SYNTACTIC constructions :

DETACHMENT: He stopped, distracted, seeing that his wife was weeping.

They looked, thunderstruck, at each other.

Detachments emphasize the main idea. In this particular examples the emotional state of the characters.

ENUMERATION:  

- She was prettier than any other woman present, elegant, graceful, smiling and wild with joy.

- It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still charming.

- She was distressed at the poverty of her dwelling, at the bareness of the walls, at the shabby chairs, the ugliness of the curtains.

CLIMAX:

- She would have liked so much to please, to be envied, to be charming, to be sought after.

- She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man.

- It annoys me not to have a single piece of jewelry, not a single ornament, nothing to put on.

- She saw first some bracelets, then a pearl necklace, then a Venetian gold cross set with precious stones, of admirable workmanship.

- She danced with rapture, with passion, intoxicated by pleasure, forgetting all in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her success, in a sort of cloud of happiness.

Climax used in these examples intensifies the emotions of the character and make the influence on the readers’ perception of the story.

ANTICLIMAX:

She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing.

PARALLELISM: 

She thought of silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry,… She thought of long reception halls hung with ancient silk,… and she thought of delicious dishes served on marvellous plates…

EXCLAMATIONS: - "How was that?!"

-         How stupid  you are!

-         "What!...Impossible!"

-         How strange and changeful is life!

-         How small a thing is needed to make or ruin us!

- You never noticed it, then!

- "Oh, my poor Mathilde!

- Why, my necklace was paste! It was worth at most only five hundred francs!".

REPETITION:

"I have – I have – I've lost Madame Forestier's necklace,..

EMPHATIC CONSTRUCTIONS:

    “…"It was not I who sold this necklace, Madame; I must have merely supplied the clasp."…”

       “…He did borrow, asking a thousand francs….

RHETORICAL QUESTIONS:

-         If she had detected the substitution, what would she have thought, what would she have said? Would she not have taken Madame Loisel for a thief?

-         What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How strange and changeful is life! How small a thing is needed to make or ruin us!

-         Madame Loisel felt moved. Should she speak to her?

The rhetorical questions used in the story help to understand the character’s inner state, her feelings.

ASYNDETON:

- She had no dowry, no expectations, no way of being known, understood, loved, married by any rich and distinguished man; so she let herself be married to a little clerk of the Ministry of Public Instruction.

- She dressed plainly because she could not dress well, but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station; since with women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of family and birth.

- Everyone wants to go; it is very select, and they are not giving many invitations to clerks.

- "It was not I, madame, who sold that necklace; I must simply have furnished the case."

- "You should have returned it sooner; I might have needed it."

- Look further; I don't know what you like."

The usage of such stylistic device make  the story sound energetic, dynamic and tense.

ELLIPSIS:

-   "Nothing. Only I have no gown, and, therefore, I can't go to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wife is better equipped than I am."
- "True! I never thought of it."

-  “…"What! . . . Impossible!"”

-   “…"No. You didn't notice it, did you?". "No."…”

- "Haven't you any more?"
"Why, yes. Look further; I don't know what you like."
- "Why, yes, certainly."
- "Yes, probably. Did you take his number?"
- “Yes, I have had a pretty hard life, since I last saw you, and great poverty – and that because of you!”
“Of me! How so?”
- "Do you remember that diamond necklace you lent me to wear at the ministerial ball?"
"Yes. Well?"

- "Oh, my poor Mathilde!

Elliptical sentences are used in this short story to present the emotional tension of the speech.

          Summing up the analysis of the chosen short story I should admit that the writer Guy de Maupassant brilliantly  uses ALL the mentioned above stylistic devices, especially syntactic ones,  which help to reveal the main characters’ nature, their feelings and emotions; to create true to life atmosphere of the events depicted. The stylistic devices used make the reader more interested in the life of the main characters, they make us either sympathize to the Loisels  or blame them for being too naïve.