The Count of Monte Cristo has been a very enjoyable read as of yet. I, through unusual circumstances involving purchasing two copies of the wrong edition of the book, then being unable to return them, have had the good fortune of reading a 50-page version of the exposition. Thus, I started the unabridged (very large) edition at just the point where it gets exciting. The Count of Monte Cristo has been a gripping read ever since the plot began, and I particularly enjoyed the escape scene. This book, while a daunting challenge and a rather intimidating undertaking, is still a great novel. It might have been chosen for the pre-AP curriculum to give students some experience reading a longer (to put it very gently) book. The exposure to a differently written style of novel might also have been a factor in the choice of including this book. I believe that the easiest part of the assignment given will be describing the point of view. This requires little analysis, nor critical thinking. I'll just look for insight into the different characters to determine the type of third person it is. I may have some trouble with finding a symbol in the story though. I will have to keep a watchful eye out for a symbol, or else scour the text later on, since one may not be very prominent.
The diction of The Count of Monte Cristo is undoubtedly formal. "The delay granted by the agent of the house of Thompson and French, at the moment when Morrel expected it the least, appeared to the poor shipowner one of those returns of good fortune which announce to a man that fate is weary of wasting her spite upon him. The same day he related the good news to his wife, to Emanuel, and his daughter, and a ray of hope, if not tranquility, returned to the family." This uses very complex sentence structure; one sentence almost makes up the entire quote. Also present in the text are scores of polysyllabic words, such as "tranquility" in this excerpt. The rest of the book follows a style very similar to this. The tone of this story is informative. The narrator seeks to provide the reader with unmitigated, if epic, information. The story is almost without tone, or at least the way we think of "tone" conveying any feelings from the author. Very occasionally, the narrator will refer to "us" as if he were telling us a (58-hour long) story. "The day after the scene had passed on the road between Bellegarde and Beaucaire we have just related..." This is very uncommon, and only mentioned in passing, so I believe there is little meaning behind it. All of this diction and tone add up to what would be a very dull read, were it not for the gripping plotline and terrific action. The plain style of writing may actually throw into contrast the action by just telling the story in a very direct manner. The very high diction does make it moderately more difficult to pick through, however.The tone has very little effect on other aspects of the novel, since everything is portrayed in a very clear manner, unlike a strong emotional tone, which could be compared to looking though a colored or warped lens; it influences how the reader perceives the characters, setting and other elements. The diction mostly affects the imagery and methods of characterization, both of which are largely dependent on individual words to affect their meaning. The diction would, for instance, have little affect on the theme of the story. That about wraps it up. Verily.
A person in Russia has viewed my blag. I am flattered.
Good night, internet.
[EDIT] Symbol was easy. What do you know?
No comments:
Post a Comment