Henry James writing style
Choose a favorite sentence from A Turn of the Screw and comment on what it reveals about the author's writing style. Please keep away from discussing the content as much as possible. Due Monday, March 6, 2006
For example: "The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it was gruesome, as on Christmas Eve in an old house a strange tale should essentially be, I remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to note it as the only case he had met in which such a visitation had fallen on a child." (first sentence).
This 61 word sentence begins our horror story. The pacing is leisurely and casual, a narrative fit for gathering around a fireplace and telling stories: why rush? Details are vital, his story is not all action and adventure, but detail and development. This is a foretaste of a story with such impeccable detail we'll be able to recreate the scenes, interior thoughts, and perhaps even the limited action with ease -- an immersive experience.
Your turn:)
posted by erdecker @ 9:19 AM
20 comments
20 Comments:
Ch. 1, pg. 3-
"If the child gives the effect another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children-?"
I find this comment to be most comical. I believe this eloquent declaration to be a true testament to the exquisite storytelling aptitutde of the speaker. I initailly read the first chapter without reading the prequisite prologue and because of that I was baffled. Now, having read the prologue I am sufficiently informed of the story's plot. So to get back to my previous statement. I chose the forementioned exerpt because it has the title in it (foreshadowing?, importance?) and I think it's funny, even if it's not supposed to be. God I missed these blog assignments. : )
I realized now that I just talked about the content and Mr. Decker said not too (Idiot!). Anyways, I think the exerpt reveals that there is going to be a lot of foreshadowing and references that will make us make that gasping noise you make when you realize something important and someone's about to get hurt. I also think there will be some dry humor in his writing. I don't think he'll write jokes, but I think some of the comments will make us laugh, like British humor in a way...
"Both the children had a gentleness - it was their only fault, and it never made Miles a muff - that kept them (how shall I express it?) almost impersonal and certainly quite unpunishable." - pg 23-24 (so i read ahead a little, sue me.)
sooooo pretty much...this sentence. It does go on for half a forever, which is James' writing style, in my opinion anyway. It takes him quite awhile to get to his points. He goes quite slowly in every sentence, and even slower in every paragraph. For example the paragraph that starts on pg 25 and goes onto pg 26: the man takes like half a page to make his point. I pretty much understood what he was saying instantly, i just had to read through him talking it out word by word. He goes quite in depth with descriptions, which i guess is a characteristic of most "gothic" works. The words also seem to be articulated in a quite a proper tone, another aspect i have noticed throughout this book. that's it.
Chapter 2, Page 13
"The postbag that evening-it came late- contained a letter for me which, however, in the hands of my employer, I found to be composed but of a few words enclosing another, addressed to himself, with a seal still unbroken."
I am convinced that, had I written a sentence such as this in an AP Lit paper, I would be penalized for such a run on with so many details, however interesting or neat it may look. The quotation I chose from the book exemplifies how James uses long flowing sentences with many pieces to add great amounts of detail and color to his novel. I believe that if James included the same number of details in his book but with more, shorter sentences, the plot would be unbearably boring. With complex sentences, James can "spice things up" and change his sentence structures to make reading this a little more bearable.
-Adam Kephart
P.S. We should discuss in class- Which is better, the whole state of South Dakota or the Mayo Clinic, hmmm...
Prologue, pg. 4-
"'I can't begin. I shall have to send to town.'" -Douglas
From what I have read so far and what I know about horror stories, this line shows James' style of writing. The reader is looped into being part of the audience of the frame story and is intreged by the story Douglas is going to tell. To elevate the excitement of the story Douglas delays telling the story and will not give detailes of the story. The audience keeps listening to hear the story just as the reader keeps reading for mysterious details (ex. why Miles got expelled)
"His eyes are sharp, strange--awfully; but i only know clearly that they're rather small and very fixed. His mouth's wide, and his lips are thin, and except for his little wiskers, he's quite clean-shaven." Chapter 4 (p. 29)
These sentences from the book portray James's writing style as specific and leaving nothing out from his ideas of discussion. Thus, readers often are able to picture exactly what the characters look like.
Chapter 6 (pg. 35)
"They were attached at this juncture to the stitching in which I was engaged, and I can feel once more the spasm of my effort not to move them till I should so have steadied myself as to be able to make up my mind what to do."
-So it's been said many times, many ways, Henry James writes lengthy sentences. By doing this, I think that he purposely made the reader bored so that when a really creepy/interesting/action part comes up, the reader notices its contrast with the rambling they were just reading and gets excited. Also, his word choice in long, not-plot-crutical sentences is mostly non-meaning words, but an action/"gripping" sentence has "actual" words(and is shorter!): "Then I again shifted my eyes-I faced what I had to face." This ends chapter 6 and keeps the reader reading.
“There was to be no grey prose, it appeared, and no long grind; so how could work not be charming that presented itself as daily beauty. It was all the romance of the nursery and the poetry of the schoolroom.” (Pg. 23)
This line expresses well the flowery style of James’ writing. He can’t just say, “I enjoyed my work.” He embellishes this basic statement with metaphors and details. I like this particular line because it not only relates to the character’s job but also to James’ writing or writing in general. By using the analogy of grey prose to describe a boring life, James is showing his disdain for the type of literature that is dull and unimaginative. However, he speaks highly of romance and poetry. It logically follows that his own style embodies the traditional aspects of romance and poetry through its dramatic style and rhythmic flow.
"She had picked up a small flat piece of wood which happened to have in it a little holethat had evidently suggested to her the idea of sticking in another fragment that might figure as a mast and make the thing a boat."
p 36
I know a lot of people complain about Henry James' highly long and descriptive writing style. Yes his work may be a taxing read, but this highly descriptive text reveals the PASSION behind his writing. He wants his audience to know absolutely EVERYTHING that was unfolding, even if it may be a "textbook" run-on sentence.
"I forthwith wanted to know if the proper as well as the pleasant and friendly thing would n't therefore be that on the arrival of the public conveyance I should await him with his little sister; a proposition to which Mrs. Grose assented so heartily that I somehow took her manner as a kind of comforting pledge-never falsified, thank heaven!-that we should on every question be quite at one. Oh she was glad I was there!"
Chapter 1, pg. 12
I picked two sentences (actually a paragraph) to explain his style.
Henry James writes at a very personal level. As if he writes what his mind is thinking of at the moment. The way I'm picturing this is that inside his head, his mind is creating actual physical words, and then those words ooze out of his ears right onto the paper, and then he smiles and says, "Finished!"
It seems as if Henry James is a psychopath, someone who cannot seem to focus on simply one subject, as if his head was a maze of past events that have haunted him from the very days of his childhood; the terror and horror that must have if he needs to stop and explain the fifty events that build up the event that was presented. (My own try on some James-esque writing style)
Okay, am I making myself clear? This guy just runs on and on and on and creates a lot of fluff.
It's like someone who is creating a scene for a movie. Every single aspect of the scene may be very important, such as the character setting, the extras in the background, the actual foreground, etc etc. In a movie, it's simply one scene, no more and people don't think of it anymore. But to a scene director, it's very important to ensure that every single aspect is perfect.
Henry James is that picky scene director, explaining EVERY SINGLE LITTLE DETAIL to ensure perfection.
fin
"My heart had stood still for an instant with the wonder and terror of the question whether she too would see ; and I held by breath while I waited for what a cry from her, what some sudden innocent sign either of interest or of alarm, would tell me."
Henry James littered this sentence with alarming words. Wonder, terror, cry, innocent, and alarm. Stacking up these words like pancakes really gives us the "scary" side of this story. He could have split this into more than one sentence but putting it all in one place really condenses the fear for us. Also he uses a lot of "w" words. 9 of them! It gives the sentence a whispery, mysterious feel that makes us imagine the story being told quietly around a fire. I end here. Goodbye.
NICO PARAISO
"I remember as a thoroughly pleasant impression the broad clear front, its open windows and fresh curtains and the pair of maids looking out; I remember the lawn and the bright flowers and the crunch of my wheels on the gravel and the clustered tree-tops over which the rocks circled and cawed in the golden sky."
This is a very long sentence which is a style of writing that James uses often. This is just one idea that takes a long time to present which shows the slow speed of his writing style. He went into much more description than needed to just show that he remembered something because this is how i would have said that sentence; "I remember it clearly."
"Mrs. Grose's large face showed me, at this, for the first time, the far-away faint glimmer of a consciousness more acute: I somehow made out in it the delayed dawn of an idea I myself had not given her and that was as yet quite obscure to me." p. 28. As you can see from this sentence, the author likes to descirbe a lot of different things. He spends much time making things very detailed. In this sentence, the author describe about Mrs. Grose face then he writes about how an idea is not yet understood by the governness but she is begining to just get a bit of it.
Chapter 15, page 68
"I walked around the church, hesitating, hovering; I refliected that I had already, with him, hurt myself beyond repair.
James' style is distinct from today's writings in that he separates many of his verbs from the subject (I know there is a proper term for this, but it escapes me momentarily). The disjointed structure forces the reader to slow down and concentrate in order to achieve a firm grasp of the plot. The use of commas, particularly the "hesitating, hovering" adds to the apprehensive air of the work. This sentence does not exemplify James' tendency to have run-ons, but displays other facets instead.
Alyssa
Chap. 6 pg. 32 " I forbore for the moment to analyse this description further than by the reflexion that a part of it applied to several of the members of the household, of the half-dozen maids and men who were still of our of small colony." This sentence right here is a prime example of Henry James feeling of telling us every little detail. Some may find this a quality that is great in a storyteller but I personally find it annoying. I don't need to see every little detail for the restricts my imagination of how I see this story. James' descriptions are better fit for a Hollywood script rather then a novella.
Reeping, Kyle
Ch. 10, pg 49
"The foremost thing I saw there by the light of the candle I had left burning was that Flora's little bed was empty; and on this I caught my breath with all that terror that, five minutes before, I had been able to resist."
I may be the only one, but so far this book is really terrifying me. I agree with Heather and I believe that is because Henry James uses less description during the breath taking parts so it flows faster with the pace of the readers pounding heart. I have found that the scarier sections are read faster because the detail is more to the point than when he his describing a room.
Sibley
"Well, I needed to be remarkable to offer a front to the remarkable things that presently gave their first sign."
Henry James' writing seems to be a veritable treasure chest of suspenseful, foreshadowing, cliff-hanging gems. This was one of my favorite examples of the heavy and obvious foreshadowing that is packed into the detailed text. James will describe experiences thoroughly, with the governess retelling her every thought and whim, using incredibly long sentences. What makes this and other sentences so suspenseful is that they are very short and come after a paragraph of lengthy prose. This contrast makes the foreshadowing sentence noticeable, as well as the drastic change in topic from the everyday experiences of the governess to a warning that much more challenging and risky events will soon follow. Finally, the fact that the sentence does not directly state what dangers might await leaves a sense of mystery and curiosity to the reader, creating a desire to find out what the governess finds too fearful to even mention yet in her story. In summary, the sentence's brevity, stark contrast in subject to its preceding sentences, and indirect and implicit nature make it a suspenseful plot technique which James often uses to hold the reader's attention.
-I apologize for the length of this, but if Henry James won't bother to edit his run-on sentences, why should I? :)
"On the eleventh night after my latest encounter with that gentleman-they were all numbered now- I had an alarm that perilously skirted it and that indeed, from the particular quality of its unexpectedness, proved quite my sharpest shock."
James writes in a laid back, rambling style. It gives the story a unique feel. The content described is of a relatively anxiety creating nature. James' writing style is in sharp contrast with it's long sentances and lengthy words. James also inserts side notes quite often, in this case "they were all numbered." This allows the reader to be more thoroughly immersed in the story. It also seems that James' has a love of detail and description. For example, he could have simply said "a few nights after my latest encounter with that gentlemen" in place of the first half of the above quoted sentence.
"My dear woman, look at him!"
chapter 3 paragraph 2
henry james spends alot of time describing the world he has created. this very upbrupt sentance really sets off the most important detail that can't be described with words, what you actually feel when you see something unexplainable.
that was seth
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