A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens uses distinct techniques of sentence structure to formulate meaning in his story, A Christmas Carol. "Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail" (1). Here Dickens uses a simile to emphasize that Marley was most definitely deceased. Another technique that Dickens uses is parallelism. For example, "Scrooge. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!" (2). Dickens also uses diction. "No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him" (3). This statement causes the reader to form the opinion that Scrooge is cold-hearted, insensitive, unfriendly. These are just a few of the sentence structure tactics that Charles Dickens uses in A Christmas Carol.

A Christmas Carol Sentence Structure

     Charles Dickens uses explicit sentence structure to create meaning.  The book starts out with anaphora on the first page when describing Scrooges relationship with Marley "his sole executer, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and sole mourner."(1). This is used to portray that Marley really only had one person that cared about him.  Also on page 1 you will find that the simile "as dead as a doornail" is used frequently in order to hammer home the point that Marley is in fact dead.  Repetition is used when old Joe is telling Mrs Dilber to "Come into the parlor. Come into the parlor."(79) showing the compassion of old Joe.

A Christmas Carol- Sentence Structures

     Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is packed with parallelism, repetition, and alliteration.  He uses parallelism to emphasize what he says.  For example, Dickens writes that "Scrooge was [Marley's] sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and sole mourner" (1).  He restates "sole" to accentuate Marley's loneliness.  Scrooge and money was all he had.  Another example of parallelism is found when "Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern..." (8).  Dickens stresses the word "melancholy" to provide the reader a glipse into Scrooge's solitary every day life.
     Instances of repetition can also be discovered in the classic story.  Scrooge's young sister, Fan, comes to bring Scrooge home for Christmas.  She says, "To bring you home, home, home! (22).  Fan's echoing of the word "home" demonstrates her enthusiasm of what would be "the merriest time in all the world" (23).  Repetition is found again when Fan endearingly calls Scrooge her, "Dear, dear brother" (22).  This reveals how much she loves and admires him.
     Dickens employs alliteration to give the classic story a variation in tone when read alound or a fun visual effect when read silently.  For instance, the narrator describes "shadowy passengers" that "passed and repassed..." (23).  The repeating of "pass" in the words "passengers", "passed", and "repassed" let the readers feel like they have passed by the words, in a sense.  Alliteration is found again when Scrooge talks to Marley.  He sounds "caustic and cold as ever" (11).  This helps the reader see and feel the sharp words.
P.S. I am sorry if the last paragraph sounds confusing. I tried to write it to where it made sense. : )

A Christmas Carol - Sentence Structure

Charles Dickens uses sentence structure to express the personality of his characters and their surroundings. He uses alliteration as well as parallelism and repetition to do so. Through alliteration, he describes the nature of Scrooge as, "secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster" (2). Another example of alliteration is when the author describes the "clear, cold" (20) and "bleak biting" (2)winter day. He applies parallelism to the story as well.  For instance, when Scrooge observed the" wonderful party, wonderful games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness" (67). This technique is used again when the author explains that Scrooge was "his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and his sole mourner" (1). In addition, Dickens uses repetition when he writes, "joys, and cares so long, long, forgotten" (20), and again when Scrooge says "'Of course they can. Of course they can'" (64).

A Christmas Carol.

Without even reading this week's assignment, I noticed Charles Dicken's unique sentence structure. The story contained a plethora of varied instances, but the one that stuck out to me most was Dicken's use of parallelism. There were many, many parallel sentences within the story like this one, "'Oh! capitive, bound, and double-ironed'" (35). In this case, Dicken's utilized parallel sentence structure to provide the reader with vivid imagery and a sense of the dismal estate. Charles Dicken's created meaning by exploiting parallelism to bring A Christmas Carol to life.

Homework

This week, Read A Christmas Carol and blog on 'How Dickens uses sentence structure to create meaning in A Christmas Carol". Remember all the types of sentence structure: parallel, varied etc.
Don't forget to comment and MAKE SURE you bring your copy of the book to class!

Ways Dickens Creates meaning.

     Charles Dickens uses sentence structure, repetition, and word choices carefully
to portray different things. For instance, early on in the story Dickens emphasizes
Scrooge's "...Melancholy dinner [and] Melancholy tavern" to give readers a sense
of blandness and misery. Then, word choices that evoke actual physical responses
 like when he described the "perfect grove [where] gleaming berries glistened." The
way that reads out loud is crisply picturesque and the literal sound of it on the tongue
truly speaks a picture of little scarlet berries dimpled and glittering with dew and having
 little beams of reflected sunlight in the water droplets without actually having to say all that.
  The Christmas Carol has a numerous selection of parallel structure that really packs
specific points into the readers head whether accentuating a scary, dirty, or happy scene.

There were many instances of parallel structure, repetition and word choices that stuck
 out to me. I really liked  Dickens style of writing and would really like to apply some of
 his techniques of moving the story to my own writing. I also noticed varying themes going
 along. Redemption being the main. I  apprehensively observed the conflict being Man. Vs. Fate
 and a little towards Man Vs. Self? Definitely leaning towards those two. Loved the book. Devoured it.

Madam Loisel

               

                Fate plays a lot in the story “The Necklace”. It places the main character in a position of debt and poverty caused not by her own actions but a predestined whim.

                Mme. Loisel struggles with wanting pretty things and to look rich in a poor family. Receiving an invitation to a ball that would ruin her life forever, Mme. Loisel acts quickly and buys a nice dress and borrows a necklace that she could not afford to lose. Readers should, at this point, assume it is fate. After losing what she thought was a diamond necklace, Mme. Loisel immediately goes out to find another to replace what she had lost. Over the next ten years, Mme. Loisel and her husband would work to pay it off. Only to find that the necklace they replaced was a fake. Fate had preordained that she would misplace the necklace and have to work to pay it off.

                Although Mme. Loisel's destiny was not the best thing to happen to her she persevered, and the choices she made were dealt with in a well mannered way. Loisel's impoverishment strengthened her in ways neither her nor her husband could understand.

Nightmare on Rue des Martyrs

                                    Nightmare on Rue des Martyrs
                                                                          By
                                                                        Caroline Abigail Doggett

 “A greedy man brings trouble to his family,” (Proverbs 15:27). In “The Necklace,” 

Madame Loisel brought tribulation to her household all due to her ravenous and deceptive 

ways. It was her own actions that brought forth poverty and a ten year nightmare that 

wouldn't go away.

    

    

     Because she was greedy, she was unsatisfied with just a new dress. Madame Loisel had to 

have more. She declared that she was “utterly miserable at not having any jewels,” (83). 

Therefore she borrowed a spectacular diamond necklace from her friend, Madame Forestier. 

If she had been content with what she had, she would've never borrowed the necklace in the 

first place; thus eliminating the conflict. Unfortunately, Madame Loisel was not content.

     Not only was she querulous, she was also dishonest. Instead of preparing herself for the

consequences and telling her friend that she lost the necklace, she deceives Madame 

Forestier and tells her that she has “broken the necklace,” and is “getting it mended,” (84). If 

Madame Loisel would have told the truth, she would have quickly found out that the 

necklace was an imitation and was worth “at the very most five hundred francs,” (85). 

However, that was hardly the outcome.

     Just as Proverbs foretold, Madame Loisel brought trouble to her family. Her own greed 

and dishonesty landed her and her husband in a nightmare that takes more than a pinch 

from which to awake.

Loisel

In The Necklace Mme. Loisel is portrayed, by Brander Matthews, as unsatisfied with her life and yearns for more material wealth. The story begins with the reader learning about  her situation and the uncontentment she feels because of her class in society. Mme. Loisel constantly lusts for more wealth and power throughout the story. Although she does her best to achieve this, eventually providence lends Loisel to a life of suppression and misery because of her actions. 

Early on in the story it is clear Mme. Loisel dissatisfaction because she feels, “as Unhappy as though she had married beneath her” (82). It later goes on the say, “She suffered endlessly” (82) because of feelings that, “fate had blundered over her” (82). However, this is clearly not an act of fate or even chance, but rather a result of providence through her own selfish actions. 

She even remains saddened and even ungrateful when her husband shows her their invitation to the ball and throws a fit. This tantrum is thrown simply because she doesn’t have a dress she feels is good enough for such an occasion. The husband in the story, however, remains constantly selfless and even sacrifices ten years of his life to pay back his wife’s ridiculous and costly mistake. All the while, she keeps a feeling of spite toward the world for her circumstances and not a single feeling of remorse for her own careless actions. 

Mme. Loisel suffers in this story because of her own greedy actions as a result of providence allowing her to control her own destiny by acting completely under her own control. 

Her Actions and Character

Madame Loisels expectation of her life in poverty was the main cause of her

downfall.

Most of those who are in poverty accept this fact or change it through hard

work. Of course there are those, like madame Loisel, who expect more than

what is given to them. Anyone who wants the luxury of a good fortune should go

through the process of working for it.

The events at the ball proves this. If she had taken time to get a ball dress and

jewelery instead of whining about not having them, she would not have needed

to "get the new necklace . . .  (for) thirty-six thousand francs." (84)

Madame Loisel was forced to work for ten years because of her laziness and

her carelessness.

Madame Louisel

         Madame Louisel is a greedy, self-absorbed woman whose thoughtless actions lead her to debt and triadic poverty.

 Married to a middle-class clerk, Madame Louisel felt as though she “…suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury...” (82). Only when she had bought herself a nice dress, and borrowed a friend’s jeweled necklace in order to attend a ball, was she happy and content. Sometime during her carefree evening, either during the ball or after it, she had lost her friend’s necklace. Being the selfish, stubborn woman that she was, instead of letting her friend know that she had lost it, she kept it to herself and borrowed money in order to buy a new necklace to replace the old one.

         

        After 10 long, hard years of enduring hardships and labor, Madame Louisel was finally free of the necklace’s debt. Running into the friend who had lent her the necklace that ruined her life so long ago, she most likely had a heart attack when her friend told her “…Oh my poor Mathilde! But mine was an imitation. It was worth at the very most five hundred francs…” (85) and not worth half the money she had spent on the real replacement.

     

       Being the selfish woman that she is, Madame Louisel’s downfall is brought on by her greed for finery and lust for riches.

Character Description of Mark the Desert Boy

Mark is a young boy about 10 years old born in a deferent time period and
world then ours. He is 4'2  and has dark tan skin from living in a desert.
He has dark blood colored hair and wears thick brown woolen cloths.
His parents took care of him until he turned 9 as is the tradition in his culture.
Living on his own makes him hard and unemotional, this isolation forced him to become more adapted to the life in the desert.
Mark is round because he has definitions that tell what he thinks and what he feels. He is a protagonist he is the main character and is troubled by many problems throughout his life. He is dynamic because he is changed by  accomplishing his goals and defeating his problems.


P.S. Mark is a fictional character I made up about two minutes ago.

Madame Loisels demise

Although fate controlled Madme Loisels life, she always seemed to see life as a glass half empty.  The author of The necklace uses fate as an all controlling force that made  Madame Loisels life a disappointment.

Madame Loisel dreamed of being famous, but fate would not let that happen.  “But she was unhappy as though she had married beneath her”(1).  Fate had it out for Madame Loisel from the start when she was born into a family of artisans.  Then she wound up marrying a loving clerk but the reader can tell she does not really love him.  She also loved jewels and clothes even though she did not love her husband “And these were the only things she loved”(1).  Also fate made her lose her necklace that she had tried so hard to keep safe.  “The necklace was no longer round her neck!”(2).  Then, in order to pay off the necklace, she spent ten years working overtime.  At the end fate just wanted to have a laugh at her expense, telling her that the necklace she tried so hard to replace was a fake.  

  Although Madame Loisel tried her hardest to fit in with the rich people, fate got the best of her.  Maybe she was just meant to be a poor person.  Even so, at least she got one night where she could shine.

Mathilde Is Stupid

                     Madame Loisel’s is destined for poverty as a result of her actions and character.  Her introversion, greed, and stupidity lead her to a wide path of unhappiness.

                    
                    “She had a rich friend, an old school friend whom she refused to visit, because she suffered so keenly when she returned home” (82).  Madame Loisel distanced herself from people because of the “…grief, regret, despair, and misery” (82) they caused her.  Yet, she visits one friend, burrows a diamond necklace without hesitation, loses the necklace, replaces the necklace for “…thirty-six thousand francs” (84), and then avoids her friend for ten years until she happens to run into her in public right when she had paid off all of her debt for buying the expensive necklace.  I wonder how things could have been different if Madame Loisel was honest in the beginning and spoke with Madame Forestier. 

                 
                    Also, if she had not been so greedy and stupid, just for that gap of time, perhaps she could have had a normal life for the next ten years.  Instead, the immoral force of greed and the inevitable attribute of stupidity contributed to Madame Loisel’s horrendous mistake.  “She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing.  And these were the only things she loved…” (82).  “Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin case, a superb diamond necklace; her heart began to beat covetously” (83).  If she had just accepted her husband offer of flowers, things would have turned out fine.  The flowers would have been more beautiful and visible than a thin line going around her neck anyways.  (This does not mean I will not give my wife a diamond necklace, though.) 

                 
                    If Madame Loisel had not been an introvert, or had taken better responsibility of the thirty-six thousand france necklace, or had just worn flowers, her life could have been splendid.  Madame Loisel’s own actions were mistakes from the beginning and had devastating results that lasted for years.  “How stupid [is Mathilde]!” (83).     

This is what happens when you borrow 36,000 franc diamond necklaces in order to attract other men when you are already married.

Mathilde's mistake

    Mathilde's poverty is the result of her own selfishness and pride. She begins with a self-centered attitude, longing for things greater than she could ever afford. She is also prideful; she feels that she is too beautiful for simple things.

     Mathilde’s selfish behavior is the beginning to all her troubles. It is her self-centered way of reasoning that causes her to believe that she must have the necklace in order to be accepted. Her selfishness is evident when the author describes how Mathilde would imagine herself in a different life with extravagant things. She even would refuse to visit her friend out of envy. She again only considered her own feelings when “she flung the invitation petulantly across the table” (82). When she refused the invitation, she carelessly broke her husband’s heart. Even after he buys for her an expensive gown to wear, she is still dissatisfied. She tells him that she is “’utterly miserable at not having any jewels, not a single stone, to wear.’” (83). Even though she knows they cannot afford to spend freely, she still demands more and more from him. Despite his efforts to please her, she is still not satisfied.

       In addition to her selfishness, she is very prideful.  She is the cause of her own demise by this fault as well. She becomes prideful and careless when she wears the necklace. She, “in the triumph of her beauty” (83), becomes vain and proud resulting in her carelessness. After the party, she removes her coats “so as to see herself in all her glory before the mirror” (83). As she was admiring herself, she notices that the necklace was missing.

     Had she had been more cautious, she may not have lost the necklace. If she had, the chain of events that led to her poverty may have been prevented as well. However not only was this misfortune brought on to her by her own actions, but through the experience, her character and personality were changed forever.

The Necklace

     Mathilde's strenuous ten years was a result of her own pride and egocentric habits.  She longed for extravagance and elegance.  She yearned to be wanted.  She craved to be the one that everybody respected, admired, and regarded.  These selfish desires would eventually lead to years of hard labor and destitution.
     Mathilde's arrogance is the main characteristic that led her to impoverishment.  She was the most beautiful woman attending the Minister's ball.  She was "drunk with pleasure... in the triumph of her beauty [and] in the pride of her success" (83).  Mathilde, her attention centered on how exquisite she looked, lost track of her borrowed necklace.  Resulting from the loss, she had to pay off the replacement necklace by working around the house.
     Mathilde's conceitednesss is another trait that induced her misfortune.  She desperately wanted to be the most alluring and the most coveted.  Mathilde "long[ed]... to charm, to be desired, to be wildly attractive and sought after" (82).  Her selfish preoccupation led her to borrow the necklace.  If her pride didn't govern her mind and actions, she wouldn't have ended up in the predicament that she did.
     Mathilde wanted lavish things, but in trying, lost what she had.  She wanted to be elite, but ended up quite the opposite.  As a result of her pride and self-centeredness, Mathilde and her husband suffered the consequences.

You Get What You Get and You Don't Throw a Fit

by Liam Searcy

       Madame Loisel's poverty comes from a mixture of her unhappy, unsatisfied manner and fate cursing her to always be in a poor humble situation. This character in The Necklace lives for another life. Her downfall is unavoidable because of the social position in which fate has placed her.

       Madame Loisel will never be happy. She is a annoying girl who needs to grow up. “feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury. She suffered from the poorness of her house” She feels she is born for something better but she, in reality, will never acquire the outrageous things she wants and fulfill her dream. It is frustrating to watch her do this to herself. Because of pride she wanted the jewels. Because of pride she rushed outside quickly as not to be noticed by the rich women and lost the jewels. Because of pride she didn't tell her friend that she lost the necklace and ask for the price. She loses what she once had for a hope of something better like a dog with a bone looking in water and seeing his reflection then droping his bone for the reflection's and therefore loses his bone altogether.

        The main character would never be in this predicament if fate had not placed her in a poor family. “as though fate had blundered over, into a family of artisans” she is born into a place where she will never be rich even though that is her lifelong dream. Fate cannot claim the losing of the diamond necklace, because she made the hasty decision to run outside to not be seen. Poverty and her dream of riches cannot coexist so fate brings her unhappiness.

       There is no one factor that she could change to make everything right, it is a mixture of both. Her 10 years of labor is brought upon her by her own foolishness, pride and discontentment and the fate of a life in poverty.

My tiny little Paper.

     The decade of labor and poverty presented in The Necklace is a result of

Mdm. Loisel’s lust for higher society and lack of integrity. In The necklace,

a reoccurring theme is introduced by the first sentence: One of greed and discontent.

Readers get the first dose of self pity as Madame Loisel feels deserving of

“…every delicacy and luxury…” (82)  resenting her humble circumstances and nursing the

misconception that she married beneath her social class, a "...little clerk in the Ministry of

Education." (82) As her Character develops, Madame Loisel’s lust for fame and acknowledgement

causes her to borrow a necklace from Madame Forstier and her carelessness and pride cause

her to seek alternative means of replacement rather than admit her folly.

Consequently, what could have been a bright and promising future for Madme Loisel was

transformed into something dark and ruled by obligation. Because Madame Loisel succumbed to

her  greed and pride, her future was drastically different than what it could have been had she

chosen the higher route of integrity and honesty.

Yeah. This is it. Had so much trouble with this.

Alas, it's Fate.

             Madame Mathilde ten years of poverty and labor are a result of fate because if she did not grow up so greedy and selfish, she wouldn't have wanted the jewels and wouldn't have lost the necklace and fate has punished her for it.
             In the beginning of the story, Guy de Maupassant has introduced Mathilde as a beautiful child born into poverty. "(82) She was on of those pretty and charming girls born...into a family of artisans." She grows up feeling as if she is meant for the highest class and to be married into wealth and distinction. "She suffered endlessly, feeling herself born for every delicacy and luxury"(82)
             She marries a clerk in the Ministry of Education yet feels bad she "has married beneath her" (82). Her husband brings home an invitation to a very high class and prestigious ball. She demands she get a very fancy ball gown and jewels; only jewels, to go with it. "She had no clothes, no jewels, nothing and those were the only things she loved, she felt she was made for them." She goes to her rich friend and asks her if she could borrow a beautiful diamond necklace. She wears the necklace and passes as a high class women that all the men were fawning over. When they go to leave she shoves away the garments her husband brought for her to go home in and leaves with the ladies with their costly furs.
           She returns home pleased with her beautiful ball gown and pleased with how the night went. While looking in the mirror she notices the necklace is gone. She has lost it, or someone has stolen it! "(83) I've no longer got Madame Forestier's necklace...." They searched and searched fro the necklace and had given up hope. They had to buy another for thirty-four thousand francs. They spend ten years paying off the debt from the expensive necklace.
          It was fate that she ended up living the way she really was all her life, poor. She treated her husband badly, she was greedy for things she didn't have and only loved the finer things in life and nothing less. Fate punished her for her frugality.        

Homework for this week! (sorry for the delay)

Homework for this week is the Characterization essay (The instructions for which you'll find in the end of  the Characterization chapter.)
Please complete the handout I gave out in class. If you weren't in class, don't worry about it. I'll get it to you next week:)
For your blog, please post your essay. Your Comment is peer reviews.
Take advantage of this, because you  are turning in your characterization essay for a grade, and you can get help from other students BEFORE you turn it in!

- As always, please remember to bring a typed (and let's do double spaced) copy of your essay to class.

Cheers!

ps- Scroll down to my "Help For Essays" post last week if you'd like to read real examples of first draft student essays and the teacher's comments.

Bestfriend

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there lived a girl. With short blonde hair and lovely blue eyes, this girl was like an exquisite piece of art, admired by all. Her favorite color is black, and is not afraid of expressing herself. She can always make you smile, and gives great hugs. She is trustworthy. Through happiness and sorrow, problems and solutions, love and heartbreak, she is always there for you. I am honored to call her bestfriend.

My character is static.
She is also round.

Ben

Ben is a 5’7 tall brown haired 13 year old and presumably a boy. Video games paired with music are his dual passions, however, he tends to lean toward video games the most. His typical day consists of waking up, eating, school, youtube, school, music, video games, eating, and once again returning to sleep. One of Ben’s three friends(yes, a whole three friends), Tyler, plays saxophone with him and that is just about the only thing they share in common. Now despite what you may have come to conclude, Ben remains quite content with his overly simple life style and even at time finds slight moments of joy! Ben in fact plans on continuing his current pattern of living for many decades to come by joining the MLG and living with his parents into the very distant future. 

Ben is round because he does not fit any stereotype and static because he does not change. 

Henry

             

             Henry is an 8yr old boy. He’s just over 4’ and has a fair complexion which is slightly blemished with freckles. His hair, an orange-y golden color is as straight as a board. He is a very loud child with a slow, deep southern draw. His favorite food is barbeque, but he will devour any kind of sweets that are available in his house. Though most kids his age have iPods, iPads, or i-somethings that they love to play with, Henry prefers to play outside with his friends. When asked what he plans on being when he grows up, he will promptly answer back “Police man.” 

Henry is round, he is not completely developed but his personality is full of character.

He is stock, an average 8yr old kid.

Dear John

              John is the name.  His wife was murdered, he quit his job with the CIA because of the horrible things they made him do (like killing people for no reason), and now he roams the streets of New York City as a hobo.  He has no friends, family, or connections with people.  He saw no future or hope for himself.  It might have been easy for hate to grow inside of him, yet he still saw life as black and white and good and evil.  His life changed when he partnered with a billionaire person who created a machine that could predict violent crimes before they happened.  Now he dedicates himself to intervening crimes and touching the lives of others.  Though he takes out bad guys, he often has to associate himself with them to get inside their minds and discover their plans.  So authorities are always after him thinking that he is a bad guy, too.  The only description the authorities ever get of him is that he is the man in the suit.  The girls he saved might be a little more descriptive of him, though.  He always misses his wife, but he is always thankful for the billionaire who gave him a purpose in life.

                John is round and you always learn more about him by watching his series called Person of Interest.

                John went through a dynamic experience from becoming a hopeless guy with no loved ones and no purpose to becoming a guy whose one mission is to save others.  Now his personality is unwavering.  He is always calm in dire predicaments, he always says the right things to people, and he always wears a suit (except for in that picture). 

P.S. Too bad Morgan didn't run into this guy at New York City.