Diction In Bless Me Ultima

Machan uses diction to create cacography, the deliberate misspelling of words to illustrate the fact that Hazel is not highly educated. “Up pops this frog/ musta come from the sewer” (Machan 5-6), The tone is disgusted, she doesn’t say ‘a frog’, she says ‘this frog’, she also describes how it

In Act II of The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Antonio reveals that politicians are persuasive and corrupt. Through a cleverly worded dialogue between Antonio and Sebastian, Antonio convinces him to kill his brother, the king of Naples, in order to attain the throne. “O” (2.1.252) laments Antonio beginning the passage with an informal introduction. Through this one syllable, Shakespeare uses diction to convey how Antonio views Sebastian as intellectually inferior to him. To reinforce this Shakespeare begins Antonio’s next sentence with “O”(2.1.274) “By their own fear or sloth” (2.1.257) Antonio continues using a biblical allusion to one of the seven deadly sins, sloth, to convey how evil it is not to seize this opportunity. He uses the

A clear theme in Bless Me, Ultima is Antonio’s struggle to find who he is amidst two sides of himself: the Lunas and the vaqueros. He fears for his future, where he believes he will have to decide between the two parts of himself, and inevitably disappoint one half of the people in his life. He fears what his life will be. He fears the river. This all changes when Ultima arrives. She teaches him to love the presence of the river, and to love his life however it may come. She shows him that the river is the lifeblood of the herbs she uses to heal and save, and that he can use his life to help others as well. But her spirit, in the owl, also shows him that life, and the river, can be very dangerous (Anaya, 14).

An important motif in “Bless Me, Ultima” are Antonio’s dreams. His dreams foreshadow major events and make him question his beliefs, especially revolving around

In the play “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare, Antonio challenges Claudio to a fight/duel to avenge Hero’s “death.” Shakespeare uses epistrophe and hyperbole to demonstrate that in Elizabethan times, a man of words was not as respected as a man of action.

Throughout the book Antonio is introduced to many new ideas. The first is the experiences he has with Ultima. Ultima is a healer who learned

In the novel, The Curious Case of The Dog in The Night-Time, by Mark Haddon, diction is effectively utilized throughout the story for a number of reasons. To start, one sees that Christopher on page 205 speaks using sophisticated and high level diction. For instance, when Christopher is talking to his mother about his exam he says, “but I have to go because it has been arranged and the Reverend Peters is going to invigilate.” (Haddon 205). Indeed, Christopher’s ability to use sophisticated diction demonstrates his intelligence to readers. Secondly, one may see that the father of Christopher uses very vulgar language. For example, when the father has found out Christopher is still investigating wellington's murder after he tells told him to

Diction is used by the authors to display the consequences of cupidity. In this scene from The Count of Monte Cristo, an escaped prisoner, Caderousse, gets stabbed by his partner, Benedetto, after failing to kill the count. “ ‘Help me!’ cried Caderousse. ‘I’ve been stabbed!’

Text evidence that shows the way Fulghum uses diction in his writing to make the reader think are “Once, in school, I came across the French word ordure, and when the teacher told me it meant “unspeakable filth” I knew exactly to what it referred. We had it every night. In the bottom of the sink.” Also another piece includes “When I reported my new word to my mother at dishwashing time, she gave me her my-son-the-idiot look and explained that the dinner i had just eaten was in just about the same condition in my stomach at the moment,...” These two pieces of textual evidence show the way that the author writes with using different words like “ordure”.

Persuasive and convincing language constructs most of the play. Iago’s manipulative and scheming language forms most of the tragic exploits in the play. His intelligently crafted language finely helps him in his fateful plots. With the help of imagery, one is able to form strong reactions from other characters. Throughout the play, Iago uses emotional, vulgar and motivational imagery to evoke passionate reactions from his opposing character.

Much of the play’s humor resides in Dogberry and Verges, who, though uneducated, attempt to appear intelligent with lofty language. They frequently deliver malapropisms, usually stating the opposite of what they mean; for example, Verges insists that Conrade and Borachio “suffer salvation,” but actually means “damnation” (Act III, scene iii, lines 3-4). This instance of malapropism continues in Dogberry’s dialogue as well, such as when he declares that “[Conrade and Borachio] have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and to conclude, they are lying knaves,” unaware that he speaks out of numerical order (Act V, scene i, lines 203-206). Don Pedro mocks this error when responding before sarcastically remarking that “[Dogberry] is too cunning to be understood” (Act V, scene i, lines 214-215). Throughout their speech, numerous words are misused, such as “odorous” for “odious,” and “excommunication” for “communication,” among many others.

The tone that is contained in the extract to great extent is a candid tone. The use of inverted sentence brands the candid tone to the stanzas in which they are found. For instance, “to rest had gone” communicates the original meaning as when the inverted sentence may not be in use. However, the inversion makes the stanza sound more poetic or lyrical. Another tone present in the inverted sentences is conversational tone (Lombardi). However, the conversational tone is made to sound more formal and as mentioned earlier, poetic, from the use of sentence inversion. Other tones can be derived from the message conveyed at each point in the extract. For instance, horrified tone is found in instances when the Hrothgar and his people reflect on the attacks from the Grendel. The approach Hrothgar employs to mitigate Grendel’s attacks is not at all aggressive which expresses a pessimistic tone, and further excites pity from the reader, which conveys a pitiful tone (“Literary Techniques Part 1”).

The functions of language are deeply rooted in human behaviour, which allows us to construct linguistic stimuli that would then acquire control over character. The structure of a language affects the ways in which its speaker are able to conceptualize their world, altering affecting in their interactions with others. In William Shakespeare’s Othello, the reader is given insight to the character through their words, therefore giving words magnificent power to reveal human behaviour. In Othello, by William Shakespeare the various characters are illustrated through their dialogue and alter language patterns. Within Othello, Iago speaks in a vulgar context, while Othello charms people with his noble speeches.

William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida is a play filled with marked variations of tone. The language ranges across the gamut from satirical to anticlimactic to dignified to tragic. This explains, to some extent, the level of difficulty that commentators have had in classifying the work. A close reading of the word choice and sense of tone in the play contributes a great deal to a better understanding of its meaning. Analysis of particular word choice should be, in fact, a very important consideration when attempting to understand Shakespeare's works. He is known to often make use of neologisms and his style thus reveals a familiarity with the intricate emotional weight that diction brings to literature.

John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi is a Renaissance tragedy. Threats lurk the widowed Duchess and her forbidden husband Antonio. The Duchess’s power greedy brothers, Ferdinand and The Cardinal forbid her sister to remarry. The play is an unconventional Renaissance tragedy as the protagonist focuses on a female character rather than a male. (Pacheco, 2012, p69) This essay focuses on Webster’s use of distinctive features of language.