THE BATTLE OF LIFE- DICKENS
Setting: a plain were a battle was fought.
Chromatic language.
Use of adjectives and nouns which conjure up colours: grass, green, enamelled, blood,
colour, leaves, herbs, stained, painted, blood, red, hue, moon, black, trees, sky, plain,
tainted, moon, star, earth.
Use of passive voice.
Emphasis is on the action. The subject is affected by the action of the verb: was
fought, formed by, filled high with, was stained, painted, trodden, softened and blurred,
strewn with, whispered, were worn away.
Anaphora
The act of repeating a word or phrase at the beginning of sentences or clauses that
follow each other, done for emphasis: a fierce battle was fought. It was fought…,
Heaven keep us from a knowledge of the sights the moon…. Heaven keep us from a
knowledge of the secrets…, many a wild flower, many an insect, many a lonely moon,
many a star, many a wind.
Personification
The practice of representing objects, qualities, etc. as humans. In Dickens’ passage,
use of the vocative to address natural elements: waving grass, many a wild flower […]
felt its enamelled cup filled high with blood, harmless leaves and herbs, sullen pools,
Heaven keep us from…, the sights the moon beheld upon that field, frightened way, she
[the moon] rose into the sky and looked upon the plain, the secrets whispered afterwards
upon the tainted wind…, many a lonely moon, many a star kept mournful watch upon it.
Use of conventional and novel metaphors. Metaphors are figures of speech in which
words are used with a sense that is different from their primary or basic sense.
Conventional metaphors are those metaphors that form a part of our everyday
understanding of experience and are processed without effort (e.g. «to lose the
thread of an argument»).
Novel metaphors are those metaphors that have not been extensively adopted in a
language community: a perfumed goblet for the dew (the flowers are compared to
goblets), enamelled cup (the flowers are compared to a cup), frightened way (the track
which is followed by the butterfly is compasred to a frightened person).
Alliteration. The repetition of the same or similar sounds, usually consonants: flower
formed (labio-dental, fricative sound F), blood that day (alveolar, plosive sound D), and
shrinking dropped, that day by dying men (alveolar, plosive sound D), human feet and
horses’ hoofs (labio-dental, fricative sound F and glottal fricative H), the waving grass was
green (alveolar, liquid R, and velar, plosive G).
Assonance. A form of rhyme with the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds:
was fought […] was fought […] the waving grass was green, were worn away (glide,
bilabial sound W).
Structure
The passage is structured into two paragraphs. They represent two opposite roles of
nature in the scene which is described.
First paragraph: the natural elements are mentioned by using the passive voice. The
author emphasizes that nature is affected by human actions (the insects and the stream are
stained by human blood). Nature endures human actions.
Second paragraph: the natural elements are mentioned by using the active form of verbs.
They witness the battle and seem to judge human actions: «The moon beheld upon that
field», «many a star kept mournful watch upon it [the battle-ground]».