"WS"

The fragment of emotive prose which has been chosen for stylistic analysis is one of the numerous
stories belonged to a prominent English novelist L. P. Hartley W.S. The author was a highly skilled
narrator and all his tales are admirably told. W.S. comes from The Complete Short Stories of L. P.
Hartley. A close study of the story for the purpose of examining its style involves a careful
observation and a detailed description of the language phenomena at various levels. The text of the
fragment is complete in itself and it is interesting from the point of view of its idea. The excerpt is not
homogeneous: the narration is interrupted by the elements of description, inner thoughts and feelings
of the main character are imperceptibly interwoven with the narration. The type of the narration is
authors narrative. Also we can observe non-personal direct speech. The type of character drawing is
direct because while reading this very excerpt we get information about the character and it may be
said that the author tries to thrust his opinion on the readers. The very structure of the story adds to
the effect of implication but the actual meaning of what is going on is not clear at the beginning of the
story as he feelings suggested by the writer are not precisely determined. The reader however feels
that something had happened and the character is strained and full of hidden apprehension and
suppressed emotions. What strikes ones eye at the first glance is that the tension of the atmosphere in
this excerpt is gradually increasing and gets its top at the end of it. The text can be logically divided
into only one part: the story itself. According to this kind of division the fragment has opened plot
structure. We can also divide the text into the following supra-phrasal unities: 1. The postcards 2.
Anonymous correspondent 3. Wondering 4. Difficulties 5. The woman 6. Piece of him 7. Panic 8. Police
The most of the supra-phrasal unities coincide with the paragraphs and the most of the key sentences
are at the top of the sentences and thats all the paragraphs are structured according to the deductive
type of paragraph. It should be noted that the paragraphs are knit together asyndetically. Lets now try
to find out lexical-thematic chains and the number of its components. SPU LTC Number of components
Totally The postcards ItIYou 205060 130 Anonymous correspondent Walter StreeterStrangers 165 21
Wondering Sender 8 8 Difficulties The last two chaptersBarrier 210 12 The woman She 12 12 Piece of
him Something 11 11 Panic Significant factAlienist 34 7 Police They 8 8 The lexical thematic net work
method allows a quantitative criterion to be used for appreciating the importance of themes. It can be
seen from the scheme that the theme 1 has the most number of components for it is represented by
different subthemes and is spread throughout the textual field. Theme 2 provides a cohesion between
different parts of the text. Lexical thematic chains are knit together by means of pronominal
substitution, lexical repetition, change of the grammatical form and function of the word. For example
lets take the supra-phrasal unity 5. It is represented only by one lexical thematic chain She,
nevertheless it worth examining. Here we can observe pronominal substitution: a woman she her;
lexical repetition: she she; occasional synonym: A woman a little mouse-like creature. The
sentences are not long. There are many interrogative sentences and that shows hesitation and anxiety
of the character. While analyzing this fragment we can observe some stylistic devices, such as
antonomasia - Walter Streeter; zeugma took up the time and energy; metonomy - faint strings
of curiosity; personification growing pains; periphrasis conscious mind, little mouse-like
creature, poisonpens, many examples of inversion. As we see the language of the writer is very rich
and full of various kinds of stylistic devices and that makes his story more vivid and picturesque.
Summing up the analysis it can be said that the text seems like a detective story with a victim the
writer Walter Streeter.

Stylistic analysis "W.S." by Leslie Hartley

NB:
Leslie Poles Hartley, an English novelist and the son of a solicitor was educated at Oxford's College and for more than
twenty years he was a fiction viewer for magazines. He wrote many novels and made a good contribution to English
fiction. According to his novels films were casted. Hartley was a highly skilled narrator and we can see that in his literary
work "W.S.".
The main character of the story - Walter Streeter - gets one after the other four postcards with messages from
anonymous and starts thinking them over. At first he was glad that he didn't have to answer them as a writer should

grudge time and energy for that. He even tore the first two postcards away. But later it became so important for him that
he pondered over this and nothing else. He avoided making new acquaintances and had many difficulties with his work
over new book. He tried to write but the words came haltingly, as though contending with an extra-strong barrier of selfcriticism. The third postcard wasn't burnt, Walter kept it. And only here it struck him that the initials of the postcard
sender and his were the same. An idea came to Walter that perhaps he was writing those letters to himself. There were
many questions and no answers. From the fourth postcard Walter found out that the sender was coming nearer and is
eager to meet Walter. We can feel sympathetic attitude of the author towards Walter. A wave of panic surged up in
Walter. And we can guess here Walter Streeter was afraid of that meeting. He'd like to avoid it, because he understood
from the last postcards that W.S. wasn't satisfied with his last literary work. W.S. was saying he almost lived in those
novels but he didn't like them any more.
Who was that W.S.? Taking all the facts into consideration we can say there wasn't anyone except Walter. And he - Walter
had a split personality. He couldn't find all the shortcomings of his novels ,so he thought someone another had to help
him. And W.S. was invented. Certainly we should know that Walter Streeter didn't control himself completely, that's why
he couldn't know about it.
Let's see what devices the author used. The first one which strikes the eye is anaphora. It's used very widely in order to
improve emphasis on some facts:

"You have always been interested in Scotland, and that is one reason why I am interested in you."

"But the words came haltingly, as though contending with an extra-strong barrier of self-criticism. And as the
days passed he became uncomfortably aware of self-division, as though someone had taken hold of his personality and
was pullling it apart."

"I know you are interested in cathedrals. I'm sure this isn't sign of megalomania... I'm seeing a good many
churches on my way south..."

"It was true that Walter Streeter was interested in cathedrals... And it was also true that he admired mere size
and was inclined to under-value parish churches."

"And was it really a sign of megalomania? And who was W.S. anyhow?"

"They were Gilbert's, they were Maugham's, they were Shakespeare's ..."

"He tried to put the thought away from him; he tried to destroy the postcard as he had the others."
Besides we can meet such an epithet in the text:

"November fire - makes us be closer to the time everything happened"

Metaphor: "fruitful conflict" - makes us guess the words and the deeds following the conflict.
A beautiful antithesis as "perfection of ordinariness" doesn't let us calm to Walter's style.
The author uses simile with skill: "A woman, a little mouse-like creature, who had somehow taken a fancy to him!"