ITALIAN R5B Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Alliteration, Tyrant, Polysyndeton
21 May 2018
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#4 1/26 Friday
Close-reading: Chapter 1
“The first thing that struck Manfred’s eyes… proportionable quantity of black feathers.” (Walpole
16)
Literal content:
● When: Conrad’s wedding day to Isabella
● Where: courtyard
Diction
● “Enormous helmet”: emphasizing the size of the helmet
● “Dashed to pieces”: vivid imagery of violence, “struck”, “wrathfully” “cried” “shocked”
“dreading” “hastily” “buried”
● “Black feathers” dark imagery that creates a sense of dread
● Steel and feathers: hard and soft mix
● Vision: “eyes” “appeared” “gaze” “sight” “beheld”
● The servants are an indistinct group, no individuals “group of his servants” “volley of
voices”
● Changing from “helmet” to “casque”: using different words to describe the same thing
Syntax
● “the prince! The prince! The helmet! The helmet!”: Broken up syntax, exclamation and
question marks, and short sentence structure reflects urgency
● It is unusual that Walpole does not mark quotations, it takes the reader through the
dialogue very quickly, rushes you along, you just read what is being said without regard
to who said it, allows the dialogue to flow in a theatrical way, sense of movement
throughout
● Walpole has very long sentences with many clauses, phrases, and interruptions all in
one sentence
● “Cried Manfred, wrathfully”: emphasizes the word wrathfully, separating it from “cried
Manfred”, in the reader’s mind we pause before and after the word “wrathfully”, and it
almost acts likes a direction in a play
● “But what a sight for a father’s eyes!”: the narrator attempts to humanize Manfred as a
father, which is not how Manfred reacts, he was more concerned for his bloodline than
the death of his only son. Contrast between the rest of Manfred’s reaction, no feeling of
grief, and the fact that Conrad is the “darling”. We know something is off because he is
not having the reaction the reader expect.
● Judging Manfred’s character, we know he is a terrible person, a tyrant and villain
Literary devices
● Alliteration: “volley of voices” reinforces the connect between “volley” and “voices” and
draws attention from the reader
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Document Summary
The first thing that struck manfred"s eyes proportionable quantity of black feathers. (walpole. Enormous helmet : emphasizing the size of the helmet. Dashed to pieces : vivid imagery of violence, struck , wrathfully cried shocked . Black feathers dark imagery that creates a sense of dread. Steel and feathers: hard and soft mix. The servants are an indistinct group, no individuals group of his servants volley of voices . Changing from helmet to casque : using different words to describe the same thing. The helmet! : broken up syntax, exclamation and question marks, and short sentence structure reflects urgency. Walpole has very long sentences with many clauses, phrases, and interruptions all in one sentence. Cried manfred, wrathfully : emphasizes the word wrathfully, separating it from cried. Manfred , in the reader"s mind we pause before and after the word wrathfully , and it almost acts likes a direction in a play.
