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Situational Irony
Part 4, Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis:
The style of the novel is highly descriptive, emphasizing the way characters' lives are shaped by and represented in their surroundings. Figurative language (similes, metaphors, imagery) and minute details help not only characters but entire scenes come alive for the reader. For example, Frank is outside when he finds Marie and Emil sleeping together and shoots them in Part 4, Chapter 7:
Frank went slowly down to the orchard gate, stopped and stood for a moment lost in thought. He retraced his steps and looked through the barn and the hayloft. Then he went out to the road, where he took the footpath along the outside of the orchard hedge. The hedge was twice as tall as Frank himself, and so dense that one could see through it only by peering closely between the leaves. He could see the empty path a long way in the moonlight[...]
The narrator could efficiently state that Frank is looking around the property suspiciously. Instead, the narrator says very little about what Frank is thinking and feeling. The details about what he is noticing in his surroundings convey a palpable sense of suspicion and suspense that is far more dramatic and forceful than a straightforward summary of his thought process would be. This style is part of what makes this novel a work of realism.
On a more zoomed-out level, Cather's style draws on the conventional structure of drama. Like a Shakespearean play, the novel has five parts. Part 1 sets the stage for the conflict of the play to unfold (John Bergson dies and leaves the land to Alexandra). Part 2 lays out the mounting tensions among all the characters (Emil and Marie develop illicit feelings for one another, and Lou and Oscar express bitterness over the choices Alexandra has made). Part 3 shows characters in a state of desperation, and Part 4 depicts the disaster that comes when characters act out of desperation. Finally, Part 5 is a bittersweet resolution to everything that has happened. This play-like structure emphasizes how, even in the supposed land of opportunity, old human stories continue to play out. The old stories are simply adapted to the new environment.
Related Themes:
