Previous
Mood
Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Motifs
Explanation and Analysis—Dialect:
The novel uses dialect itself as a sort of motif. This approach is especially apparent when Merlyn, in one of his tutoring sessions with Wart in The Sword in the Stone, says sagely, "Nobody can be too careful about their habits of speech." This statement rings especially true in the various habits of speech shown in the different characters in the Castle of the Forest Sauvage during Arthur's childhood.
Sir Ector and Sir Grummore use gruff, vulgar language, with undignified pronunciation and repeated use of "after all, damn it all." The young boys, Wart and Kay, also have distinct speaking styles. Kay, Ector's son and a troublemaker, has a speaking style more similar to his father's Cockney-inspired language, the dialect of the lower class in 19th- and 20th-century England. His dialect is characterized best by his boyish rejoinders: "Serve him right, then!" Wart, in contrast, even as an adopted orphan, has an educated and higher-class speaking style, calm and distinguished even in his young age: "I ought to try to remember which side of me the sun is setting, so that when it rises I may keep it on the same side going home." Merlyn, finally, speaks rather similarly to Wart, with upper-class English diction and pronunciation.
Much of the text relies on how people speak: take Merlyn's wonderful aphorisms, or Wat's lack of language, or Wart's various names depending on who's speaking. These accents are important to those effects. They are also largely modern accents associated with the modern versions (somewhat) of the class structure that would be associated with these accents. England has a strong accent-based class structure, which White projects onto Arthurian characters.
Related Themes:
