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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
Collins displays his rich writing style in The Woman in White. The novel brims with imagery, similes, metaphors, and other literary devices from the start of the First Epoch through the end of the Third Epoch. He packs the novel with a large cast of characters, several of whom have strong, unique personalities that Collins embellishes upon quite liberally, sometimes using these opportunities to infuse the narrative with a bit of much-needed comedic relief, thus keeping the novel from veering too heavily into serious, melodramatic territory.
To that end, the characters frequently engage in drawn-out and passionate conversations—Collins makes active use of emotional and intense dialogue throughout the narrative. Similarly, the novel also features a large amount of narrators, offering readers a plentitude of voices to hear the story from and perspectives from which to understand it. Collins's rich style also has an effect on the setting. He gives all of the novel's settings abundant attention, and he remains generous with his description of the characters' surroundings in most scenes. This exuberance is necessary for the novel's sensation genre, as Collins's goal is to draw in readers with his gripping story and never lose their interest or attention along the way.
