Mary Barton Rhetorical Devices

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In 1848 Elizabeth Gaskell wrote a novel entitled Mary Barton. At this point in time, it had been eight years since the Industrial Revolution ended and in many places jobs had become scarce. In an excerpt from her writing, Gaskell employs the use of contrast, ornate diction and visual imagery in order to display the disappearing experiences of the mill workers to the reader. It is not difficult to observe Gaskell’s use of contrast in showing the stark differences between those who own the mill and those who work there. By highlighting one man’s life that is full of extravagant houses in addition to the freedom to buy whatever he so desires and following such a description with one of a man fighting just to feed his family, the author blatantly …show more content…

This one instance is not the only time in which Gaskell uses contrast as she goes on to paint yet another picture of these two vastly divergent lives. At this point, there is the second contrast of Mr.Hunter shutting down his mill (without any given reason) which then pus the employee out of work while at the same time his son contracts the scarlet fever. One may be led to believe (by this example) that perhaps Mr.Hunter is going through financial hardships as well and that maybe the two are not all that different. The contrast still stands, however, as Mr.Hunter’s wife is described as buying a good deal …show more content…

Diction plays a vital role as well in achieving that goal in many ways. Firstly, the author’s formal and ornate choice of words strongly effects the perspective which the audience has on the mill worker. If not for the use of terms such as “the apple of his eye, the cynosure of all his strong power of love” then the event of the mill worker’s son falling ill would not be nearly as tragic and dismal to the reader. Secondly, there are many other choices of words throughout the text which further the author’s definition of the mill worker’s life in a faintly magniloquent way. One of those cases is when the mill worker is described as being “bewildered” or “aggravated” over the fact that his life continues to decline while others stay the same. Another instance is when Gaskell writes of the mill worker’s “pale, uncomplaining wife” and starving, “wailing children”. All of these more unusual words turn a description or event into something which summons the same picture of the hapless mill workers and their

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