Sunday, October 12, 2014

Fancy Language Outcast?

After reading the Jane Eyre excerpt from chapter 7, I chose to answer the question...

How do the elevated diction and elaborate syntax contrast with the feelings of the narrator in paragraphs 11-12?

I think that elaborate syntax and elevated diction is something readers expect with more formal things. For example, a textbook, poem, a speech from a president, an academic journal, etc.. But we have Jane as a narrator, who in all seriousness, is just a girl who doesn't want to be called out and wants to be left alone. I think that's a rather normal feeling amongst people. So it is a strange contrast to have an ordinary girl with ordinary feelings using all this elaborate speech (she's not in IB, she doesn't need to sound fancy). I think the fact that Jane does use all this "fancy" language adds to the idea of her being "abnormal." She is literally put on a stool and made to feel like an outcast, so it is possible that her syntax and diction are supposed to add to that idea.

 Any thoughts? Comment below!