Linguostylistic aspects of landscape descriptions in f. S. Fitzgerald’s novel "The great gatsby"

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Linguostylistic aspects of landscape descriptions in f. S. Fitzgerald's novel "The great gatsby"

N. Semeshko Н. Семешко Н. Семешко

Oles Honchar Dnipro National University

Дніпровський національний університет імені Олеся Гончара

Днепровский национальный университет имени Олеся Гончара

The main objectives of this study are some Linguostylistic aspects of landscape descriptions in F. S. Fitzgerald's novel “The Great Gatsby”. Landscape descriptions here are considered as essential components of a literary work. They are not a were representation of nature but one of the means of a personage's characterization. There is a certain approach in text linguistics regarding verbal landscape as a specific text creation with its own structure and semantics.

Landscape description is a picture, a background of the events in the novel “The Great Gatsby” as well as a psychological reflection of its characters' inner state. Landscape description is very often polyfunctional in the novel. One of its main functions is the function of place and time. Some descriptions are used in the function of prediction. A lot of landscape descriptions are full of visual and sound associations which correspond to the characters' mood revealing a certain psychological parallelism and representing their psychological function. Specific features and functions of the descriptions under consideration are connected with the type of narration as everything in the novel is given through the eyes of the narrator - Nick Caraway. They say that this pact symbolizes the power of circumstances, environment which suppress an individual. Any description in the novel is able to fulfill several functions at a time. Its functions and rich imagery help us penetrate into the inner world of the inner world of the main character of the novel. great gatsby fitzgerald landscape

Keywords: LANDSCAPE, DESCRIPTION, FUNCTION, OF TIME AND PLACE, PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION SYMBOL, ASSOCIATIONS.

Об'єктом дослідження у даній статті є деякі лінгвостилістичні аспекти пейзажних описів в романі Ф. С. Фіцджеральда «Великий Гетсбі». Пейзажні описи розглядаються тут, як суттєві компоненти літературного твору. Вони є не тільки репрезентацією природи, але й одним з засобів характеристики персонажу. В лінгвістиці тексту є певний підхід, за яким вербальний пейзаж вважається специфічним тестоутворенням з його власною структурою та семантикою. great gatsby fitzgerald landscape

Пейзажний опис - це картина, фон подій в романі «Великий Г етсбі», а також і психологічна рефлексія внутрішнього стану його персонажів. Пейзажний опис в романі дуже часто є поліфункціональними. Одна з його головних функцій - це функція місця та часу. Деякі описи мають функцію пророкування. Багато пейзажних описів наповнені візуальними та звуковими асоціаціями, які співпадають з настроєм героїв, розкриваючий деякий психологічний паралелізм та репрезентуючи їх психологічну функцію. Специфічні риси та функції пейзажних описів, які розглядаються, пов'язані з типом оповіді, яка йде в романі від імені Ніка Керревея. Г оворять, що цей факт символізує силу обставин, зовнішнього середовища, що пригнічує індивідуальність. Будь - який опис в романі може виконувати декілька функцій водночас. Його функції та багата образність допомагають нам проникнути у внутрішній світ головного героя роману.

Ключові слова: ПЕЙЗАЖ, ОПИС, ФУНКЦІЯ ЧАСУ ТА МІСТА, ПСИХОЛОГІЧНА ФУНКЦІЯ, СИМВОЛ АСОЦІАЦІЇ.

Объектом исследования в данной статье являются некоторые лингвостилистические аспекты пейзажных описаний в романе Ф. С. Фицджеральда «Великий Гэтсби». Пейзажные описания рассматриваются здесь как существенные компоненты литературного произведения. Они являются не только репрезентацией природы, но и одним из способов характеристики персонажа. В лингвистике текста существует определенный подход, по которому вербальный пейзаж признается специфическим творением с его собственной структурой и семантикой.

Пейзажное описание - это картина, фон событий в романе «Великий Гэтсби», а также и психологическаярефлексия внутреннего состояния его персонажей. Пейзажное описание в романе очень часто является полифункциональным. Одна из его главных функций - функция места и времени. Некоторые описания выполняют функцию предсказания. Многие пейзажные описания наполнены визуальными и звуковыми ассоциациями, котрые совпадают с настроением героев, раскрывая некий психологический параллелизми репрезентуя их психологическую функцию. Спецефические черты и функции пейзажных описаний, которые рассматриваются, связаны с типом повествования, которое ведется от имени Ника Кэрэуэя. Говорят. Что этот факт стмволизирует силу обстоятельств внешней среды, которая подавляет индивидуальность. Любые описания в романе может выполнять несколько функций одновременно.Его функции и богатая образность помогают нам проникнуть во внутренний мир главного героя романа.

Ключевые слова: ПЕЙЗАЖ, ОПИСАНИЕ, ФУНКЦИЯ МЕСТА И ВРЕМЕНИ, ПСИХОЛОГИЧЕСКАЯ ФУНКЦИЯ, СИМВОЛ, АССОЦИАЦИИ.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, a well - known American writer, is famous for his novels and short stories which disclose the excesses of American “Jazz Age” during the 1920s. He attended, but never graduated from Princeton University. There he got acquainted with the rich young people who, as some critics say, were to obsess him for the rest of his life. He was as the 1st World war but never saw active service abroad. The war greatly influenced the young people of the country who didn't believe in any possibility of a social progress. Fitzgerald's novel “The Great Gatsby” (1925) is not his first work but it is considered to be the masterpiece not only by many critics but by the writer himself. The basic story of the novel is simple. James Gatz, a poor bay in the Middle West, is driven to try to realize a dream of success and elegance - a theme that had underlain almost all of Fitzgerald's work.

By the time America entered the First World War, James Gats had become Jay Gatsby, a lieutenant and had a Louisville girl, Daisy Fay, who was to embody all his dreams. But he went to France and the girl married Tom Buchanan of Chicago, an athlete, handsome and fabulously rich. After the war, Tom and Daisy are occupying a great house on Long Island, leading a reckless and idle life with Tom searing excitement in his adulteries. Gatsby, now rich from underworld connections, and still obsessed with Daisy, takes a house near the Buchanan's pl ace, near enough so that at night he can see “green light” on Daisy's dock. He begins to give preposterous wild parties for the heterogeneous bloating population of the Jazz Age - all the while hoping to snatch Daisy from what he assumes to be her miserable life with Tom, and thus recapture the past and his dream. He does manage to encounter Daisy, does persuade her, for the moment that the past can be recaptured, and almost persuades her that she had never, in any sense, loved Tom. But in the showdown scene with both, he is exposed for the shabby charlatan that, in one sense, he is.

The same afternoon, Daisy, driving Gatsby's car, accidently reins down and kills Tom's mistress Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a garage keeper. Tom manages to convince the garage man that Gatsby had killed the woman. Later, Gatsby, waiting for some world from Daisy, is shot to death by the garage man, who then commits suicide. Tom and Daisy, immune in “their money and their vast carelessness' disappear and “let other people clean up the mess they have made”.

One of the essential components of a literary work is landscape which has its functions and specifics and is not a mere representation of nature [5] but one of the means of a personage's characterization as O. Galitch states [4].

The development of text linguistics and M. Bloch's theory of text made for the appearance of a new approach to the verbal landscape regarding it as a specific text creation with its own structure and semantics (R. Lutsenko, V. Ryabova, Yu. Khudyaeva, N. Boeva, T. Gosteva). The investigators indicated philosophical and esthetic contents of landscape description in an artistic work. Landscape description is a picture, a background of the events in the novel “The Great Gatsby” as well as a psychological reflection of its characters' inner landscape description is very often polyfunctional in the novel. One of its main functions is the function of place and time. The novel almost begins with the description of West Egg, given by the narrator, Nick by name as it is the place of the main events: It was a matter of chance that I should have rented a house in one of the strangest communities in North America. It was on that slender riotous island which extends itself due east of New York - and where there are, among other natural curiosities, two unusual formations of land. Twenty miles from the city a pair of enormous eggs, identical in contour and separated only by a courtesy bay, jut out into the most domesticated body of salt water in the Western hemisphere, the great wet barnyard of Long Island Sound. They are not perfect ovals - like the egg in the Columbus story, they are both crushed flat at the contact end - but their physical resemblance must be a source of perpetual confusion to the gulls that fly overhead. To the wingless a more arresting phenomenon is their dissimilarity in every particular except shape and size. The place seems to Nick lather stinger and unusual. It is intensified by epithets “...strangest, enormous”, simile “...like the egg...” and a specific vocabulary “... curiosities .., dissimilarity” as if preparing the readers to some unusual events [3, p 8-9]. This landscape is not only perceived but also interpreted by Nick. Such egocentric elements bring some additional nuances [1]. Landscapes given through the eyes of a character speak about his psychological state at the moment of perception. That's why we can distinguish a certain coordination of two functions which intensify each other. There are some places in the novel where we come across a certain merging of a portrait and a landscape. As an example we can take the episode when Nick is observing Daisy: “For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face: her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened - then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk” [3, p.18]. The fragment is full of the nawator's. Subjective estimations of Nick are reflected in metaphors, epithets, simile and break - in - the - narrative. The elevated atmosphere of this “picture” is supported by emotional, high - literary vocabulary (“affection”, “faded”, “deserting”). The details of this short landscape sketch help the reading to fancy the sunset, Daisy's appearance and the psychological state of the personage narrator.

The description of the night landscape definitely conceals some enigma noticed by Nick: “The wind had blown off, leaving a loud, bright night, with wings beating in the trees and a persistent organ sound as the full bellows of the earth blew the frogs full of life. The silhouette of a moving cat wavered across the moonlight, and turning my head to watch it, I saw that I was not alone - fifty feet away a figure had emerged from the shadow of my neighbor's mansion and was standing with his hands in his pockets regarding the silver pepper of the stars. Something in his leisurely movements and the secure position of his feet upon the lawn suggested that it was Mr. Gatsby himself, come out to determine what share was his of our local heavens” [p.25]. As M. Epstein states this night landscape is a secret landscape, which occupies a certain place in genre and style classification of landscapes [2]. It I rich in visual and sound association created by knight metaphors, epithets and deliberate repetition of the sound [5]. The description is full of familiar poetic images (“bright night”; “wings beating...”; “moonlight”; “silhouette”; “shadow”, “star”) producing a romantic mood as if preparing the reader to meet the main character of the novel whose personality contains something mysterious and enigmatic. A very special function in the novel belongs to the description of the valley of ashes: “About half way between West Egg and New York the motor road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside it for a quarter of a mile, so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of ashes - a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash - gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight” [3, p.26]. This landscape fragment produces a great impression on the readers as it is emotionally charged. The leading sole in it belongs to stylistic syntax. This fragment begins with stylistic inversion. Parallel constructions, polysyndeton, gradation create to some extent an aggressive rhythm. Fantastic, exceptional essence is revealed by epithets (“fantastic”, “grotesque”), metaphors, personifications and similes. The valley is covered with the veil in the same way as Gatsby's personality. Thus this description fulfils the function of place as well as the psychological one. It also has a certain plot motivation as it reflects an obscure side of the life which is present in the novel.

The emotional atmosphere of the Queensboro Bridge description is different. This description displays the character's positive mood. And the same devices, such as stylistic inversion, parallel construction, are full of the sun and the light (“sunlight”, “fluker').The bridge looks like a peculiar way towards some mysteries.

Some landscape descriptions are used in the function of a prediction. For instance Fitzgerald describes the autumn when Gatsby are Daisy were happy together. It was five years ago: “One autumn night, five years before, they had been walking down the street when the leaves were falling, and they came to a place where there were no trees and the sidewalk was white with moonlight. They stopped here and turned toward each other. Now it was a cool night with that mysterious excitement in it which comes at the two changes of the year. The quiet lights in the houses were humming out into the darkness and there was a sir and bustle among the stars. Out of the corner of his eye Gatsby saw that the blocks of the sidewalks really formed a ladder and mounted to a secret place above the trees - he could climb to it, if he climbed alone, and once there he could suck on the pap of life, gulp down the incomparable milk of wonder” [3, p.112]. Besides the leading function mentioned above this description specifies the time and the place of the action. The end of the year (autumn) symbolizes the end of the relations between the young man and the girl. That autumn weather conveys the main character's inner state. This is manifested in the elements of visual associations of the gloomy and mysterious landscape. His mood is supported by the epithets (“secret”; “mysterious”; “cool”), by several metaphors and personification. The last centime starts with the author's beloved stylistic inversion but the realer attention is drawn to a certain ladder “he coned climb to...” Gatsby's way to its top is the way to his loneliness. This mood is somehow taken up and developed at the end of the novel when Gatsby realized the crash of his dream: “he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about. like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding toward him through the amorphous trees” [3, p.162]. The fulling of the loss, despair and fright ran through him. The imagery supported his mood. The world is not warm to how. This is intensified by such epithets as “unfamiliar”, “frightening”, “grotesque”, “raw” by metaphors and sites. This new world is inhabited by “poor ghosts”, which seem to him “like on ashen, fantastic figure”. This new world made him shiver. Really, such landscape description gives the way to the tragic end of the main character.

Fitzgerald presents the last landscape description given through the eyes of the nawator's - Nick: “... as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes - a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, completed into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder's [p.180181]. The tonal system of the description speaks about the devastation (“ - places were closed”, “there were hardly any lights”).The motive of devastation and sun of the dream is caught up by the personification epithets in the last long sentence. Along the way to Gatsby's house there are vanished trees, which how are not speaking aloud but only whispering. The passage in full of visual and sound associations of a dull landscape, which corresponds to Nick's mood. We way speak about the psychological parallelism and of a special function of landscape - a psychological one.

Summing up it is interesting to note that some specific features and functions of the abovementioned description are connected with the type of narration. Everything in the novel “The Great Gatsby” is given through the eyes (perception) of the narrator - Nick Caraway.

Some scholars point out that this fact symbolizes the power of circumstances, environment which suppress an individual. Any description (portrait and landscape) is able to fulfil several functions at a time. Such descriptions full of visual and sound association become polyfunctional. The analysis of the test proved that the extremely expressive style of F. S. Fitzgerald is full of symbols. A lot of stylistic devices on various levels reveal the romantic nature of the main character. The vocabulary of the writer is nether rich in emotional, sometimes even poetic words. All the devices are meaningful as they make the author's message obvious. On the one hand Fitzgerald presents the poetry of Gatsby's dream and on the other - the moral sleaziness of this dream. It is only because we understand that the content of the main character's dream is worthless (to return the past, the return his love) and the means of achieving it - criminal, that we can, paradoxically, understand the full worth of the were act of dreaming.

Description in the novel with their rich imagens fulfil varied functions and help us understand that among such “nonpersons” line Tom and Daisy and the hordes of nameless quests visiting parties in a comic pseudo - castle set in a landscape of ashes, Gatsby alone possesses the human power. He beeps his gaze faithfully on the green light across the dark water.

References

1. Chumirina V. (2002) Subject v peizazhnih fragmentah hudozhestvennoi prozi. - V kn. Kommunikativno - smisloviye parametri grammatiki i teksta. 461 - 470

2. Epstein M. N. (1990) “Priroda, mir, tainik Vsellenoi... “Sistema peizazhnih obrazov v Russkoi poezii. 156

3. Fitzgerald F. S. The Great Gatsby. Dnipro Publishers. Kiev. 1973. - 181 p.

4. Galich O., Nazarets V., Vasiliyev E. (2001). Teoriya literature. 159

5. Sebina E. N. (1990). Oposznie. Peizazh. - V kn.: Vvedenie v literaturovedenie. 220 -240

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