TEXT 1: JANE AUSTEN, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1811)
→ Read the following text by Jane Austen
→ Identify the type of narrator in the text
→ Justify your answer by examples from the text. Analyse these examples
making all the stylistic
comments you find necessary.
→ What is the effect conveyed? As readers what perception do we have of Mrs.
Ferrars?
Mrs. Ferrars was a little, thin woman, upright, even to formality, in her figure,
and serious, even to sourness, in her aspect. Her complexion was sallow; and
her features small, without beauty, and naturally without expression; but a
lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of
insipidity, by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature. She was not
a woman of many words; for, unlike people in general, she proportioned them
to the number of her ideas; and of the few syllables that did escape her, not one
fell to the share of Miss Dashwood, whom she eyed with the spirited
determination of disliking her at all events.
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811)
TEXT 2: FRANCIS SCOTT FITZGERALD, THE GREAT GATSBY
(1925)
→ Read the following text by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
→ After identifying the type of narrator in this text, analyse the forms, devices
and effects of narrative subjectivity in the extract. Illustrate your analysis with
relevant examples, making all the stylistic comments you find necessary.
, I was still with Jordan Baker. We were sitting at a table with a man of about my
age and a rowdy little girl, who gave way upon the slightest provocation to
uncontrollable laughter. I was enjoying myself now. I had taken two finger-
bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something
significant, elemental, and profound.
At a lull in the entertainment the man looked at me and smiled.
'Your face is familiar, he said, politely. 'Weren't you in the First Division during
the war?'
'Why, yes. I was in the Twenty-eighth Infantry!
I was in the Sixteenth until June nineteen-eighteen. I knew I'd seen you
somewhere before We talked for a moment about some wet, grey little villages
in France. Evidently, he lived in this vicinity, for he told me he had just bought
a hydroplane, and was going to try it out in the morning.
(...) It was on the tip of my tongue to ask his name when Jordan looked around
and smiled.
'Having a gay time now?' she inquired.
'Much better! | turned again to my new acquaintance. This is an unusual party
for me. I haven't even seen the host. I live over there - I waved my hand at the
invisible hedge in the distance, 'and this man Gatsby sent over his chauffeur
with an invitation.'
For a moment he looked at me as if he failed to understand.
I'm Gatsby,' he said suddenly.
'What!' I exclaimed. 'Oh, I beg your pardon'
"I thought you knew, old sport. I'm afraid I'm not a very good host!
Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
→ Read the following text by Jane Austen
→ Identify the type of narrator in the text
→ Justify your answer by examples from the text. Analyse these examples
making all the stylistic
comments you find necessary.
→ What is the effect conveyed? As readers what perception do we have of Mrs.
Ferrars?
Mrs. Ferrars was a little, thin woman, upright, even to formality, in her figure,
and serious, even to sourness, in her aspect. Her complexion was sallow; and
her features small, without beauty, and naturally without expression; but a
lucky contraction of the brow had rescued her countenance from the disgrace of
insipidity, by giving it the strong characters of pride and ill nature. She was not
a woman of many words; for, unlike people in general, she proportioned them
to the number of her ideas; and of the few syllables that did escape her, not one
fell to the share of Miss Dashwood, whom she eyed with the spirited
determination of disliking her at all events.
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility (1811)
TEXT 2: FRANCIS SCOTT FITZGERALD, THE GREAT GATSBY
(1925)
→ Read the following text by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
→ After identifying the type of narrator in this text, analyse the forms, devices
and effects of narrative subjectivity in the extract. Illustrate your analysis with
relevant examples, making all the stylistic comments you find necessary.
, I was still with Jordan Baker. We were sitting at a table with a man of about my
age and a rowdy little girl, who gave way upon the slightest provocation to
uncontrollable laughter. I was enjoying myself now. I had taken two finger-
bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something
significant, elemental, and profound.
At a lull in the entertainment the man looked at me and smiled.
'Your face is familiar, he said, politely. 'Weren't you in the First Division during
the war?'
'Why, yes. I was in the Twenty-eighth Infantry!
I was in the Sixteenth until June nineteen-eighteen. I knew I'd seen you
somewhere before We talked for a moment about some wet, grey little villages
in France. Evidently, he lived in this vicinity, for he told me he had just bought
a hydroplane, and was going to try it out in the morning.
(...) It was on the tip of my tongue to ask his name when Jordan looked around
and smiled.
'Having a gay time now?' she inquired.
'Much better! | turned again to my new acquaintance. This is an unusual party
for me. I haven't even seen the host. I live over there - I waved my hand at the
invisible hedge in the distance, 'and this man Gatsby sent over his chauffeur
with an invitation.'
For a moment he looked at me as if he failed to understand.
I'm Gatsby,' he said suddenly.
'What!' I exclaimed. 'Oh, I beg your pardon'
"I thought you knew, old sport. I'm afraid I'm not a very good host!
Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
