Dialect in D. H. Lawrence's A Sick Collier
How much can one tell from the dialogue and dialect from a piece of literature? "A Sick Collier" by D. H. Lawrence is a short story that exemplifies how important dialect can be to the understanding of a story. This story's dialect is key to many elements of the story. Through the dialect, the reader gets a full picture of the setting, understanding of the collier's social class, and shows the difference in intelligence between the collier and the other speaking characters.
The story begins with background information setting up the scene for the story. Then suddenly it hits you. The collier says "Set th' table ofr my breakst, an' put my pitthing affront o' th' fire. I s'll be getting' up at ha'ef pas' five. Tha nedna shift thy-sen not till when ter likes" (Lawrence 2). Initially, I was overwhelmed trying to read this dialogue. But as I continued to read the story, I realized Lawrence's purpose. The author was trying to give a setting for this piece, because the story has no specific location. Lawrence does not blatantly tell exactly where the story is taking place. However, the reader can make assumption by analyzing the dialect. According to Leith, the dialect is that of the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire area in England. The collier's statements and ideas are simple minded, which is a characteristic of the rural part of the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire area (Leith 245). For example, the collier says "I want none o' your white cloths i' the' mornin'. I like ter be able to slobber if I feel like it" (Lawrence 2). He does not care that his wife thinks the white tablecloths are pretty. He only cares that she might expect him to eat like a civilized human being. The col...
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...is so dramatic.
Dialect can tell the reader a lot about a story. By looking at the writings by Leith and Thulin, one can see how important this element of writing can be. From the dialect in this story, the reader can create ideas about the setting, the collier's social class, and the character's level of intelligence.
Works Cited
Lawrence, D. H. "A Sick Collier." Jimmy and the Desperate Woman & other stories. Ed. Giles Gordon. London: Bloomsbury P, 1996. 1-11.
Leith, Richard. "Dialogue and Dialect in D. H. Lawrence." Style. Ed. Summer. DeKalb:
University of Illinois, 1980. 245-258.
Thulin, Richard L. "Man and Woman in the Writings of David Herbert Lawrence and of Certain Contemporary Theologians: A Dialogue in Theology and Literature." Dissertation-
Abstracts-International. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1972. 2487A-88A.
In an excerpt from “In Cold Blood”, Truman Capote writes as an outside male voice irrelevant to the story, but has either visited or lived in the town of Holcomb. In this excerpt Capote utilized rhetoric to no only describe the town but also to characterize it in order to set a complete scene for the rest of the novel. Capote does this by adapting and forming diction, imagery, personification, similes, anaphora, metaphors, asyndeton, and alliteration to fully develop Holcomb not only as a town, but as a town that enjoys its isolation.
One rhetorical strategy developed from the opening passage and carried on throughout the novel is the detachment of the narrator. By not including any mention of who is telling the story, the novel maintains a journalistic nature and allows for the audience to make their own judgments. Moreover, the city of Holcomb becomes just an average place that neither the narrator or audience has any relation to due to the repeated inclusion of understatements, allowing the plot of the novel to pervade deeper into the senses
Diction plays a critical role in the development of the tone in a story. The type of words the author uses directly leads to the tone of the entire literary work. If ...
To say that the religious power of women was reduced, is of course, to suggest that they held power in first place. In the early Christian church, women had great influence, and in fact held several offices: deaconess, widow, presbyter, and wives of clergy. Praying for the congregation, instructing female catechumens, baptizing women, teaching doctrine, and consecrating the Eucharist were just some of the responsibilities of these early female church officials (Ute, 53). But by approximately 750 C.E. women had lost these major roles in the Church, as well as the power and influence they once had.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary “Pike County” dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding. (Twain 2)
Gayl Jones suggests, “Not only does the dialect have more functions but it is used in a story of greater complexity of character, greater thematic range and literary sophistication. Though the people themselves are “simple” in the sense of being “ordinary folks,” their range is more than sentimental or comic emotion.” The dialogue in this story helps to move the narrative along and give it additional char...
Schüssler-Fiorenza, Elizabeth. In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins. New York: Crossroad, 1983.
Scholz, S. (2014). Feminist Scholarship on the Old Testament: Introduction. Available: http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393361/obo-9780195393361-0020.xml. Last accessed 19th March 2014.
Harrington, Daniel J. (S.J.) The truth about Jesus and Women. Retrieved April 12, 2014 from
In most religious faiths, like Christianity (excluding Christian denominations), Judaism, and Catholic do not accept women as priests, pastors, and rabbis. In Christianity, there are several of reasons why women cannot be ordained as ministry leaders in the fellowship of God, but minister. At the beginning of time, God created man ...
Piper, John. What’s the Difference? Manhood and Womanhood Defined According to the Bible. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1991.
“Today I appeal to the whole Church community to be willing to foster feminine participation in every way in its internal life. This is certainly not a new commitment, since it is inspired by the example of Christ himself….nevertheless, he also involved women in the cause of his kingdom; indeed he wanted them to be the first witnesses and heralds of his resurrection. In fact, there are many women who have distinguished themselves in the Church’s history by their holiness and hardworking ingenuity.”
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
Despite the similarities in the time periods of the pieces, the use of language in them is very different. In Stephen Crane's “Maggie,” the audience is given the story of a poor family whose children grow up and experience difficulties due to their social position. As already noted, the dialog is treated in the story in a much different manner than the paragraphs which are written in a more eloquent manner. An example of this is: