Figures Of Speech And Structure In 'Was It A Dream?'

The Use of Figures of Speech and Structure in “Was It a Dream?” to Impact the Reader’s Emotions

The fantastic tale “Was It a Dream?” by Guy de Maupassant is a story narrated from the first point of view, in which the main character, who remains anonymous, describes his desperation and overwhelming grief since the loss of his loved one. He also relates a supernatural event he experienced, while in the cemetery, in which he finds out the truth about his significant other’s feelings but refuses to accept it, or at least tries to ignore it. Maupassant’s readers may feel sympathy towards the narrator as they perceive throughout the story his tone of desperation, and are able to get to the conclusion that he was living a one-sided relationship. Maupassant achieves these effects in the readers through the use of figures of speech, like anonymity, symbolism and imagery, and the structured he employed in the story. Throughout almost the whole account the reader can perceive a tone of desperation as the main character

In “Was It a Dream?” the two characters remain in anonymity throughout the whole story. This method allows the reader to identify themselves with the characters, especially the main character, instead of only feeling sympathy towards them. While some readers may feel identified with the main character and his disillusion after finding out he had lived in a world of lies, some may feel identified with the woman and her hidden feelings just to not hurt him. In any case, by naming the character, the author may limit the impact the character has in the audience, while the character that is not named allows for more identification between it and the audience because that one doesn’t have an identity and the reader has the space and possibility to give it