The Knocking By Ivan Turgenev Analysis

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Recommended: Importance of descriptive writing

Transforming a story through the use of sensory details enriches the content and creates a realm in which the plot line corresponds with the visual, auditory, and olfactory elements from the text. Both Ivan Turgenev and Nikolai Gogol make use of language that is richly descriptive of the story’s surroundings. This type of language is used to describe characters, landscapes, as well as structures and places. As a result of this, another level of complexity is added to the plot and the author has the ability to reveal certain aspects of the plot. An example of this is found in The Knocking when Turgenev describes a part of the rising in action, where the clatter of the cart is synonymous with the uncertainty of the situation and fear that they …show more content…

They come up to a clearing, where a bridge stands. The clearing provides the clarity that will enable them to know whether or not they will survive and also serves as the climax of the plot. Suddenly the road grows quiet as the cart appears behind them. A giant in a sheepskin jacket approaches the travelers and asks calmly if they could spare any change. They immediately oblige as the moon illuminates the giant’s face. Here, the climax of the plot is reached. The moon that was surrounded by mist in their uncertainty, now illuminates their true fate, and confirms that this man will not kill them. As the cart disappears down the road, the narrator and Filofey hear nothing but the “silence of the grave,” alluding to how near they had potentially been to their deaths. This also is a reference to the silence present before they met the sheepskin jacket man, and signals the beginnings and end of the climax. Turgenev makes use of many sensory descriptors in order to create a visual, auditory, and tactile edge to the plot of the story. Certain details of the plot that are not explicitly stated are revealed through the use of descriptors and sensory details. The next author, Nikolai Gogol, whose short story contains similar descriptors, is explored in the next

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