Tyian Thomas
English 110
3-27-15
1500 words The use of Theme and Literary Elements

Literary devices are specific techniques and methods that authors use to convey an idea they are trying to tell the reader.When an author is writing,, they often try to give the reader certain ideas that would help them to understand the tale indirectly without giving away the idea or moral of the story. For example, the theme of isolation and loneliness. The theme of isolation is a very popular idea in many works of literature like Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, and even Acquainted with the night by Robert Frost. These four works of literature all carry the theme of loneliness and isolation, whether it is Bartleby refusing to interact with anyone and shutting himself away from the rest of the world, Emily who seemed to isolate herself from the rest of her village after her father’s death, the narrator of The Yellow Wallpaper having to spend all her time in the a room she hates because of her disease, or the narrator of Acquainted with the Night strolling through the nightly city all by herself in solitude. All of these stories contain the very popular theme of loneliness and isolation,which are shown using various literary devices of each author’s choosing.
Throughout the whole story of A Rose for Emily, the setting seemed to be very eerie and unnatural; the author gave the readers a feeling that made them almost sense the loneliness emanating from the protagonist, Miss Emily:“That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart-the one we believed would marry her-had deserted her. After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (53 Faulkner). This made it known right away that the protagonist was most likely going to be trapped in isolation and despair throughout the story. Faulkner gave the reader the feeling that the protagonist being talked about was most likely a sad and lonely woman, and he gave the reader this feeling by using the literary device flashback. The author tells the entire story in a flashback to try to give the reader a better understanding of what the overall idea of this story is about and to try to get the reader to understand why the protagonist is the way she is in the present. Faulkner also tends to use foreshadowing frequently to build suspense and to keep the reader guessing about how the story turns out: “The day after his death, all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” (54-55 Faulkner). This foreshadowed the soon-to-be mental state of Emily; it gave the readers a hint that she was going to lock herself away because she obviously could not come to terms with the fact that someone of such great value and importance in her life was gone.
The story Bartleby the Scrivener is a story about intense and self-chosen isolation and solitude. The narrator was the head of a law firm, and he needed a new scrivener, and who else but Bartleby would happen to walk in: “In answer to my advertisement, a motionless young man one morning, stood upon my office threshold, the door being open...I can see that figure now—pallidly neat, pitiably respectable, incurably forlorn! It was Bartleby” (106 Melville). Melville foreshadows Bartleby's future loneliness at the firm with his word choice; words such as “forlorn” and “motionless” help the reader understand Bartleby’s character. For some reason unknown to the reader, Bartleby seemed to have already been slightly broken inside when he first arrived. The narrator really emphasized the theme of isolation when he gave Bartleby his place of work; he more or less completely locked Bartleby in a corner away from the rest of the firm where only he can hear his voice: “I procured a high green folding screen, which might entirely isolate Bartleby from my sight, though not remove him from my voice” (107 Melville). The author seems to use foreshadowing as his main literary device, perhaps this is the reasoning behind why Bartleby rebelled because of the actuality that he was already fractured and just being positioned back in isolation, he just couldn’t take it any longer. At first Bartleby was a great writer, but eventually he stopped listening to anything anyone said and whenever asked to do anything, he would say, “I prefer not to,” and eventually Bartleby would die alone in isolation because of his unwillingness to do anything for the rest of his life. The theme of isolation can also be demonstrated through the setting, like in the poem Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost. The setting for this poem is the big city on a rainy night, the narrator seems to be in a depressed and lonely state: “I have looked down the saddest city lane, I have passed by the watchman on his beat and dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain” (lines 4-6). The author uses these lines to symbolize the isolation and loneliness of the narrator’s life and also chooses his words wisely as Melville did in Bartleby the Scrivener. In essence the author reveals the overall idea of this poem to the reader by using the dark city as a metaphor to reflect his life saying that he’s all too familiar with the desolation and solitude that life brings.