Angels & Insects: Two Novellas Literary Elements

Angels & Insects: Two Novellas Literary Elements

Genre

Fiction

Setting and Context

Victorian England, at a time when social propriety hid a great deal of impropriety behind closed doors.

Narrator and Point of View

The point of view is that of William Adamson

Tone and Mood

The mood in general is one of unfriendliness and snobbery.

Protagonist and Antagonist

William Adamson is the protagonist; Edgar, his brother in law, the antagonist

Major Conflict

There is constant conflict between William and Edgar, because Edgar is a snob and looks down on William because of his financial circumstances; William, in turn, views Edgar with distaste because he knows him to be a rapist.

Climax

Matty finally admits to William that she is in love with him; the two leave for a tour of the Amazon.

Foreshadowing

The fact that none of his children look like him foreshadows William's realization that they are actually Edgar's, and not his.

Understatement

Eugenia tells William she knows that what she is doing with Edgar is wrong, which is an enormous understatement, since she is having an incestuous affair with her brother, who is also a serial rapist, and has caused the death of her fiancé with her actions.

Allusions

The book alludes to the Victorian era of colonialism and also of academics of note going off on adventures and cataloguing botanical and anthropological discoveries.

Imagery

No specific examples.

Paradox

Edgar looks down on William because he does not have much money, but Edgar is a rapist who should not be looking down on anyone. In Victorian England, having money is far more important than having morals.

Parallelism

There is a parallel between Eugenia's former fiancé's mental breakdown and his discovery of her incestuous affair.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The Alabaster Children is the phrase used to mention all of the children as a group without specifying any of them as individuals.

Personification

No specific examples.

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