The Golden Bowl Literary Elements

The Golden Bowl Literary Elements

Genre

Historical Fiction

Setting and Context

19th Century, England

Narrator and Point of View

Narrator: Third person
Point Of View: Omniscient

Tone and Mood

Suspicious, Anxious, Despairing, Melancholic.

Protagonist and Antagonist

Maggie is the protagonist of the story. Prince Amerigo is the Antagonist.

Major Conflict

Amerigo loves Charlotte, but he chooses to marry Maggie, the daughter of an American businessman. When he meets Charlotte again as his wife's best friend, he cannot resist her charm even though he desires riches, and they start having an affair.

Climax

When Maggie finds out that Amerigo and Charlotte are having an affair, she decides to be discreet about it. By convincing her father to go back to America, she makes it impossible for Amerigo to meet Charlotte.

Foreshadowing

Charlotte's sudden appearance before Amerigo's wedding as his wife's best friend foreshadows their future licentious relationship.

Understatement

Maggie may seem naive and ignorant to Amerigo, but her tactics to get rid of his affair without knowing his father-in-law impress him.

Allusions

A crack in the golden bowl alludes to Maggie's broken trust in her husband and best friend.

Imagery

N/A

Paradox

Maggie convinces Charlotte to marry his father to prevent her amorous advances to her husband, but her plan fails when Amerigo initiates the affair after the wedding.

Parallelism

Charlotte and Amerigo's lives are parallel. They both struggle to live a life they can barely afford. Materialistic desires kept them from marrying the one they loved, and they ended up in a loveless marriage.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

The story refers to the golden bowl as perfect happiness.

Personification

The story personifies money as powerful.

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