When He Was Wicked Literary Elements

Romance, Fiction

The setting of the book is in England during the Napoleonic wars. This was a time when the aristocratic culture was present in England.

The narrator of the book is in the third person. The narrator holds the view that love should persevere above all and that two people in love cannot be stopped.

The tone of the book is cheerful and the mood animated as the narrator tells of the love story of Michael and Francesca.

The protagonist of the book are Michael and Francesca. They are the main characters of the book are are love interests. There are no antagonists.

The major conflict in the novel is the love between Francesca Bridgerton and Michael Stirling. The two were deep in love but they avoided getting into a relationship.

The climax of the book is arrived at when Michael kissed Francesca and revealed his feelings for her. After that event, the two came together and had a beautiful relationship.

After the death of John, there was a foreshadow by the narrator that Michael would be the next earl. This came to pass when Francesca Bridgeton miscarried and Michael became the Earl of Bridgerton.

Francesca said that she had started seeing Michael Stirling as a man. This is an understatement of the deep feelings that she had for him.

Biblical allusion in the following sentence, "It was hell watching her, hell speaking to her, hell living in the same house. He’d thought it was difficult before—loving someone who could never be his—but this…" The agony of watching Francesca is described as hell which is an unpleasant place that is described in the Bible.

Michael described Francesca as, "It wasn’t her hair, that rich, lush wave of chestnut that he was rarely so privileged as to see down. And it wasn’t even her eyes, so radiantly blue that men had been moved to write poetry—much, Michael recalled, to John’s everlasting amusement." Michael built imagery by using adjectives such as the color of her hair which is chestnut and the color of her eyes as blue.

There is a paradox because the love story that the readers were introduced to at the beginning of the novel was between John and Francesca. However, after the sudden death of John, the story radically shifts to the love story between Michael and Francesca.

A parallel is drawn between the life of Michael and John. John inherited the estate and the title from his father whereas Michael did not inherit anything from the estate and was obligated to join the army.

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