Chapter 2 expressive means and stylistic devices in culmination scenes of horror tales

2.1 A variety of expressive means and stylistic devices in the Nancy Holder’s tale “Bloody Gothic”

Narrative tale “Bloody Gothic” by Nancy Holder is a classic example of a vampire horror story. The main character is a young woman who wants to have a vampire lover. She is so obsessed with this idea that takes interest in everything pertaining to vampires: avoiding mirrors and crosses, reading by candlelight, drinking red wine and taking cold baths. Almost all of her savings she spends on vintage suits. Nevertheless, she has to live a double life: by day she is a school teacher caring and loving her children; at night she’s awaiting for her beloved. In attempt to fulfill her dream – to unite with her vampire lover, she goes to Transylvania. Spending time there she notices to become more pale and thinner than she used to be. However, to her great disappointment, during all the time of her staying in the country the desired reunion did not occur. The woman is in despair. But at her last night before leaving the cherished lover comes in a dream and bites her.

She comes to her senses at home surrounded by relatives saying that she was suffering from anemia, which escalated because of a cold she caught in a trip. This only strengthens her faith that her vampire lover came to her. Moreover, the facts that the treatment is not helping and her stomach refuses to accept normal food, and sunlight leaves skin burns makes her believe that the bite is turning her into a vampire. However her vampire lover doesn’t seem to hurry in taking her in his castle as a wife. A woman feels stuck between two worlds: the living and the dead. The denouement comes when she sees children in the school yard. She realizes that her beloved vampire requires a victim from her – sacrifice something that she likes the most. Woman notices a little boy standing apart from the other children, she beckons him and bites into his neck...

The mystical part of a story is in uncertainty of a reader if a meeting of our protagonist with a vampire was real or it was just a fiction of her morbid imagination. The author lets the readers to decide.

The story is narrated in a third person, although we were not given the name of the main character, we only have a faceless “she”. There is no description of the woman, her friends, social environment or any specific information about it, except that she is American. There are no names and proper names in the story at all. This also creates a frightening atmosphere, as adding an element of “triviality” makes readers to think, that this story could happen anywhere with anyone.

The manner of presentation is also noteworthy. The story is narrated in the past tense, and reminds cool documentation of events. The author does not describe neither feelings of the protagonist, nor events that happened not to her directly. To create the sublime style in a story, it is often used high-flown vocabulary which contains archaic (“negligee”) and poetic (“noble”, “sorrow”, etc) words. Words of colloquial style are not in use in this case. But the greatest effect is achieved through the variety of stylistic devices, which will be described in detail below.

Quite a lot of semasiological figures can be found in the text that certainly helped the author to describe the heroes and events and give this story the horror features. These are following:

In the culmination scene of the story, we can find a large number of epithets. Moreover, we can divide them into three groups:

• epithets describing a vampire lover and a meeting with him

• epithets describing the state of the protagonist

• epithets describing children

In the first group we find such epithets as “crooked”, “black”, “diaphanous”, “fiery”, “dark”, “flashing”. They all have a negative connotation, as a vampire is not seen as an embodiment of good. Such epithets make up a frightening impression on the reader.

Epithets of the second group – “enfeebled”, “covering”, “thirsted”, “hungered”, “yearned” – emphasize the enormity of the physical and mental condition of the heroine, gives us the understanding that this can no more last.

But epithets of the third group are of opposite value​​, they describe children who are playing without expecting anything bad – “content”, “tawnyheaded”, “ruddy-cheecked”. However, these descriptions are interrupted with the rush thoughts of the protagonist and the last words that describe the appearance of a little boy are “filled with the blood and the life”.

The image of innocence and carefree children is also supplemented with the metaphor “their slivery laughter was like the tinkling of bells”.

The story is also full with hyperbole, which is typical for horror novels. For example, sentence “She devoured Gothic romances, consumed late-night horror movies.” Hyperbole makes the point that the heroine could devour the book and consume films, though she just read Gothic books and watch horror films with pleasure. We can also find such word combinations as: “deathly chill”, “freezing hands”, “eternal love”, “bone-dry trout”. Hyperbole is used to make a strong impression and effect on a reader.

There is a case of using a personification in following fragments: “Soon and soon and soon, her veins chanted, in prayer and anticipation. Soon.”; “milky hands of Fate”

The reader can also observe:

• periphrasis : “…bind her against his heart”, which poetically describes a vampire love;

• antithesis : “how free they seemed to her who was so troubled”;

• simile :

“she swooped down, like a great, winged thing”.

“June hovered like the mist...”

“...she sipped steadily, like a creature feeding.”

“...she took tiny steps like an old woman.”

“They soared above the crooked trees at the foothills, steamed like black banners above the mountain crags to his castle.”

“...as she came for him, swooped down on him like a great, winged thing, with eyes that burned through the glasses, teeth that flashed once, twice…”

A simile can explicitly provide the basis of a comparison or leave this basis implicit. In the implicit case the simile leaves the reader to determine for him/herself which features of the target are being predicated.

“Tawnyheaded, ruddy-cheeked, filled with the blood and the life. For him, as a token of their love.” The use of “as” makes the simile more explicit.

• oxymoron “fiery tears”.

Nevertheless, syntactic stylistic devices are mostly viewed in climax. A clear difference in paragraph sizes can be seen. They can be divided into two types: those that describe events and those that describe the thoughts of the protagonist. The last ones are pretty acute – the author does not use extended sentence, he uses ellipsis: “The children. He required something of her first. Her one regret. Her only sorrow”.

Following syntactical expressive means and stylistic devices can be found in the culmination scenes of this tale:

• repetition “Soon, soon, soon” which goes through the whole story in italics. The story ends with these words, hinting that this might be continued. Usage of this expressive means helps the author to create an atmosphere of awaiting and expectation, reflecting the inner state of the protagonist.

• detachment “Her steps took her finally to the schoolyard, where once, only few months before, she had embraced and kissed the children, thinking never to see them again”;

• repetition “He could not touch her enough, workshop her enough…”;

• parallel constructions “She walked in the sunlight, enfeebled, covering. She thirsted, hungered, yearned”;

• In this horror tale we may find plenty of cases of using the polysyndeton of the conjunction and which is represented a variety of effects: increasing the rhythm, creating a sense of being overwhelmed: “Days and nights and days”;

“Visions of satin capes and eyes of fire shielded her from the harshness of the daylight, from mortality and the vain and meaningless struggles of the world of the sun.”

“She spent her meager earnings on dark antiques and intricate clothes. Her wardrobe was crammed with white negligees and ruffled underthings. No crosses and no mirrors, particularly not in her bedroom. White tapered candles stood in pewter sconces, and she would read late into the night by their smoky радиціях, scented and ruffled, hair combed loosely about her shoulders....She resented lovers—though she took them, thrilling to the fullness of blood and life in them—who insisted upon staying all night, burning their breakfast toast and making bitter coffee. Her kitchen, of course, held nothing but fresh ingredients and copper and ironware; to her chagrin, she could not do without ovens or stoves of refrigerators. Alone, she carried candles and bathed in cool water.”

“She awoke from these dreams drenched in sweat and feeling exhausted. The kindergarten children would find her unusually quite and self-absorbed, and it frightened them when she rubbed her spotless neck and smiled wistfully. Soon and soon and soon, her veins chanted, in prayer and anticipation. Soon.”

“Her suitcases opened themselves to her long, full skirts and her brooches and lockets.... “I am getting pale,” she thought, and the idea both terrified and delighted her.” (3).

In conclusion it can be noted, that the horror story “Bloody Gothic” is rich in ample variety of stylistic devices and expressive means with the help of which the author has undoubtedly reached a desired effect.