Pragmatic Functions of the Stylstic Devices in the Author’s Chracteristics of the Supporting Characters in “Death of a Hero” by Richard Aldington

Abstract

This article deals with the role and place of stylistic devices in a work of art in the literary pragmatics context. Operating on the level "author - work - reader", literary pragmatics offers an interpretation of the text together in the light of hidden information. The paper focuses on the stylistic analysis of the author’s descriptions of the supporting characters in Richard Aldington's novel “Death of a Hero” and defining the pragmatic functions of the given stylistic devices as source of implicit information. In addition to characterizing his characters through their speech Richard Aldington makes use of direct descriptions. While stylistic figures in the dialogues help to and understand the way of thinking of characters, phonetic and graphic stylistic devices often indicate their social background or emotional state, it’s authors descriptions that make us assess the situation better, pinpointing certain personal features. The most frequently used stylistic devices in the direct descriptions are of a lexical stratum. Not only they enrich the language of a novel, but also allow the author manipulate his readers, “lead them by the hand” in the needed direction and implicitly influence their perception of the characters. It is thanks to the stylistic devices that the author implicitly manages to explain that there has always been an abyss of misunderstanding between the protagonist and his surrounding, regardless of where he was at a certain stage of life. The contrast of the use of tropes in the descriptions of the supporting characters is a tale-telling sign in itself, and that is a particularly important pragmatic function of the stylistic devices usage.