Formalism Final Draft 2

POETIC LANGUAGE MAKES A GREATER CONTRIBUTION TO THE TEXTS MEANING THAN THE STORY IT TELLS. APPLY RUSSIAN FORMALIST CONCEPTS TO AN ANALYSIS OF D.H. LAWRENCE’S ODOUR OF CHRYSANTHEMUMS

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Russian Formalism theories emerged from meetings from two groups in Russia, the Moscow Linguistic Circle and Opojaz in Petersberg. Both groups thought that literary studies at there present time were inappropriate. However, these two groups were very interested in the futurist poets of Russia. Two of the main protagonists were Roman Jakobson and Viktor Shklovsky. Unlike other groups such as the Symbolists had looked into poetry and spoke of its infinity and unseen reality. Shklovsky wanted a realist view, he wanted to split ordinary language and literary language into separate components, to do this one of his concepts was defamilarisation, which gave the literary work a renewed look from just being words on a page. Jaakobson put it another way “Literature is organized violence committed on everyday language”. In this essay I am going to analyse the short story of D.H. Lawrence { Odour of Chrysanthemums} using devices created by the Formalists such as Fabula the order of events in chronological order, and sjuzet which is distinctly different the order of events in non chronological order and is critical to Formalist theory. I will use other poetic devices such as Semantics to fully analyse this text, to show to the reader that even a short piece of text can be crafted into a work of art not just for the eye but also for the mind. Sjuzet (plot) is the events in non-chronological order as mentioned above, as we can see from the first page the language is very poetic and shows very clearly shows the fight between humans and the industrial dehumanisation of the spirit of man. A woman, walking up the railway line to Underwood, drew back into the hedge, This shows to the reader that man is being pushed back by machines and we have no way of stopping this demise, D.H. Lawrence the author probably can see the way ahead as Orwell did in his novel 1984 and this was his message through this short story. The description of the pit is so tactile you can feel the depressive nature of this place. A place that is one of many giant mechanised industries,

the miners are just

one entity in a leviathan mechanical ant hill. Elizabeth’s life is as stagnant as the reedy pit pond. Walters’s life seems at first straight forward.

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He works at the pit, spends most of their money in the public houses, while Elizabeth and the children scrape by. Then about three quarters through the text when Walter dies. Then the sjuzet comes alive with an epiphany from Elizabeth, which gives a true account of their relationship in life and death. Sjuzet can be broken down into smaller units, which are called Motifs; there are two kinds of motifs. Bound motifs are required by the novel or short story and are essential to make more sense of the text and free motifs which are excerpts of the text that are inessential to the story but to Russian Formalists Free motifs focus on narration to make it more realistic and is the true craft of literature. Most of the bound motifs in Odour of Chrysanthemums are the environment and community of Elizabeth and Walter. On page 3A Lawrence’s description of the family kitchen is fore grounded by repetition of the words red and white, in the Formalist view this is classed, as a staircase episode that pushes the narration in the background and all we have left is two opposing colours imbedded into our subconciousness. As the story progresses it could also be suggested that the two opposing colours could reflect the personalities of Elizabeth [white ] and Walter [red ]. On page 3 more staircase episodes emerge dark, darkness and fire are all repeated, which gives the reader an insight of this family’s life. Alternatively, in a poetic kind of way it could be describing humans as a whole. Most of us sometime in our lifetime are in darkness but there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, which could be the redeeming feature not just for this family but also for all mankind. The summary narrative on page 4A gives the reader a perceived look from Elizabeth of her and Walters’s life together; this narrative further debases Walter openly to the whole household. The linear way of the story is completed when the children are being put to bed on page 5A; Elizabeth retrospectively sees all the sadness Walter has put on them by focusing on their hair colour. The brown and the black are all symbols and emphasize to her that this is her life, no vibrant or happy shades of colour just darkness envelopes her and her family because of Walter.

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The last line in the first part is anticipation of foreboding from Elizabeth, which is squashed when she hears male voices from the public house. Her staunch values come to the fore and she doesn’t go in this tells the reader that Elizabeth stands by what she says, and can be also be insightful that she is as stubborn as Walter . The language on page 5B is very accurate and realistic to the community, while Elizabeth’s discourse is more middle class the Rigleys colloquialism brings the subject back to reality. Formalists classify this device as Motivated as it’s authentic to the text and story. Also concerning class Elizabeth is hypocritically demeaning herself when she agrees with Mrs. Rigley that her house is in the same state. On page 6A there’s more parallels this time concerning size, instead of just saying Mr. Rigley was a big man the description expounds this and you can imagine this massive brute in front of Elizabeth. Poetically it works but the word wound is again repeated to emphasize it and you can see inwardly that this man is marked not just physically but akin to differentiate him as a worker ant

from the queen ant ,the author could also be showing through his

description that although Elizabeth live in the same community they are poles apart. We can also see on page 6B that the narrative time is speeding up, the first five pages covers around two hours but the next two hours are covered in a page and a half. This is also part of Russian Formalism theory; to slow down the process of narrative so the whole environment of the text envelops us Shklovsky put it thus “The greatest possible effect toward removing the automatism of reception is obtained through the slowing of the perception: the object is thus perceived not in its spatial extension, but in its continuity” . This speeding up also says to the reader’s mindset that the conclusion is rapidly approaching, and we find out soon enough that Walter is dead, this is in fact another device called a false ending whereas you think the story is coming to a close it actually is the beginning of the story. On page 7A Elizabeth’s first thoughts of her husband’s death are not sentimental but economic and fully realistic to the situation, can she and the children survive without him? Walters’s mother is also there her description from the narrator says to the reader that she’s just a feeble old lady, but as we read on this woman has spirit.

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On page, 9B she says “let me wipe him” this is not a question but a statement of intent to show Elizabeth that she has the same rights as Elizabeth. Walters mum may not be in the same social class or as Elizabeth perceives this to be; she is just as strong if not stronger. As she relates to Elizabeth that he was a good son when he was younger but tries to implicate Walters’s ways to being with Elizabeth, because Elizabeth didn’t make allowances. Walters mum and Elizabeth find out that Walter was smothered, which is the precise term for how Elizabeth feels at that time, with Walters mum and the pitman who remains nameless. Possibly, it could be another political message about the fight between man and machine as on page one reinforcing the message yet again. Elizabeth feeling relief on page 8A can be construed two ways either that he’s dead or that he didn’t suffer and just fell asleep. The Chrysanthemums feature heavily in the story, we analysed Elizabeth’s narrative earlier in the essay but before that both children have a distinct relationship with the flower, John on page 2A and Annie on page 4A and again while John is not interested in the flowers he drops on the path, Annie is transfixed by the flowers which is a total contrast in actions. Even when Walters were being brought in one of the miners; knock over a vase of the flowers on page 8B. Poetically the Chrysanthemum has an affinity both in life and death. Even when she chides the children for enquiring about the noise and if father is home, D.H. Lawrence writes Her voice was much agitated with an unreal gentleness Using words such as agitated and gentleness an adjective and a noun respectfully, contrast is made but to Russian Formalists it is part of the craft which makes it literary unique. Pages 10A and 10B are the most eye-opening pages of the whole story. Elizabeth in realization through the sjuzet and through a multitude of staircase episodes, bless him, peaceful, laugh, stranger, ice just to name a few. Grief gives way to culpability, in just a few short paragraphs her life with Walter is explained fully, they have been living together but their lives have been separate. As the author states She knew she had never seen him, he had never seen her, they had met in the dark and had fought in the dark, not knowing whom they met nor whom they fought. [page10] Again Russian Formalism nudges away everyday language and use poetic contrasting words e.g.v

Smokey and burning-10a Intact and seperateness-10a Rigid with agony-10b These all impact on the text and also the reader’s conviction, you feel sorrow for Walter but Elizabeth’s sorrow touches you not just her, but for her offspring and the unborn child she’s carrying. The last page see’s Elizabeth finally finishing off dressing Walter and she comes to the conclusion that life is how you make it, but death is the ultimate master of us all. In conclusion to this analysis it seems to me delving deeper into the narration that this short piece of text is akin to an oil painting, there are so many layers. The first layer is just a short story about a drunkard and his wife and kids and his death in a mine and her feelings towards their relationship. The second layer is an embedded narrative about the author’s thoughts both political and social concerning how the world is being taken over by a mechanical age, he cannot stop the machine revolution but in a way this short story is a protest against this but mainly it’s a protest at the working class nudging on the middle class as rights of education and voting had changed massively when this had been written, as we see throughout the narrative the language of Elizabeth is totally contrasted to the colloquial language of the mining community. The third layer is the Chrysanthemum within the title of the story, Chrysanthemums or mums are actually florets within a dense cluster to make the main flower. Like the community around Elizabeth, also there are two classes of florets ray and disc which make up the flower again this backs up my point of layer two above. Mums also have a contrast across the world, in America they are given as corsages and house-warming presents but in central Europe they are called the death flower and are put onto graves. Again Lawrence must have known this as the story is about life and death. The final layer of this story is the Russian Formalist view, the use of motifs and the defamiliarization of the sjuzet and also the poetic device of Semantics which enters into the narrative inconspicuously through connotations, metaphors and figurative language. Also the chronology of the story slowing down just before Walters’s death adds to the narrative devices, on page 8A a full page detracts from Walters’s death to the description of the parlour. Also the Russian Formalists view of literariness to make the usual, unusual and make us perceive text in a none direct manner so we don’t just read it but immerse ourselves fully into the text. Between Lawrence’s narrative, vi

authorship, and political/social views and Russian Formalism, this short story is a work of art for its narrative and extended imagery. But the art is skilfully not perceived firsthand, this craft is one of the main foundations of the narrative to make it non habitual to a readers mind. The reader has to sort out the fabula from the sjuzet, whereas the fabula is the skeleton, the sjuzet is the muscle of the narrative Its only downfall and I can only say this in retrospect since learning about Russian Formalism is that Lawrence wrote it in a certain way to keep out the uneducated classes or as he saw it a threat on his heritage and class but what a shame to hide away a great narrative which covers all emotive and ideals within a normal family.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS

BENNETT T-2003- FORMALISM AND MARXISM –ROUTLEDGE FOWLER F-1996-LINGUISTIC CRITICISM-OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS NEWTON K M-1993-20TH CENTURY LITERARY THEORY-MACMILLAN RICE P [ET AL]-1996-MODERN LITERARY THEORY-ARNOLD PRESS INTERNET http://calstaging.bemidjistate.edu/en3160f01/litcrithelp/russian.html-2001 http://www.textetc.com/theory/formalists.html www.phillwebb.net/.../TwentiethCentury/Continental/(Post)-2005

http://www.mums.org/

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