COMPLETE STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE SHORT STORY "A LICKPENNY  LOVER" 

  The extract under consideration comes from a collection of the short stories  "The Voice of the City" written by a prominent American writer O. Henry ( William Sydney Porter). The book was firstly adopted in 1908 and contain many other stories - "A Comedy in Rubber", "One Thousand Dollars", "The Shocks of Doom", "Roses, Ruses and Romance", etc.

  

   All pieces of  literature created by this famous writer reveal his extraordinary style of writing. O. Henry's short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm caracterization and clever twist endings. In his day he was called the American answer to Guy de Maupassant. Both authors wrote plot unexpectable endings, but stories by O.Henry were much more playful. Besides, his stories are also known for witty narration.

  This prominent writer wrote  primarily about his own time - the early 20th century. Most stories were set in New York and the characters were ordinary people. His brilliant writing style and his optimistic and often playful tone make O Henry's stories a delight to read.

   From the point of view of presentation the story I have chosen is an extraordinary mixture of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person narration:

"That is the shopgirl smile, and I enjoin you to shun it unless you are well fortified with callosityof the heart, caramels and a congeniality for the capers of Cupid."

"She stood behind her counter in the Biggest Store; and as you closed your band over the tape - line for your glove measure you thought of Hebe; and as you looked again you wondered how she had come by Minerva's eyes"

"His words penetrated the heart whose very lightness was its armour. She looked up at him with eyes that saw. And a warm glow visited her cool cheeks..."

   It is not clearly known who is the narrator of the story, but seems like it is the author by himself. As an observer of the events, O. Henry gives a detailed description of the main characters, their feelings and actions both directly and indirectly:

   "There were 3.000 girls in the Biggest Store. Masie was one of them. She was eighteen and a selleslady in the gent's gloves."

   "Will you please pardon me", he says, "if I seem too bold, but I earnestly hope you will allow me the pleasure of seeing you again."

   "As Carter glided away from the Biggest Store with his mother in his electric runabout, he bit his lip with a dull pain at his heart. He knew that love come to him for the first time in all the 29 years of his life."

    The basic theme of the story is the connection between being wealthy and being  in love. An authoritative respectable 29 year - old man named Irving Carter by chance happens to drop into the Biggest Store and from the first sight falls in love in a beautiful young selleslady Masie, who is only 18. They seem to be people of quite different circles of society, with different ideas, interests and plans for the future. Still, the author represens a detailed description of both main characters and emphasizes on some features of their personalities with the help of a great number of stylistic devices.

  Thus, O.Henry compares Masie to Maltese cat and Psyche, to mythological goddesses Hebe and Minerva  describing her good - looking appearence with the help of simile and antonomasia:

    "She had listened to the promulgated wisdom of the 2.999 other girls and had stored it in a brain that was  as secretive and wary as that of a Maltese cat"

   "Masie confronted him behind her counter with a questioning look in eyes as coldly, beautifully, warmly blue as the glint of summer sunshine on an iceberg in Southern seas"

   "She curved an arm, showing like Psyche's through her shirt - waist sleeve..."

  With the help of irony and repetition the author shows that even this female character is young, unexperienced and naive, she knows the way of behaving with men and that you dont have to believe them, but be exacting and harsh:

   "If I could meet a man that got stuck on me the third time he' d seen me I think I'd get   mashed on him."

   "But I've got to be back home by eleven. Ma never lets me stay out after eleven."

   "Masie knew men, especially men who buy gloves"

   Afterwards, when feelings between Masie and Irving becomes mutual, the autor describes an emotional state of the young girl using exclamations and rhetorical questions:

   "The gentleman asked permission to call!" answered Masie with the grand air , as she slipped Carter's card into the bosom of her waist.

   "Gee!", sighed Masie thankfully. Why didn't you ever think ot that before?"

  "Oh, aint you a kidder!" smiled Masie. "How many other girls did you ever tell that?" 
   As well with the help of exclamation and enumeration we get to know that Masie is a poor girl who is a little bit ashamed of the conditions in which she lives, maybe that is why the  girl has to work being so young:
   "Oh, gee, no!", she said emphatically. "If you could see our flat once!"

  "The street - corner is her parlor, the park is her drawing - room, the avenue is her garden walk..." 

   At the end of the story when both Masie and Carter are sure that they are a perfect couple, the young girl is shown from a bit different side. She criticizes her man for being naive and greedy when discussing Carter with her friend Lulu in a store. The point is that Irving has an intention to marry her and take abroad, but Masie seems to understand him in a wrong way and believes that he is a poor liar:

   "Oh, him?" said Masie, patting her side curls. "He ain't in it any more. Say, Lu, what do you think that fellow wanted me to do?"

   "Go on the stage?" guessed Lulu, breathlessly."

   "Nit; he is too cheap a guy for that. He wanted me to marry him and go down to Coney Island for a wedding tour!"

   As far as we can assume, Masie is a two - faced person. Firstly she believes that her feelings with Carter are real ( as she knows that he is a millionaire). On the other hand, Speaking when Masie realizes that he is just one of those talkative "cheap" guys who can promise much but do nothing, she breaks the relations with him.

   Speaking about the other main character, Irving Carter, the first impression of him the author presents with the help of enumeration  and  irony:

   "One day Irving Carter, painter. millionaire, traveller, poet, automobilist happened to enter the Biggest Store."

   "Fillial duty took him by the collar and dragged him inside, while his mother philandered among the bronze and terra - cotta statuetts"

   Using antonomasia and epithets O. Henry tries to depict Carter's  feelings end state of mind when he suddenly notices Masie at the counter. It is clearly that he falls in love with her:

   "As he neared the vicinity of his fate be hesitated, suddenly conscious of this unknown phrase of Cupid's less worthy profession."

   "And then Irving Carter, painter, millionaire, etc., felt a warm flush rise to his aristocratically pale face. But not from difference. The blush was intellectual in origin."

    Within the setting of the events in the story Carter changes completely from a self - assured wealthy man to a shy half - hearted fellow. This is how O. Henry portray him with the help of antithesis and metonymy:

   "Carter had never before encountered a situation of which he had not been perfect master. But now he stood far more awkward than Bill or Jack or Mickey."

   "His mind struggled to recall the nature and habits of shopgirls as he had read or heard of them."

  His manner of behaving and intensions to be acquainted with Masie the author underlines using aposiopesis and anaphora:

  " If you would allow me to call at your home, I - ... "

   "He didnt know the shopgirl. He didnt know that her home is often either scarsely habitable tiny room or a domicile filled to overflowing with kith and kin."

   Further development of the events shows that Carter desperately belives in his and Masie's future. The man asks her to marry him and in order to express his feelings O.Henry uses repetition and polysyndeton:

  "I can furnish you all the proofs you want", said Curter, gently. "And I want you, Masie. I loved you the first day I saw you."

  "After the European cities we will visit India and the ancient cities there, and ride on elephants, and see the wonderful temples of the Hindoos, and Brahmins, and the Japanese gardens..."

     At the end of the story its getting clear that Carter is a man who is in love but at the same time who nas no chance to be with the subject of his passion. As for Masie, she helps to understand how petty - minded and double - faced women can be. Fitslty her feelings towards Irving seem to be mutual, but when it turns out that he is "a cheap guy", all the feelings have gone.

     Drowing a conclusion I would like to mension that Im greatly impressed by the story " A Lickpenny Lover". The speech of the author, profound American short-story writer O. Henry is really bright and fertile. Using of various enmphatic consrtuctions, complex sentence srtuctures and numerous stylistic devices makes the tone of this piece of literature humorous, ironical, passionate and intriguing.