This passage from Dorothy Sayers The Nine Tailors revolves around a solitary character

 Throughout the passage, Sayers uses a variety of literary devices with the primary objective of illustrating Wimsey’s agony in a way that will paint a picture in our minds and cause us to emphasize with the character.   The author applies various types of sound imagery, which seems fitting, as the main topic of the passage is the pain that the sound of the bells causes.  Visual imagery is used in line 7, “stunned and shaken, Wimsey set his foot on the last ladder.” This emphasizes that Wimsey was stunned and couldn’t believe what he saw while putting his foot on the last ladder trying to escape the bell tower, it may have been a memory from the past but we don’t know.

 Throughout the passage, sound effects are used.  In the first paragraph, there is an abundance of alliteration, which the writer uses to emphasize different points.   For example, the phrase “The bells were still sounding their frenzied call“ uses the alliteration of “s“ to emphasize the continuity of the noise.   The alliteration of “s“ is used again later on in the paragraph in the last sentence with a different effect; “Stunned and shaken,“ uses the sound to accent a sort of double blow to the main character.   This effect is further strengthened by the preceding line where the alliteration of “r“ in “rocked and reeled with the reeling of bells“ and the alliteration of “d“ in “drenched and drunken“ create a sense of drowsiness, which is shattered by the sharpness of the next line.  Onomatopoeia is also used in this paragraph, in line 13, which is ran-dan, ran-dan is used to emphasize the sound of a loud banging noise.

 Throughout the passage, the first and last paragraph are short and have a variety of long and short sentences, while in the middle paragraph, it is a very long paragraph with a variety of long and short sentences.  This can be related back to the sounds of the bell tower, as the bell inside the bell tower moves backwards and forwards.  This is also meandering where it is going aimlessly and randomly.  This passage is written in the third person’s point of view, as we can see the word “he” is being used, and it is used to emphasize the thoughts and feelings of a character, where in this case, it is emphasizing the thoughts of Wimsey. This is also written in past tense, where it signifies that the events had already taken place and it doesn’t have much effect on the reader. The tone shifts slightly throughout the passage as the bells go from being merely insane to ragingly angry 'the brazen fury of the bells.' From this, we are given the idea that the bells are working against Wimsey and that they are against him and thus attempting to hurt him, as Sayers compares them to beating hammers, and sword in the brain.