Discuss in some detail the style and content of Trollope(TM)s writing here in such a way as to explore the range and effects. How particularly does Trollope use language to control our responses to his characters and to the developi

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Discuss in some detail the style and content of Trollope’s writing here in such a way as to explore the range and effects. How particularly does Trollope use language to control our responses to his characters and to the developing situation?

Anthony Trollope’s novel, Barchester Towers, was first published in 1857 and is the second of six novels in Trollope’s series, the "Chronicles of Barsetshire". In this extract, Mrs. Proudie is throwing a party for her husband who is the newly appointed Bishop of Barchester. From the outset, Trollope successfully draws the reader in and highlights the insignificance of the event, which is reinforced through the anti climactic ending and effectively gains the readers’ empathy for all the right reasons.

Trollope begins by preparing the reader for what is about to happen, and through stating opinion as fact; ‘the sofa had certainly been so placed that those who were behind it found great difficulty in getting out’, allows the reader to respond in such a way that the impending incident will not be perceived as deliberate. Furthermore, Trollope goes on to deem it a ‘bad arrangement’; an arrangement which ‘Bertie thought it might be well to improve’. Through acknowledging that it is in fact Mrs. Proudie’s fault for arranging the furniture so badly, Trollope controls our response to the situation by implying that it was not Bertie’s intention to destroy it.

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The image of the ‘fat’ rector sitting on the sofa, with his weight ‘unwittingly’ resting on the sofa, gives a sense of inevitability and reinforces the notion that from the outset, the outcome of the situation was never intentional. Oblivious to what is going on behind her, Mrs. Proudie is ‘trying to be condescending and sociable’ towards the signora by impressing her with her ‘new found status’. However, to Mrs. Proudie’s dismay, the signora seems to be more interested in talking to Mr. Slope, the Bishop’s chaplain, than her, who ‘had no idea of being less thought of than the ...

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