The Use of Adjectives: A Comparative Study of Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathanial Hawthorne 1844, and a Rose for Emily by William Faulkner 1930

Abstract

Considering the huge differences in the writing styles and choices of vocabulary of the old and modern short story writers, the aim of this study is to find a comparable pattern of analysis of a short story titled Rappaccini’s Daughter by Nathanial Hawthorne (1844) and A Rose for Emily (1930) by William Faulkner a modern writer. The data is in the form of the antonymic adjectives found in both the texts. The frequency of the adjectives and their effects on themes and language of both stories are analyzed separately and the data from both the stories are compared to find the significant changes in the form of writing styles and choice of vocabulary. The data reveal that the old story is rich in adjectives as it has a total number of 267 whereas the modern story has 121 adjectives. The higher frequency of antonyms helps create dramatic effects in the story. It helps to build tension conflicts and contrast, whereas the modern story can be dealt in with by the use of binaries because the words which are mentioned in the text stand in the opposition to what is outside the text. According to the results both stories have more emphasis on characters as compared to the setting. However, the modern story has comparatively more percentage of adjectives utilized for setting as compared to the old story. This provides evidence that the modern story writers put more emphasis on economy of words while describing the characters.