CHARLOTTE’S WEB
STYLE
The reader encounters different types of humour all along the narrative such as verbal humour (repetition of words), situational humour, slapstick, defiance, incongruities and colloquial language. All these types of humour are meant to give the reading a certain level of dynamics and maybe to highlight some of the characters’ attitude towards the situations occurred.
Here are some examples I liked best:
1.
verbal humour: word plays (usually the geese in the story are the ones that are ‘entitled ’ to it)
“You don’t have to stay in that dirty-little dirty-little dirty-little yard.” “At –at-at the risk of repeating myself”, said the goose, ‘I suggest thatyou come out’
“Why can’t you just say “here’? Why do you have to repeat everything?”
“It’s my idio-idio-idiosyncrasy”, replied the gander.
2.
situational humour: (based on a humorous situation )
“How many goslings are there? I can see only one.”
“There are seven,” said the goose
“Fine!”said Charlotte. “Seven is a lucky number.”
“Luck had nothing to do with this,” said the goose. “It was good management and hard work.”
“What’s up?” he asked, seeing the animals assembled.
“We’re holding a directors’ meeting,” replied the old sheep.
3.
slapstick also called ‘physical comedy’ (when the characters behave in a foolish way): when Wilbur tries to spin a web of his own
“Wilbur hasitated a moment, then jumped out in the air. He glanced hastily behind to see if a piece of rope was following him to check his fall, but nothing seemed to be happenning in his rear, and the next thing he knew he landed with a thump. (…)Wilbur crouched low, with his thin, curly tail toward the rat. Templeton seized the string, passed it round the end of the pig’stail, and tied two half hitches. (…) Wilbur climbed again to the top of the manure pile, full of energy and hope (…) and he threw himself into the air, headfirst (…) and landed with a thud, crushed and hurt.”
“Wilbur, who was asleep in the straw, jumped up.”
“Run round!” commanded Charlotte. “I want to see you in action, to see if you are radiant.”
Wilbur raced to the end of the yard.
“Now back again, faster!” said Charlotte.
Wilbur galloped back. His skin shone. His tail had a fine, tight curl in it.
“Jump into the air!” cried Charlotte.
Wilbur jumped as high as he could.
“Keep your knees straight and touch theground with your ears!” called Charlotte.
Wilbur obeyed.
“Do a back flip with a half twist in it!” cried Charlotte.
Wilbur went over backwards, writhing and twisting as he went.
“O.k. , Wilbur,” said Charlotte. “You can go back to sleep.”
4.
defiance (behaviour or attitude which shows that you are not willing to obey someone) is used in the narrative to highlight Templeton’s behaviour, the best that characterizes a rat.
“What do you think I am, a messenger boy?” grumbled the rat.
“Charlotte read the words:’With New Radiant Action’. “What does it mean?” asked Charlotte (…)
“How should I know?” said Templeton. “You asked for words and I brought them. I suppose the next thing you’ll want me to fetch is a dictionary.”
5.
incongruity = mismatch
“Did you ever hear about Queensborough Bridge?”
Wilbur shook his head. “Is it a web?”
“What do people catch in the Queensborough Bridge?” – bugs”, asked Wilbur.
“No,”said Charlotte. “They don’t catch anything.”
“In early summer there are plenty of things for a child to eat and drink and suck and chew. Dandalion stems are full of milk, clover heads are loaded with nectar, the Frigidaire is full of ice-cold drinks.”
6.
colloquial language:
“Who wants to live in a barn that is perfumed with rotten egg?”
The narrative reads easily also because of the great number explanations of some words that might be difficult to children (especially non native speakers) to understand. Here are some examples:
runt = "very small and weak"
do away = "to kill"
salutations = "greetings, a fancy way of saying hello or good morning"
untenable = "unable to live on account of the smell"
sedentary = "sit still a good part of the time (and don't go wandering all over creation)"
gullible = "easy to fool"
aeronaut = "balloonist"
versatile = "turn with ease from one thing to another"
humble = "not proud, near the ground"
magnum opus = "great work"
languishing = "showing up, feeling my age"
NICE QUOTES
"If I can fool a bug, I can surely fool a man. People are not as smart as bugs."
"People believe everything they see in print."
"Perhaps if people talked less, animals would talk more. People are incessant talkers."
" After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die."
"You should live longer, said the old sheep, if you ate less." "Who wants to live forever" (just for fun: Did Freddy Mercury read Charlotte's Web before writing his song: Who Wants to Live Forever?? I wonder?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZucREqucppw )
"There is no place like home", Wilbur thought. (like Dorothy)
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
