Winchester uses imagery,
antithesis, and alliteration… He uses a great deal of imagery when describing
the Irishman that Dr. Minor had to brand. “He was a dirty and unkempt man in
his early twenties, his dark uniform torn to rags by his frantic, desperate run
through the brambles. He was exhausted and frightened. He was like an animal—a far
cry from the young lad who had arrived, cocksure and full of Dublin mischief,
on the West Side of Manhattan three years earlier…But now he made the mistake of
trying to run, and five soldiers from the provost marshal’s unit, on the
lookout for him, had grabbed him from where he had been hiding behind the barn
on a farm up in the foothills…He was to be flogged, thirty lashes with the cat—but
only after being seared with a branding iron, the mark of desertion forever to
scar his face.”
The two main characters, Dr.
William C. Minor and Professor James Murray are the antitheses in the story.
Antithesis is defined as: a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else. Murray was a well-read man, who was multilingual and was a writer for the Oxford English Press. Dr. Minor, on the other hand, was a field doctor in the Civil War, which caused him to go mad and kill an innocent man. A lexicographer and a madman.
Alliteration is another rhetorical technique used. It describes the setting in which Minor murdered just another man on the street. The alliteration, “which winter winds whip bitterly,” could also be used to convey the tone and Dr. Minor’s madness itself. Winter winds are cold and unclear, just like his mind. The insanity is blocking his senses which drove him to murder.
Antithesis is defined as: a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else. Murray was a well-read man, who was multilingual and was a writer for the Oxford English Press. Dr. Minor, on the other hand, was a field doctor in the Civil War, which caused him to go mad and kill an innocent man. A lexicographer and a madman.
Alliteration is another rhetorical technique used. It describes the setting in which Minor murdered just another man on the street. The alliteration, “which winter winds whip bitterly,” could also be used to convey the tone and Dr. Minor’s madness itself. Winter winds are cold and unclear, just like his mind. The insanity is blocking his senses which drove him to murder.