Letter from Isabella Lucy Bird (W) Flashcards
Audience
This was written to Henrietta Bird, Isabella’s sister.
But she had already published her first book of letters so she may have intended this to be published too, marked by the lack of personal conversation.
Audience
This was written to Henrietta Bird, Isabella’s sister.
But she had already published her first book of letters so she may have intended this to be published too, marked by the lack of personal conversation.
Purpose
The letter is written to her sister where she discusses her visit to America and what she has done there, to inform but in a casual setting.
‘A San Francisco lady, much ‘got up’ in paint, emerald green velvet, Brussels lace, and diamonds’
The Archaic reference to a woman ‘‘got up’ in paint’ shows Bird’s condescending tone, combined with the tricolon of opulence ‘emerald green velvet, Brussels lace, and diamonds’ shows Bird’s contempt to frivolous women.
‘inundated in summer with similar vulgarity’
The use of ‘inundated’ shows that Bird looks down on this form of ‘vulgarity’ and suggests she shows contempt to those who dress as the woman mentioned earlier does. ‘Inundated’ gives connotations of an overwhelming nature to the people, as if Bird could feel trapped by their presence.
‘I was a salient point for the speaker’s next sally’
The use of the archaic ‘sally’ gives a colloquial nature to the letter due to it’s informality. The sibilance in this line suggests that Bird could feel contempt towards this speaker, as if she is hissing out these words.
‘the neighbourhood and its wild beasts, especially bears’ ‘I dreamt of bears so vividly’
Bird’s litotes when discussing the ‘bears’, used throughout the whole letter, shows her confidence, which is very incongruous due to her being a solitary female traveller.
‘cinnamon-colored bear with two cubs’
The alliteration of the ‘cinnamon-colored bear’ emphasises her description of the bear, making it vivid as she uses ‘cinnamon’ rather than a more subject specific colour word like ‘brown’.
She also uses the American spelling of ‘colored’, which was used by American and the former UK colonies.
‘womanly dignity and manly respect for women are the salt of society in this wild west’
The parallelism of ‘womanly dignity and manly respect’ separates Bird’s expectations of both men and women, enforcing the inequal society. The Alliteration and sibilance of ‘salt of society’ brings attentions to the juxtaposition between men and women but it also emulates the idiom used to describe the makeup of society.
‘womanly dignity and manly respect for women are the salt of society in this wild west’
The parallelism of ‘womanly dignity and manly respect’ separates Bird’s expectations of both men and women, enforcing the inequal society. The Alliteration and sibilance of ‘salt of society’ brings attentions to the juxtaposition between men and women but it also emulates the idiom used to describe the makeup of society.
‘I. L. B.’
She signs of the letter using this acronym due to her familiar audience as her sister will know her name fully.
This adds to the case that this letter may have only been intended for her sister.
Grice’s maxims
She adheres to the maxim of quality, through her use of Reported speech to verify her stories.
She flouts the maxims of quantity, relevance and manner as she uses vivid descriptions and often goes off on a tangent about things that are not relevant.
Genderlect
She conforms to female genderlect expectations through discussing social topics like what women are wearing. Her letter also includes long descriptions of what she sees, again conforming to female genderlect expectations.
‘looking a “perfect guy”’
women inhibiting a patriarchal society
values are usually defined by men
