Wings of the Dove Tone Paper

Mrs. Dale
AP English IV
25 November 2013
A Fictional Reality
In The Wings of the Dove, Henry James’ stylistic devices convey not only bitter hopelessness and bleak desperation, but also disenchanted misery and disheartening realism to ignite emotions in the readers as they relate to the characters’ experiences and reactions. As the author works to create a realistic yet fictional work for his characters, he must also think of including realistic experiences. Genuine experiences in a fictional story create both situations and responding emotions to which the reader relates. These feelings that the reader encounters create the central tone of a work of literature.
Literature is language, conveying a feeling of dejection in its readers through the use of hopeful diction that turns to despair. Emotion filled words such as “pleasantry,” “confident,” and “livelier” excite the reader and give him a sense of hope as the novel opens (James 85). Krook suggests that these choices of words “perfectly dramatized… can be packed into a few characteristic sentences of the James 's late style” and fill the reader with responding emotion (Krook). Through just a few sentences, appropriate diction can draw a particular reaction from a reader. Hope and excitement ignites in the minds of the readers of these few lines as they read and search for more. However, in contrast to the hope, a series of events emerge and result in a more negative and distressed tone. The diction gradually evolves from positive to negative, switching to the use of the words “black,” “wicked,” “strange,” and “cynical” (James 397). The hope that once thrived in the minds of the readers now falls to the despair resulting from the greedy actions of the characters. The words now point to a place of dread and seem to paint a picture similar to that painted by the words in Longfellow’s “The Rainy Day.” The extent of emotions felt by readers proves the effectiveness of diction in a work.
Literature is aesthetic, creating a feeling of disillusionment through cause-and effect-relationships between events and characters. At the beginning of the work, life and love looked as though they would last “forever… the beauty was in everything” (James 85). Again, hope of a good future takes precedence in the minds of the readers and gives them pleasure. Nevertheless, acts of selfishness result in devastating consequences. The characters actions are given their equal reactions and the hope for forever turns into the single hope for tomorrow. The characters finally come to the realization that “we shall never be again as we were” (James 492). One critic uncovers that “these shifts in form” from promising to hopeless reveal the true devastation of the work (Kuchar). It is one thing for a bad circumstance to ensue, but it is entirely worse to lose all hope. Through all of Santiago’s troubles in The Old Man and the Sea, he possesses hope, without which he would have never made it home. Shifts in tone throughout a work of literature give the final emotions a greater effect on the reader after feeling and understanding the entirety of each emotion.
Literature is true, creating a feeling of angst by interpreting reality as a harsh and disastrous place. Although fiction is not factual, it gives a legitimate representation of the world as an unforgiving place where people survive as “anxious fighters of the battle of life” (James 291). The characters, similar to the readers, attempt to survive in a world where evil festers. Instead of living, they simply exist, making their own choices but constantly suffering the consequences of their greedy decisions. In effect, they live lives as slaves to their own material desires and self-interests. In search of happiness and meaning, characters often falter from their own “misguided efforts” (James 214). Many search for their happiness in the material world and, unbeknownst to them at the time, find that their efforts only result in “refusals of knowledge, action, and responsibility” (Crews). So often, our selfish human labors take turns for the worse, just as did King Midas’ golden touch. Our quest for a fulfilled life switches to a road of disaster as soon as self-seeking desires take control. Although fictional literature alters facts, both the characters and the readers live in similar worlds full of suffering and devastation.
Literature is true, conveying a feeling of misery as the characters greedily search for happiness and meaning through their material possessions that results in a reverse effect. As the work progress, the decisions of the characters reveal that their “intelligence was one with [their] passion” (James 238). Desire stands as the overarching driving force behind conscious actions. Although a character may mean well, a personal passion may drive him to his ends, as seen in the story of King Oedipus. The author presents this world as a place where free will exists but where desires take control. Desire comes quickly however and disaster “is begotten truly by the very impatience of [it]” (James 342). Devastation deepens as characters “try and fail to bring together ethical and material concerns” (Haralson). As a result of the characters’ submitting to their passions, the author allows the passions to control them entirely. Any morals once existent flee from a body dictated by desire. The nature of the author’s world exposes itself through the pain and suffering caused by the devastation of desires.
Literature is expressive, conveying a feeling of utter desperation through the author’s cold and direct voice in his writing. After all the mistakes and consequences transpire, the author describes the characters as “fully hardened and fully based” (James 345). Bloom suggests that after everything, “James is perfectly ruthless in his application” to show the complete ruin as the result of greed (Bloom). Many characters throughout literature experience pain and destruction, yet few authors provide such a clear representation of the results. The author delivers a short yet complete description of the outcome for both the characters and their surroundings. Not only the aspirations of the characters changed, but also the characters themselves jaded as the result of their selfish behavior. Their quest for material possessions leads to the destruction of the surrounding environment and people, and the characters must gradually compromise their morals. This compromising hardens their hearts to the constant suffering, a result of their own sins, that surrounds them. With the author’s opinion plainly stated in his writing, the reader never need question the meaning behind the literature.
Literature is fiction, creating a feeling of despondency through the author’s work to minimize the distance between the reader and the events. The reader and the characters can relate due to the “stiff reality” of many situations in a work of literature (James 449). One critic suggests that James agrees “that a novel cannot be written without a deep sense of reality” (Hardy). Deep reality requires not only real places or people, but also real emotions. The realistic emotions of love, jealously, and shame appear in both fictional literature and in reality and create a parallel between the two worlds. In a fictional work, genuine emotions and the allusion of reality emerges through “an awareness of the extent of experience” (Works of Henry James). One knows the extent of love only through heartbreak, or the fullness of life only after experiencing it. Many readers feel able to relate to characters such as Huckleberry Finn, because each person has been forced to experience the same growing-up challenge as he. Through the use of profound emotions and experiences as they evolve throughout a work, an author can create an imaginary story in which a very real reader feels alive.
Literature is affective, creating a feeling of desperate sorrow in the reader, as he must accept the devastating results of the characters’ actions. The harmful choices made by the characters in a work and the process by which they carry out these decisions result in harm for both others and themselves. As the characters make these decisions, the reader relates to both their experiences and the resulting emotions. The feelings of the reader ultimately convey the tone of a work of literature.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. "Bloom on Henry James as novelist." Facts On File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 14 November 2013. .
Crews, Frederick C. "The Wings of the Dove." Facts On File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 14 November 2013. .
Haralson, Eric, and Kendall Johnson. "The Wings of the Dove." Facts On File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 14 November 2013. .
Hardy, Barbara. “The Wings of the Dove.” Facts on File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 2007. 21 August 2013. .
James, Henry. The Wings of the Dove. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 2005.
Krook, Dorothea. The Ordeal of Consciousness in Henry James. London: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
Kuchar, Gary. "Consciousness and the Variation of Style in the Novel." Facts On File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 14 November 2013. . “Works of Henry James: Henry James 1843 – 1916.” eLibrary. MacMillan General Reference, 1963. 14 November 2013. .

Cited: Bloom, Harold. "Bloom on Henry James as novelist." Facts On File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 14 November 2013. . Crews, Frederick C. "The Wings of the Dove." Facts On File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 14 November 2013. . Haralson, Eric, and Kendall Johnson. "The Wings of the Dove." Facts On File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 14 November 2013. . Hardy, Barbara. “The Wings of the Dove.” Facts on File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 2007. 21 August 2013. . James, Henry. The Wings of the Dove. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 2005. Krook, Dorothea. The Ordeal of Consciousness in Henry James. London: Cambridge University Press, 1962. Kuchar, Gary. "Consciousness and the Variation of Style in the Novel." Facts On File: Bloom’s Literary Reference Online. Ed. Harold Bloom. 14 November 2013. . “Works of Henry James: Henry James 1843 – 1916.” eLibrary. MacMillan General Reference, 1963. 14 November 2013. .