"One afternoon (I had then been three weeks at Lowood), as I was sitting with a slate in my hand, puzzling over a sum in long division, my eyes, raised in abstraction to the window, caught sight of a figure just passing: I recognized almost instinctively that gaunt outline; and when, two minutes after, all the school, teachers included, rose en masse, it was not necessary for me to look up in order to ascertain whose entrance they thus greeted. A long stride measured the schoolroom, and presently beside Miss Temple, who herself had risen, stood the same black column which had frowned on me so ominously from the hearthrug of Gateshead. I now glanced sideways at this piece of architecture. Yes, I was right: it was Mr. Brocklehurst, buttoned up in a surtout, and looking longer, narrower, and more rigid than ever.
I had my own reasons for being dismayed at this apparition; too well I remembered the perfidious hints given by Mrs. Reed about my disposition, &c.; the promise pledged by Mr. Brocklehurst to apprise Miss Temple and the teachers of my vicious nature. All along I had been dreading the fulfillment of this promise,--I had been looking out daily for the "Coming Man," whose information respecting my past life and conversation was to brand me as a bad child for ever: now there he was."
1. How do the elevated diction and elaborate syntax contrast with the feelings of the narrator in paragraphs 11-12?
The narrator in the passage is dreading the coming of the notorious Mr. Brocklehurst, he has warned her that he would come and "brand [the narrator] as a bad child for ever," and because of this the narrator is terrified of the coming of Mr. Brocklehurst (Bronte 12). However, the syntax and diction do not provide a stark contrast to the narrators dread of Mr. Brocklehurst. The first paragraph of the selected passage is comprised of four long sentences with elaborate syntax. The effect of this long drawn out syntax is that the text is more descriptive but long-winded. It is a combination of all of the narrators thoughts in a way that suggests the narrators feeling of dread. The narrator cannot separate their thoughts because they are so terrified of the "coming man" that they all are joined together in long sentences. The effect of the syntax on the text is that it provides a medium through which the narrator shows their feelings toward Mr. Brocklehurst.
The elevated diction also provides an accurate portrayal of how the narrator feels through the connotations of the words used to describe Mr. Brocklehurst. In the eyes of the narrator this dreaded man is not a man at all, but a "piece of architecture," (Bronte 11). Being described as a piece of architecture is to be portrayed as lifeless, stone cold, and unforgiving. This is an accurate description of the narrators feelings toward Mr. Brocklehurst, who is such an ominous character in the passage. The narrator uses diction in this way to portray their feelings toward Mr. Brocklehurst and therefore the elaborate diction does not contrast with the feelings of the narrator.
