A Life Sentence Literary Elements

Literary Fiction, Thriller

The setting of the story alternates between London and the English countryside during the latter part of the 19th century.

The story is told from a third-person omniscient point of view.

The tone of the novel is serious. The mood excites the interest of the reader by means of suspense and mystery.

The two protagonists of the story are Cynthia West and her lover Hubert Lepel, in spite of the crime he had committed. The antagonist is Florence Vane.

The major conflict in the story revolves around the murder of Sydney Vane, which was committed by Hubert Lepel but whose responsibility fell entirely upon the shoulders of Andrew Westwood. All throughout the story, Hubert struggles with his guilt, remorse, and his sister’s desire for the secret to remain unearthed.

The story reaches its climax when Andrew Westwood is re-captured in London and his fate is all in the hands of Hubert Lepel who in order to save him must undermine the reputation of his sister and renounce his own freedom.

“It was as if he were trying to strengthen her for some dread conflict, some welfare of life and death, which his foreseeing eye discerned for her in days to come.”
This passage illustrates Mr. Evandale’s treatment of Enid. His approach foreshadows her later troubles with Florence; troubles that amounted to a matter of life and death.

During a conversation between Florence and her brother, the latter declared, “I am satisfied” which is an understatement given the fact that he was anything but satisfied, and that his tone seemed rather to imply, “I will be satisfied in spite of fate! In spite of my own actions, my own sin, my own remorse, I will be satisfied!”

“He had to sit down again, and thought, half against his will, of that other Enid – Tennyson’s Enid, in her faded gown – and of Prince Geraint’s desire to kiss the dainty thumb ‘that crossed the trencher as she set it down’”.
This is an allusion to Tennyson’s Idylls of the King.

The text combines the imagery of darkness and night time with the concept of secrecy and hidden motive in order to convey the degenerating state of late 19th century England.

Cynthia’s savior and only friend in the world is paradoxically the man who killed Sydney throwing the guilt upon her own father. He is at once the reason of both her joy and misfortunes.

“And I shall pray God night and morning as long as the breath is in my body to punish him, and to bring shame and sorrow on himself and all that he loves, as he has brought shame and sorrow on me and mine”
This passage parallels the fate of Andrew Westwood with that of Hubert Lepel.

Metonymy:
“Hubert reached the rooms at three precisely."
Here, the ‘rooms’ is a metonymy for his home and the place in which he lived.

Synecdoche:
“I never killed him; and I curse the hand that did”
The word ‘hand’ here is a synecdoche for the murderer. Westwood declares that he curses the hand that committed the murder meaning that he curses the real author of that murder.

“But real sorrow chased all considerations of her own dignity or comfort from her mind”.
Sorrow is given here the human characteristic of being able to chase something away.