Genre
The historical novel
Setting and Context
There are three timelines in the story: 1900-1910, England; 1975, England; 2005, England and Australia.
Narrator and Point of View
The author uses the third-person narration, but he opens each character’s inner world, thus it seems that these characters actually tell their stories.
Tone and Mood
The story is filled with mystery, puzzles: the main characters constantly find out something new in their biography, they “open” secrets about them and their families. This makes the story mystical in some way, and thus – thrilling.
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists of the story are Eliza, Georgiana, Nathaniel, Nell/Ivory and the antagonists are Adeline, Linus, Rose in some way.
Major Conflict
The major conflict of the story is actually based on jealousy: Adeline wasn’t as beautiful and noble as Georgiana, so she hated her and her daughter Eliza. And Rose also wasn’t as bright and beautiful as Eliza so she also was envy at her. And the women’s jealousy led to suffering of all the characters, and, as a result, to death of all of them and to abandoning of Ivory.
Climax
The story has actually two culminations: the first took place when Rose and Nathaniel died and Eliza run away with her daughter Ivory; and the second one was when Nell got to know that her family isn’t that one, in which she had lived, thus she started to figure out anything about her “true” family.
Foreshadowing
The author opens many issues in this story: that love should not depend on money or nobility; that fortitude can go through all the problems and obstacles, etc.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The author often alludes to different works and people: to Bible, “Moby Dick”, “Lady Chatterley's Lover” etc.
Imagery
Is widely used in characters' descriptions
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
The story is based on this method: the author depicts 3 storylines which constantly change each other during the narrating.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The author sometimes uses these methods in order to make narrating more vivid: “With one eye she looked upon the decks. Legs and shoes and petticoat hems. The tails of coloured paper streamers flicking this way and that.” (synecdoche), “The modern world had killed night-time.” (metonymy)
Personification
This method is sometimes used in the narrating, such as in the following: “A lurch and the huge boat groaned, long and low from deep within its belly.”, “The house seemed to know its mistress was gone and if it didn't exactly grieve for her, it settled into an obstinate silence., house suffered stoically this latest indignity.”, “As he passed the fireplace he tossed the paper on top. It sizzled as it caught, burned a brief reproach on his peripheral vision.”
