“Once upon a time Elsie had been enraptured by the silken petals that fell from Ambrose’s Wetlandish-affected lips. Now she wished that he would either shut up or talk simply and plainly with her again” (108).
In this passage, strain is shown in the marriage between Elsie and Ambrose. Not unlike the other examples of marriage in Cereus Blooms at Night, both Elsie and Ambrose have grown apart and find each other as merely existing in the same space (for this marriage specifically only once a month). These two sentences accentuate the tension in the marriage. With words and strings of words like “Once upon a time,” “enraptured,” “silken petals that fell from Ambrose’s…lips” a soft legato tone is set. It reflects Elsie’s genuine intrigue in Ambrose’s lexicon in the start of their relationship. The tone immediately changes in the next sentence. The tone shifts to blunt, reflecting the end of Elsie’s patience with Ambrose’s way of speaking. This shift is indicated in the words (i.e. shut up) but is strengthened by a shift in syllables. Standing alone the second sentence would seem simple, not frustrated, for it only holds words that have 1 or 2 syllables. In the first sentence, the legato tone is set with the variation of syllables (the mapping out of the syllables is 1 2 1 1 2 1 1 3 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 3 3-3 2). The first sentence has words with 3 syllables sprinkled in. The sudden removal of these more “complex” words creates the tenser tone. This syllable shift sets the foundation for the tension of Elsie and Ambrose’s marriage that is expressed in the formation of the two sentences above.
This is such a cool way of close-reading these lines! Especially given the fact that the ideas from and language of fairytales are used in so many other places in the novel, it’s interesting to see how even the more “flowery” language of the first sentence mirrors Elsie’s idyllic fairytale-like dreams. (Except in this case, I suppose they are less like dreams and more like a romanticism of a past that has been lost.) Do you think this is a comment on the futility of visions of a perfect, utopic, fairytale life that Elsie doesn’t even want anymore, or is there genuine sadness in here about dreams that no longer exist?
I agree with Bethrest! This is an excellent close reading. Like the staccato beating of a drumstick on a snare, the tautness of the skin repelling the aggression while amplifying the sharpness of her tongue. Thank you for giving me another way to look at the language and sentence structure that gives deeper meaning to the author’s words.