Tim OBriens Zeugmatic Novel, The Things They Carried :: Things They Carried Essays

Tim OBriens Zeugmatic Novel, The Things They CarriedAn early example of zeugma comes from Quintilian, the ancient roman type rhetorician, who cites the following from Cicero Lust conquered shame, boldness fear, madness reason, where the verb conquered is understood to also mold the final two phrases in the sentence (Crowley 203).The 18th century, an age of enceinte rhetorical knowledge on the part of writers and preachers (and at least unrivalled writer-preacher, Laurence Sterne), is the heyday of zeugma. In The Rape of the Lock Alexander Pope speculates what may happen to Bellinda on a particularly ominous dayWhether the nymph shall break Dianas Law,Or some frail China Jar pay off a Flaw,Or stain her Honour, or her new Brocade,Forget her Prayrs, or miss a Masquerade,Or lose her Heart, or Necklace, at a Ball.... (Butt 225)Pope does a beautiful job of contrasting the serious and the superficial in these five lines- go out her chast ity or her jar become flawed, ordain she forget her prayers or the masquerade? My paraphrases here fill out an implied zeugma in these lines, but it is in the third and fifth lines where he actually employs zeugma will she stain her Honour, or her new Brocade? Will she lose her Heart, or Necklace, at a ball? In these stain and lose starting time out to include (or to be more etymologically correct) YOKE quite polar things lace and a necklace being a bit more slowly replaced than a stained honor and a lost heart, as those of you who bedevil been in love may perhaps attest to.Richard Lanham, in a Handlist of Rhetorical Terms, defines zeugma as follows and again cites an example in Pope integrity verb governs several congruent words or clauses, each in a different way, as in The Rape of the LockHere thou, great Anna whom triad realms obeyDost sometimes counsel take-and sometimes tea. (Lanham 104-5)