Genre
a collection of short stories
Setting and Context
19th century England
Narrator and Point of View
writer plays the role of a narrator addressing the reader in meta-fictional way, point of view: first person
Tone and Mood
Tone: compassionate, humorous
Mood: thoughtful, vivacious
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist and antagonist vary from story to story: In the story "The Spotted Dog" protagonist is Julius Mackenzie, antagonist is his desire for alcoholic beverages which brought him to an end.
Major Conflict
Vary from story to story: In the story "The Turkish Bath" major conflict is: an editor is approached by a seemingly worldly man which later turns out to be a simple Irish man desperate to have an article published.
Climax
In "The Turkish Bath" the Irish man at the end turns out to be living a quite a nice life not needing charitable help. The man is a little bit obsessed with his underwhelming writing and is not a stranger to lies when it comes to it.
Foreshadowing
In "The Spotted Dog" Julius Mackenzie's angry looking red nose foreshadows his tendencies to fall victim to alcoholic overconsumption and that hiring him for a very important job is not an overly bright idea.
Understatement
"He was a little cut, then, no doubt"-Mrs. Grimes talking about Julius Mackenzie coming drunk with his wife to the Spotted Dog and making a ruckus.
Allusions
"He used to talk of Comte, whose name I had never heard till it fell from his lips, and was prepared to prove that Coleridge was very shallow."- the narrator (editor) talking about Churchill Smith-one of his partners in the great plan of making a magazine, "The Panjandrum."
Imagery
Imagery of letters, books, articles - anything to do with writing
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
"We forgave all her faults.
We exaggerated her virtues.
We exerted ourselves for her with a zeal that was perhaps fatuous."
-"Mary Gresley" story
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"Now, we were "mind" , and Mr. X was "matter"."
- "The Panjandrum" story
Personification
"My mind had absolutely fled from me."
