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Comparative Analysis of Three Christmas Writings

Not entirely sure which writings, but the title says it all.

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Comparative Analysis of Three Christmas Writings

The words to the carol “Good King Wenceslas” were written by John Mason Neale and published in 1853, the music originates in Finland 300 years earlier. (TEM¬PUS ADEST FLOR¬I-DUM, a 13th Cen¬tu¬ry spring car¬ol; first pub¬lished in the Swed¬ish Piae Can¬ti¬ones, 1582) It is alternate to other hymns of this era as it does not make reference to the Nativity story but instead tells the story of King Wenceslas braving harsh winter weather to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen. The hymn incorporates declarative sentences in order to express the subject and imperative sentences to convey the power of the King, whilst Text B, an internet review in an article format, uses declarative sentences to express an opinion and to inform the reader of ‘mouldy clichés’ that alter one’s perception of the play prior to viewing, using humour and irony ‘It’s Murder’. In contrast, Text A has elements of being multi-modal via use of speech, ‘“Bring me flesh…”’ which is similarly reflected in the fictional story that is, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. A text with a the function to entertain, holds subliminal messages to expose the harsh conditions of Victorian poverty, requiring a response, thus making connections to Text B through the presence of a link to ‘Sharing’ and ‘E-mail’. 
Through a rhyme scheme of ABAB, CDCD, there is a varying monosyllabic and polysyllabic rhyme pattern, determining the speed of the hymn I.e. Odd verses end in monosyllabic lexis; even verses are finished Polysyllabic, a mixture of masculine and feminine tones which neutralises the dominance of one specific gender. This contrasts greatly with Text C, in which Scrooge’s idiolect incorporates the use of ‘a man’ as an indefinite article that echoes the significance of man in the Victorian lifestyle, however, whilst the common noun ‘man’ indicates a male domination, the pre-modifying ‘an’ is generic and could refer to mankind, as a collective noun. The image included with Text B illustrates the presence of two women and one man, whilst appealing to the more feminine audience whose passion of comical theatre is foregrounded by laughing expression and body language of the image subjects, thus proving a dominance of femininity in the play.
Whilst all three texts hold relevance to Christmas, they range in tones regarding the season. Texts B and C consist of negative lexis through dynamic verbs such as, ‘bickering’, ‘interfere’ and ‘occupies’, which harbour connotations of annoyance. Notwithstanding, Text A holds some negativity in the personification of the weather and the ‘rude, wild wind’s lament’. This example of labio-velar approximant alliteration creates tongue-twister that reflects the difficulties of the journey in which Wenceslas undertook. There is monotony in his journey that is evident via the use of anaphoric referencing, ‘Bring me…’ also to emphasise Wenceslas’s power, and the syntax in the antistrophe in lines 5 and 6. The personification of the weather contrasts with the dominance of possessive nouns in Text C. i.e. whilst the weather holds precedence and affects the story, the significance of business in the novel extract, is foreshadowed by man’s possessive nature. ‘Mine’, ‘my’, ‘his’. The proper nouns are strong in Texts A and C, (‘Wenceslas’, ‘Scrooge’) and give the character pertinence to the plot. In contrast, the actual review harbours proper nouns according to location and time relating to the rest of the typography and the statistics often associated with journalistic texts. (Dates) The main function of the piece is to inform an audience, thus the incorporation of direct address, ‘…you expect…’ and colloquial comedy, which makes the subject subjective and humourous, thus entertaining. ‘Meathead.’ Possibly due to the American source of the piece, the language has an informal register and holds comedy through an ironical asyndetic list of negative features. ‘…lots of bickering beneath the Christmas tree; a triumphant, drunken meltdown from the mousy pushover…’ Through asyndetic listing, the negativities seem endless and are thus made hyperbolic. Even the lexis has semantic fields of comedy, such as ‘parody’. Ironically, the non-fiction text, tending to be factual and formal, is of comical theme whilst it’s two non-fiction pieces hold are more serious mood.

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