Honore de Balzac, French Writer, to Evelina Hanska

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In the prose at hand—Honore de Balzac, French writer, to Evelina Hanska, a Polish countess, June 1836— after scrutinizing every avenue of both the diction and syntax the underlying tone comes to the light. The overall tone, sincerely solemn; this is shown throughout the document to attain the chief tone of the piece. The subject of the matter appears to be Balzac’s undying, overwhelming, and unsolicited love for Eveline Hanska. Balzac begins with the salutation, “…beloved angel,” I perceived this phrase with a positive connotation because in a supplementary argument he is essentially professing the never ending abyss of love he has for Eveline. So far with this fraction of Balzac’s memo we get no indication of anything related to the subject designated in the above paragraph of his unsolicited love toward Eveline. Continuing, Balzac proceeds to explain how she, Eveline, is making him crazy, “…mad: I cannot bring together two ideas that you do not interpose yourself between them.” Leading with the colon that was so strategically placed in the middle of his thought demonstrates how she intervenes where she’s either not wanted or needed. Still going strong on the fact that she has stolen his heart and continues to hold it hostage, the structure of his sentences develop to be more complex. The third paragraph containing, “I can no longer…take possession of me.” The syntax here almost makes Balzac seem anxious to get his point across. He is putting emphasis on the whole interposing ordeal. Still referring to the sentence in the previous paragraph Balzac’s diction begins to take a turn for the worse, negative instead of positive connotations for the word choice. The repetition of “you” magnifies how overwhelming Eveline is. Moving on, a sort of somberness is shown when Balzac says, “As for my heart you will always be – very much so.” I chose the overall theme
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