A Stylistic Analysis on the Humorous Effect in Running for Governor

1.Introduction

Mark Twain was an outstanding American realist writer and humorist in the 19th century. His work is full of Mark Twain’s humor， criticizing the ugly side of the society with spicy satire and his unique humorous and sharp writing. Running for Governor， one of his best short stories， tells about the story of “I” as a candidate running against Mr. John T. Smith and Mr. Blank J. Blank for Governor of the great state of New York （WangChen， 2007）. In this brilliant satire，Mark Twain revealed and attacked relentlessly the dark secrets of American politics by using the art of exaggeration and humor. Although the short story has only four thousand words， the plot is complicated and the writing style and the characteristic are quite distinctive. Firstly， Running for Governor successfully uses colloquial style that vividly conveys a variety of subtle emotional color. Secondly， another feature of the work is a first-person point of view to describe the story. Thirdly， bold irony is also an important feature of the short story. What’s more， humor is the biggest feature of Mark Twain’s writing. He was not humorous for humor， but combined humor with irony so that the reader could discover the deep meaning of words in laughter. This paper attempts to analyze the short story’s language features from the lexical and syntactic aspects， narrative perspective and foregrounding features in stylistics， and try to explore the factors that cause the humorous effect.

2.Lexical and Syntactic Level

2.1Word Selection

The most obvious feather of Mark Twain’s writing style is colloquial style. In this short story， from a lexical point of view， Mark Twain still did not choose obscure learned words to narrate the whole story， but because of many newspaper reports in the plot， there are a mass of formal words. From this point， it is just because of mixing colloquial words with learned words to make words with different stylistic colouring more vividly characterize the character and create a humorous effect.

It is clear that the words of the short story are specific and vivid， giving an intuitionistic and visual effect. In the part of the newspaper reports， Mark Twain used heavily formal words so that shows the norm of the news. In this way， the authenticity of the whole story becomes more convincing. For example， in the paragraph of “THE LIE NAILED”， words like “affidavit， establish， statement， gratuitous， foundation， vengeance”， etc. can be found everywhere. They are helpful to build a real scene where “I” was convicted of various crimes. However， whenever “I” saw these unwarranted statements in the newspapers， “my” personal mental activity was presented in another way. The use of colloquial words can reflect personal character more distinctly and a large number of personalized language effectively carries the characters and personalities from the paper. For instance， after looking the first accusation of perjury in the newspaper， a series of verbs such as “burst， seen， heard， know” and adjectives such as “heartless， crazed， helpless” were used to express “my” anger and amazement. This will give the readers a first-hand experience of “my” mental activities and a sense of absurd and ridiculousness， which enhances the expressiveness of the language.

Moreover， when “I” read the second shameful crime on the Gazette those candidates accused by a despicable way of spreading rumors and unjustifiable defamation， Mark Twain wrote： “Could anything be more deliberately malicious than that？ For I never was in Montana in my life.” （WangChen，2007：67） In this sentence， it’s apparent that it is an oral expression that shows “my” indignant and sorrowful mood. As in fact “I” didn’t do such thing published in the newspaper， it was completely defamation. The words “deliberately” and “malicious” used above are relatively learned words， but it seems a little bit out of the context. On the contrary， here Mark Twain mixed learned words with colloquial words， making the expression more ridiculous and the two serious words refer to the absurd and baseless accusation so that they are filled with irony and humor.

2.2 Sentence Selection

From the perspective of grammar， Mark Twain was also unique in the sentence pattern. On the one hand， “continuous use of simple sentences can produce a sonorous， powerful， crisp and brisk effect of expression”. （Qin， 1991： 54） For the complexity of the sentence structure， Mark Twain used many simple sentences. The sentence structure of the whole short story is not complicated， so Mark Twain’s writing is concise and straightforward. For example， when “I” faced nonsense in the newspaper， Mark Twain used a series of simple sentences to describe vividly “my” astounded and indignant feeling：

I thought I should burst with amazement！ Such a cruel， heartless charge！ I never had seen Cochin China！ I never had heard of Wakawak！ I didn’t know a plantain-patch from a kangaroo！ I did not know what to do. I was crazed and helpless. I let the day slip away without doing anything at all. （WangChen，2007：66）

The rhythm of this paragraph composed of simple sentences is very consistent with the mood of the protagonist， and the expression is incisive and vivid.

On the other hand， short sentences makes the writing more readable and full of rhythms. From the aspect of the length of the sentences， the average length of the first three paragraphs of the short story is about 16.9 words. The longest sentence has 27 words while the shortest sentence has only 5 words. In the first paragraph， the long sentences are relatively more than the following two paragraphs. What’s more， the whole short story is mostly composed of short sentences except the newspaper reports， including a handful of long sentences. The structure of short sentences is simple and the grammar relationship is also clear， producing an effect of conciseness and power. So it is easier to express personal mental activities， such as “I never had seen Cochin China！ I never had heard of Wakawak！ I didn’t know a plantain-patch from a kangaroo！”（ibid） that seems very emotional. At the same time， it makes readers not know whether to laugh or cry， so as to achieve a humorous effect.

3.Person and Narrative Perspective

“When analyzing the style of the novel， the narrative perspective in the discourse level of the narrator and the receiver is a crucial factor.” （LiuZhu， 2006：273） “From the view of language， the language of the novel belongs to a kind of ‘discourse’ as well， but it is different from the discourse generated by the face to face conversations of two people.” （Qin， 1991：242） Therefore， in order to make all kinds of readers correctly understand or evaluate a literary work， the author should not only use a variety of ways to explain the time， place， background and the person concerned， but also pay attention to the narrative person， properly choose and change narrative or describing point of view. When a writer is writing， he can narrate or describe the development of the situation as his real identity and he can impersonate another person to make a statement in the tone of \"I\". He can also observe and describe things from the perspective of a character in the novel， or detached from everything， as a third person or bystander to do objective description. （Qiu， 2010） Generally， the narrator of the novel can be the first person （we， I） or the third person （he， she， it， they）. In this short story， Mark Twain used the first-person point of view as well as he narrated in his own true identity. He used the first-person narrative method， which he used handily so as to become his unique artistic style. It not only increased emotional communication between Mark Twain and readers， but also provided Mark Twain with all the language methods to get the humorous effect.

In Running for Governor， Mark Twain himself was designed to be the protagonist of the story that made him easy to describe the characters in detail， and made the story realistic and natural， too. As the development of the plot， “my” inner reaction from the \"disturbed\" into \"confounded\"， and then developed to \"crazed\" until “in the bitterness of spirit” “I sent in my withdrawal from the candidacy”.（WangChen，2007） In addition， all kinds of emotional changes， the analysis of “my” inner monologue after knowing the nonsense of charge every time， shaped “a decent man” with “good character” as an independent candidate that made the readers be kind to “me” and hate the despicable and shameless behavior of politicians as well as deeply understand the anger that “I” could not suppress in “my” words. For example， there is an inner monologue such as “I got to picking up papers apprehensively---much as one would lift a desired blanket which he had some idea might have a rattlesnake under it”. （WangChen，2007：67） Here “I” was so scared to pick up newspapers as “I” was afraid of a rattlesnake under a blanket， describing so vividly and giving a good sense of humor. Obviously， the first-person point of view can more precisely describe the character’s thought and this perspective can directly introduce the readers into the inner world of “my” experience， thus shorten the distance between the author and the reader， causing resonance.

4.Irony

Style is deviation of the norm. Each style has its unusual linguistic features， and every writer strives to make his language extraordinary in his writing process. And “foregrounding can be regarded as one of the most important concepts in stylistics.” （LiuZhu， 2006： 34） Irony as one of the foregrounding features belongs to the deep-structure deviation. “As a kind of representation style， irony is usually used to make a sharp satire.” （Qin， 1991：292） Bold irony is an significant feature of the short story. The ugly faces of the scheming political veterans are exposed completely under Mark Twain’s sarcasm. In the short story， news media was tricked by the politicians， who bribed a large number of scholars， using the public effect to make media disinformation and malicious slander. For example， in the paragraph of “THE LIE NAILED”， they accused “I” while raised themselves， looking like a gentleman. “It is disheartening to virtuous men to see such shameful means resorted to to achieve political success as the attacking of the dead in their graves， and defiling their honored names with slander.” （WangChen，2007：67） In fact， the news is just “slander” “to achieve political success”. All the thing that “I” was accused was just those insidious politicians did. When the readers couldn’t help laughing at the description of confounding right and wrong， they also realized that Mark Twain’s realistic sense of satire. Finally， a series of unwarranted charges directly became naked abuse and personal attacks： “Look upon your candidate， Independents！ Look upon the Infamous Perjurer！ the Montana Thief！ the Body-Snatcher！ Contemplate your incarnate Delirium Tremens！ your Filthy Corruptionist！ your Loathsome Embracer！...” （WangChen，2007：70） In the humorous writing of Mark Twain， it seems that the politicians are depicting their own multiple faces instead.

“Using the representation style of irony， sometimes is not to satirize but to produce a kind of humor.” （Qin， 1991：295） This form of expression can be found in Running for Governor， too. For instance， “ It shows what effect the times were having on me when I say that I saw myself confidently dubbed ‘Mr. Delirium Tremens Twain’ in the next issue of that journal without a pang…”（WangChen，2007：69） Here， the word “dubbed” humorously expresses “my” dissatisfaction to this title. “This is verbal irony. Verbal irony achieves emphasis also by misrepresenting the truth. It takes the form of saying the opposite of what one feels to be the case.” （Wang， 2000： 74） In the last paragraph， “I was not equal to the requirements of a Gubernatorial campaign in the state of New York…” （WangChen，2007：71） Here the tone of irony is felt throughout. “I was not equal to the requirements” actually means utterly “I was equal”. On the contrary， those mean politicians are not qualified for candidacy. By using irony， Mark Twain here strongly and successfully satirizes the corruption of American politics，and simultaneously the “counterproductive” irony creates a sense of humor.

5.Conclusion

In the respect of the analysis above， it is evident that Running for Governor is a classic literary work with distinctive features that deserve to be studied in detail. The literary stylistic features reflected in the short story are analyzed from various perspectives， such as lexis and syntax， narrative perspective and rhetorical device.The humorous effect is employed vividly and excellently in Mark Twain’s unique and remarkable writing style and narrative strategies in the short story. In a word， the perspective of stylistics provides a better way to appreciate and evaluate literary works.

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