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"Ms. Found In A Bottle" by Edgar Poe_

The story for analysis "Ms. Found in a Bottle" is written by Edgar Allan Poe.

The text is about a man who describes the loss of a ship and its crew and his own discoveries. So the subject matter is the cognition of life and death. The story begins with the exposition. In this part of the text the narrator tries to persuade the reader that the story he is going to tell is true, and for this purpose the following stylistic devises are used.

"The Pyrrhonism of my opinions has at all times rendered me notorious." The metaphor "the Pyrrhonism" means skepticism, for this stylistic device refers to a philosopher's name Pyrrhon, who tended to doubt and not to believe the fundamental truths. The epithet "notorious" and the phraseological unit "at all times" also attract our attention, for "at all times" is used in official notices and stresses the seriousness of the author's intention. And "notorious" puts more emphasis on the fact the narrator has been very skeptic, and that's why his words, notwithstanding their incredibility, deserve the readers attention.

Further he continues to convince us: "No person could be less liable than myself to be led away from the sever precincts of truth by ignes fatui." "ignes fatui" are deceptive hopes which can't distract him from real facts.

One more example can be conveyed through the following metaphorical sentence: "A strong relish for physical philosophy has tinctured my mind." Physical philosophy means scientific or philosophy that needs proofs.

Owing to the sentence "Hereditary wealth afforded me an education of no common order", the reader learns that the narrator was rich and well-educated. In the following sentence the writer hints what he is going to portray: "Of my country and of my family I have little to say." The reader sees that his native land and close people are not his first consideration. So something much more profound troubles him.

The complication comes in the sentence "One evening … I observed a very singular isolated cloud…" The piling up of the epithets "singular" and "isolated" and the intensifier (adverb) "very" put us on our guard.

But then tense atmosphere increases. For conveying it the author describes the nature using epithets and comparisons effectively: "dusky-red appearance of the moon and the peculiar character of the sea … a rapid change and the water seemed more than usually transparent … The air became intolerably hot, and was loaded with spiral exhalations similar to those arising from heated iron. As night came on, every breath of wind died away …"

The description of nature helps to create the atmosphere of anticipation. But the captain doesn't share our hero's presentiments. On the one hand, it seems rather strange that an ordinary passenger foresees a simoom, and a sophisticated captain doesn't notice anything; but on the other hand that helps us to realize that the work is rather symbolic.

Speaking about the ship, the narrator uses the pronoun "she". In fact the ship implied to the soul of a human being, the soul where some changes take place.

So the internal conflict comes into existence: between the hero's skeptic attitude to life and death and his admiration to them.

As it was mentioned, the character was well-educated. And his skepticism presupposes meditation (reflection).

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