Olivia+Visits+Mrs.+Saunders+26-28

**He Ra** EDITED PARAGRAPH The conversation between Olivia and Mrs. Saunders during Olivia’s visit to Mrs. Saunders serves to illustrate Mrs. Saunders’ contempt towards life in India. When a servant enters Mrs. Saunders' room with shoes on, Mrs. Saunders is extremely upset at the servant for it is an attitude that shows disrespect. Mrs. Saunders expresses her anger and dissatisfaction towards Indian servants through stating that the “servants [are] devils [who] could drive anyone crazy (p.28).” The use of negative **metaphor ** and **cacophony ** in Mrs. Saunders’ speech strengthens her unpleasant feelings towards her Indian servants. The use of the word “devil” in depicting the servant is denotative of the aversion that Mrs. Saunders feels towards the Indian servants. Furthermore, the ‘v’ sound in “devil” and ‘z’ sound in “crazy” both strong and harsh sounds that are dissonant. Mrs. Saunders continues to reveals her contempt, she “[gives] examples of [servants'] thieving, drinking, and other bad habits (p.28)” during her conversation with Olivia. The **enumeration ** of servants’ faulty behavior suggests Mrs. Saunders’ disdain towards the servants. Mrs. Saunders then continues on to discuss her feelings about life in India as she “[tells] Olivia about the filth in which [she lives] inside her quarters (p.28)”. The word “filth” conveys the Mrs. Saunders’ impression of her residence as unsanitary and dirty environment, and strong ‘f’ sound produces a discordant sound. The use of negative metaphor and cacophony in the portrayal of the residence further illustrates the contempt and aversion that Mrs. Saunders experiences living in India. The use of negative metaphor, cacophony, and enumeration in the conversation between Mrs. Saunders and Olivia during Olivia’s visit to Mrs. Saunders serves to display Mrs. Saunders’ dissatisfaction and disdain towards the life in India. **Valerie**

Through the use of various literary features, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is able to show Olivia's and Mrs. Saunders' characterization as well as their distaste of living in India during the visit. In this scene, Olivia is portrayed as a person with a sympathetic heart, bringing "flowers, fruit" as well as "a heart full of tender pity". (p. 26) for Mrs. Saunders, who has recently lost her baby due to a miscarriage. Mrs. Saunders, however is seen as the "same unattractive women lying in bed with a bleak, gloomy house" (p. 26). The string vowels placed throughout the words and sentence creates a dark mood to reinforce the terrible situation Mrs. Saunders is in. The word choice here "bleak" and "gloomy" gives reader dark imagery to reinforce this mood. Olivia also regarded Mrs. Saunder's house as a "slovenly" place with "a few pieces of ugly dusty furniture." The words here have a harsh and final tone to it, to show Olivia's obvious dislike to the environment she is in. The word "slovenly" is used again to describe the servants in Mrs. Saunders', furthermore emphasizing on the point. "Olivia saw that one of the slovenly servants had come in, wearing slovenly shoes." The repetition also helps intensify the gloomy mood introduced earlier in the passage. At the end of the passage, after Mrs Saunders outburst due to a servant's disrespectful attitude, it is seen that she breaks down -"tears came oozing through her fingers". This demonstrates truly how much she dislike living in India. Olivia, seeing Mrs Saunders in such a state, cries along with her as if she understands and shares the same feeling.