Question-in-the-Narrative

Questions, being both structurally and semantically one of the types of the sentence, are asked by one person and expected to be answered by another. This is the main, and the most characteristic poetry of the question, i.e. it exists as a syntactical unit of language to bear this particular function in communication. Essentially, questions belong to the spoken language and presuppose the presence of an interlocutor, that is, they are commonly encountered in dialogue. The questioner is presumed not to know the answer.

Question-in-the-narrative change the real nature of a question and turns it into a stylistic device. Aquestion in the narrative is asked and answered by one and the same person, usually the author.

It becomes akin to a parenthetical statement with strong emotional implications. Here are some cases of question-in-the-narrative taken from Byron’s “Don Juan”:

1) “For what is left the poet here?

For Greeks a blush-for Greece a tear.”

2) “And starting, she awoke, and what to view?

Oh, Powers of Heaven. What dark eye meets she there?

Tis-’tis her father’s-fix’d upon the pair.”

As is seen from these examples, the question asked, unlike rhetorical questions, do not contain statements. But being answered by one who knows the answer, they assume a semi-exclamatory nature, as in ‘what to view?’

Sometimes question-in-the-narrative gives the impression of an intimate talk between the writer and the reader. For example:

“Scrooge knew he was dead?Of course he did.How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were parthers for I don’t know how many years.” (Dickens)

Question-in-the-narrative is very often used in oratory. This is explained by one of the leading features of oratorical style-to induse the directs reactions to the connect of the speech. Questions here chain the attention of the listeners to the matter the orator is dealing with and prevent it from wandering. They also give the listeners time to absorb what has been said, and prepare for the next point.

Question-in-the-narrative may also remain unanswered, as in:

“How long must it go on? How long must we suffer? Where is the end?” (Norris)

These sentences show a gradual transition to rhetorical questions. There are only hints of the possible answers. Indeed, the first and the second questions suggest that the existing of affairs should be put an end to and that we should not suffer any longer. The third and the fourth questions suggest that the orator himself could not find a solution to the problem.

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