away with her?” (p.99)

In this example the pun is realised in the remark of the second person. The first meaning of the expression “to run away with” – is “not to be aware of what you are speaking”, and the second meaning is “to make off taking something with you”. The first meaning is figurative and the second is direct. In some cases the pun is realised in the remark of one and the same person, as in the following examples:

e.g. “Mrs. Allonby: the one advantage of playing with fire is

that one never gets even singed.

It is the people who do not know how to play with it

who get burned up”.(p.100)

Here the first meaning of the expression “to play with fire” – “to singe” is direct, and the second “to spoil one’s reputation” is figurative.

e.g. “Jack: as far as I can make out, the poachers are the

only people who make anything out of it.” (p.297)

The first meaning of the expression: “to make out” – “to understand” is figurative, and the second – “to make benefit from something” is direct.

But there are such examples, when pun is realised in the remark of the third person and in this case it is he (she) who is the main source of interference:

e.g. “Lady C.: Victoria Stratton? I remember her perfectly. A

silly, fair-haired woman with no chin.

Mrs. Allonby: Ah, Ernest has a chin. He has a very

strong chin, a square chin. Ernest’s chin is far too square.

Lady S.: But do you really think a man’s chin can be

too square? I think a man should look very strong and

that his should be quite square.” (p.115)

As a rule, when two meanings of the word are played upon, one of them is direct, the other is figurative, which can be illustrated by some of the above mentioned examples. So, we can see, that irony and pun also play the very important role in Wilde’s plays. The effect of these stylistic devices is based on the author’s attitude to the English bourgeois society. Thus irony and pun help Wilde to show that majority of his heroes are the typical representatives of the bourgeois society: thoughtless, frivolous, greedy, envious, mercenary people. They call themselves “Ladies and gentlemen”, but with the help of these stylistic devices Wilde shows that intelligence is their mask. Credit must be given to Wilde for being brilliant in his witticism. A play upon contrasts and contradictions lies at the basis of author’s sarcastic method in portraying his characters. The dynamic quality of Wilde’s plays is increased by the frequent ironical sentences and puns. These stylistic devices convey the vivid sense of reality in the picture of the 19-th century English upper-class society.

Wilde’s realism with its wonderful epigrams and paradoxes, brilliant irony and amusing puns initiates the beginning of a new era in the development of the English play.

EPITHET

Epithet is another stylistic device used by Oscar Wilde.

According to Prof. Galperin I.R., Epithet is a stylistic device based on the interplay of emotive and logical meaning in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence, used to characterise an object and pointing out to the reader and frequently imposing on him.

According to Prof. Sosnovskaya V.B., Epithet is an attributive characterisation of a person, thing or phenomenon. It is, as a rule, simple in form. In the majority of cases it consists of one word: adjective or adverb, modifying respectively nouns or verbs.

e.g. “I tell you that had it ever occurred to me, that such a

monstrous suspicion would have entered your mind, I

would have died rather than have crossed your life.”

(p.64)

Epithet on the whole shows purely individual emotional attitude of the speaker towards the object spoken of, it describes the object as it appears to the speaker. Epithet expresses a characteristic of an object, both existing and imaginary. Its basic features are its emotiveness and subjectivity: the characteristic attached to the object to qualify it is always chosen by the speaker himself.

e.g. “Mabel Chiltern is a perfect example of the English type

of prettiness, the apple-blossom type”. (p.175)

“It means a very brilliant future in store for you”.(p.97)

“What an appalling philosophy that sounds!” (p.179)

“But I tell you that the only bitter words that ever came

from those sweet lips of hers were on your account,

and I hate to see you next her”. (p.80)

According to these examples, we can say that Epithet is a word or word combination which in its attributive use discloses the individual emotionally coloured attitude of the writer to the object he describes. It is a form of subjective evaluation. It is a description brief and compact which singles out the things described.

e.g. “Lips that have lost the note of joy, eyes that are

blinded by tears, chill hands and icy heart”. (p. 60)

“If we have enough of them, they will forgive us

everything, even our gigantic intellects”. (p. 142)

“And now tell me, what makes you leave you brilliant

Vienna for our gloomy London”. (p.180)

Epithet has remained over the centuries the most widely used stylistic device, which is understandable- it offers the ample opportunities of qualifying every object from the author’s partial and subjective viewpoint, which is indispensable in creative prose, Here we can see masterly touches in rich and vivid epithets. Wilde’s language is plain and understandable, it is wonderful and interesting. Wilde resorts to the use of colourful epithets, which sometimes help him to show the difference between pretence and reality. As we know Wilde was the leader of the “aesthetic movement”. He was brilliant in literature and tried to be brilliant in life. He used abundance of epithets in his speech. In fact, everybody uses epithets in his speech; without them our speech is dry, awfully plain and not interesting.

Wilde’s epithets give a brilliant colour and wonderful witticism to his plays. With the help of epithets Wilde’s heroes are more interesting, their speech is more emotive; they involve the reader in their reality, in their life.

e.g. ”I am not in a mood to-night for silver twilights, or rose-pink dawns.”(p.190)

“Those straw-coloured women have dreadful tempers.”

(p.48)

“Cecily, ever since I first looked upon your wonderful and

incomparable beauty, I have dared to love you wildly,

passionately, devotedly, hopelessly.”(p.319)

As we can see, epithets make the speech more colourful,

vivid and interesting. Wilde uses a great amount of epithets

in his plays. His epithets are based on different sources, such

as nature, art, history, literature, mythology, everyday life, man,

etc.

And all of them are wonderful. They reflect Wilde’s opinions

and viewpoints about different things. They give emphasis and

rhyth to the text. That is why Wilde may be also called a

master of colourful and vivid epithets.

METAPHOR

One of the most frequently used, well-known and elaborated among the stylistic devices is metaphor. The metaphoric use of the word begins to affect the dictionary meaning, adding to it fresh connotations of meaning or shades of meaning.

According to Prof. Sosnovskaya V.B., metaphor, a most widely used trop, is based upon analogy, upon a traceable similarity. But in the metaphor, contrary to the simile, there is no formal element to indicate comparison. The difference, though, is not merely structural. The absence of a formal indication of comparison in the metaphor makes the analogy it is based on more subtle to perceive.

According to Prof. Kukharenko V.A., metaphor is based on the transference of names. This transference is based on the associated likeness between two objects.

According to Prof. Galperin I.R., metaphor means transference of some quality from one object to another. A metaphor becomes a stylistic device when two different phenomena (things, events, ideas, actions) are simultaneously brought to mind by the imposition of some or all of the inherent properties of one object on the other which by nature is deprived of these properties. )