时间：2022-09-05 11:39:44
Abstract： HOTEL is the famous novel written by Arthur Hailey， a Canadian contemporary novelist. The novel recounts a succession of dramatic events that happens in one of the largest hotels in New Orleans. The novel is neither complicated nor fantastic， but it is very fascinating and absorbing. Besides its original ideas and compact， well-organised structure， the unique description of characters is the most important distinguishing feature in the novel. Ogilvie， Duke Croydon and his wife （the Duchess of Croydon） are main characters in HOTEL. BLACKMAIL is one excerpt from this novel， it is about the hotel security supervisor Ogilvie knows the story of the Duke and Duchess of a hit and run accident and blackmails them. All three have distinctive， life-like personalities. The purpose of this paper is to analyse these characters from their actions， dialogues， psychology and appearances.
Key words： BLACKMAIL； writing skill； character
Lun Xun， a great Chinese critic and writer， summarized a piece of constructive experience through his rich writing practice： “It’s best to draw one’s eyes if you want to draw out his features briefly. Even if you have drawn all of his hair as vividly as life， it’s meaningless （1928）”. Following his principle， the author of BLACKMAIL focuses his writing on describing the eyes and eye-sight of the characters and sketching out the features briefly and lifelike. Examples of describing the Duchess eyes：
“…the Duchess looked pointed at the half-burned cigar.”
“…she shot him a swift warning glance.”
“…her grey-green eyes blazing at him.”
“Her eyes were riveted on his face.”
“（Her） Eyes bored into him.”
Eyes are the window of one’s spirits. A few words are enough to bring out the fierce and malicious heart of the Duchess.
In the last paragraph of BLACKMAIL， the author writes a description of Ogilvie eyes： “The house detective’s eyes bulged； continued to stare； and his beady eyes， as if unbelieving， were focused upon…”
At first， Ogilvie thought that he just blackmailed the Duchess for 10，000， but the Duchess gave him 25，000. His rapacity was greatly satisfied， so the author uses the word “bulged” to delineate the greedy personality of Ogilvie. But in return for getting the money， the Duchess asked him to drive the car with the brush trace （“The car， which the Duchess and Croydon drove that night， killed that kid an’ its mother when they drove back the hotel”） to the North. When he heard this， he opened his eyes more widely and glared at her （the Duchess） blankly. The word “stare” means to look at something or somebody fixedly with wide open eyes because of wonder， fear and ponder. At that time， a lot of deep thought welled in Ogilvie’s mind. He was shocked because he has never expected that the woman would take such a clever attitude towards this matter. It was very， very difficult to dodge the police’s capturing him if he were to drive the car to the North. As the house detective， breaks the law， he will be doubly punished. He was meditating： What a captivating huge sum of money. “Opportunity knocks but once！” he thinks. Why not take a risk？ Only the word “stare” vividly reveals the contradiction in his inner world. Maybe he was a veteran in blackmail. He quickly returned to normality. He greed drove him to take a risk， but he also suspected： Did they （the Duchess and Croydon） mean what they had said？ If he drove the car to Chicago to let them get out of the danger， would they give him the supposed money？ So “his beady eyes， as if unbelieving， were focused upon her own”. He wanted to have been insight into her. He thought “if they will not give me money， it is not too late to report it to the security authorities. “As a result， he nodded lightly. The author uses only a few words about his eye-sight changes to tersely and subtly delineate the activities of his inner world.
Also the characters are expressed by their behaviours.
Ogilvie， the house detective， is one of the main characters. When he does not appear， the author describes him from the side as follows：
“The chief house officer， Ogilvie， who had declared he would appear at the Croydon suite an hour after his cryptic telephone call actually took twice that time.”
On the telephone， when he decided to go， he really spoke in an affected way. Since he is a person who entertains dark schemes， to pretend to be mysterious is just an old trick. He was an hour late in reaching the Duchess’ room than he had said. The actions make people feel that he is a busy and important person. Also this made the Duchess more fidgety in order to achieve the purpose of blackmail. The author uses these actions before he appears to show readers that Ogilvie is a very cunning villain who has evil intentions.
Ogilvie’s actions are often connected with cigars. The cigar is the author’s special object to describe Ogilvie. “A wave of cigar smoke accompanied Ogilvie in.” In the west， it is impolite to smoke in the presence of a lady without her permission. Ogilvie dares to do so， one reason is that he is coarse and uneducated； another is he thinks that he has grasped the handle of crime of the Duchess and Croydon. They must be manipulated by him.
“The Duchess looked pointed at the half burned cigar.” The Duchess almost orders Ogilvie to “put it out”. At that time， “Ogilvie removed the offending cigar， knocked off the ash and flipped the butt toward an ornamental fireplace on his right. He missed， and the butt fell upon the carpet where he ignored it”. Ogilvie indeed unwillingly obeyed the Duchess， but he was awed by her prestige， and he was afraid that his plan would be broken， so he made somewhat of a concession.
When Ogilvie directly told the matter about the car accident， “He paused to puff again at the cigar as his listener waited silently. When the cigar tip was glowing he inspected it， then he continued.” The Duchess failed again. She acquiesce him in smoking. Here， it seems that the author writes about the cigar， actually， utterly different expressions of two aspects： the winner is complacent； the loser is crestfallen.
Because Ogilvie was madly slung to the money， he completely ignored the law. In order to show that Ogilvie willingly co-operated with the Duchess， the author writes the cigar again. “This cigar is bothering you， Duchess？” Ogilvie said. As she nodded， he put it out.
The Duchess was very keyed up by Ogilvie’s telephone and late arrival. “Earlier she had dispatched her the maid on an invented errand and， cruelly， instructed the moon-face male secretary---who was terrified of dogs---to exercise the Bedlington terriers” This shows that the Duchess knows the purpose of Ogilvie coming as soon as she got the telephone call， so she sent her maid and male secretary away. These tally with her psychology after crime， and also make the readers know that she is a cold-blooded and very crafty woman. “Spring to her foot， her face wrathful， grey-green eyes blazing， she faced the grossness of the house detective squarely. Her tone would have withered anyone who knew her well”. A few words vividly sketch out the noble womanly figure who is imperious， despotic， and sternly figure who is imperious， despotic， sternly inviolable. Just because of this， she had different actions for her failure.
“Wearily， in a gesture of surrender， the Duchess of Croydon sank back in her chair. Clasping her hands to conceal their trembling， she asked. …”. The words， “sank back”， “clasping”， and “asked”， not only conform the Duchess noble status， but express her depressed looking when she had to admit her defeat.
Dialogue is another important skill in portraying the personalities of characters. Since the characters are from different classes， their experiences， education， career and living surroundings are not same， the language they use is not the same， either. Now that words are the voice of the mind， the words the characters use must accord with their frame of mind under the special situation （so as to make reader feel he see the characters standing before him when he hears what someone says）. The dialogue in BLACKMAIL achieves such effect. For instance， Ogilvie is a vulgar and meagre man， so the language he uses is quite non-standard， such as the following：
The Duchess is just on the contrary. She was born in a renowned family and she is a famous person in high society， so she speaks standard English. The structure of sentences is well-knit； the words she chooses are quite tasteful. For example， she uses “decor” to express the furniture and decoration in the room. “Decor” is a French word， she purposely uses this word to show off her noble status in order to halt Ogilvie’s power and prestige.
The author also reveals her personality through her expression and manner of speaking. She always speaks sharply or coldly， the manner of speaking can make people keep quiet out of fear. These manners just show her complicated inner world. When Ogilvie talked about their car， she said with feigning surprising： “In what conceivable way does our car concern you？” When Ogilvie pointed out directly： “You two was （were） in that hit-`n-run”， she just feigned ignorance to say： “What are you talking about？” when Ogilvie asked “you saw the papers. There’s been plenty on radio， too.” This time， “Two high points of colour appeared in the paleness of the Duchess of Croydon’s checks”. But she also shouted： “when you are suggesting is the most disgusting， ridiculous…”. “You unspeakable background！ How dare you！” How violent she is. When Croydon admitted the crime， her arrogance weaker， but she also tried to blackmail Ogilvie because she did not believe he had grasped their whole evidence. She interrupted Ogilvie speaking twice so that she could bully Ogilvie on the strength of her powerful connections. When Ogilvie gave all the details， specially “the brush trace an’ the blood”， her bluster suddenly disappeared. When she detected that Ogilvie did not want to report them （the Croydons） instead he wanted to help them get out of the trouble， only at this time， she gave in one polite word： “Tell us now， please.” However， when she knew Ogilvie’s purpose---to blackmail the money， an excellent plan came to her： she bribed Ogilvie with money， and ordered him to drive the car away to conceal the evidence of the crime.