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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
Hannah develops The Nightingale with a raw, poetic, and matter-of-fact style of writing. She does not adopt a stream-of-consciousness prose but rather focuses on the perspectives of the novel’s primary characters, Isabelle and Vianne. Hannah regularly provides brief periods of background context in between her lines and scenes of dialogue, an authorial choice that fills out the story and ties it closely with its historical fiction roots. Her consistent use of figurative language—such as similes, metaphors, and highly descriptive concrete details—imbues the narrative with emotion, for The Nightingale is not an objective historical record, but a historical fiction novel.
Hannah's style appears most profoundly when her omniscient narrator pays attention to the inner monologues of Isabelle and Vianne. The sisters' lives and relationships are the emotional center of The Nightingale, and the choice to focus on the dynamic between them and their surrounding world results in a style that is raw yet poetic. The omniscient narrator is sympathetic towards both sisters, detailing their opposing motivations and personalities with equal weight. At times, Isabelle and Vianne's relationship is strained and even nonexistent. However, readers learn from Hannah's style that love continues to exist between them, as well as a willingness to overlook differences for the sake of protecting each other's fragile humanity.
Related Themes:
