Impoliteness and Class in Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London

Abstract

Politeness is regarded as a crucial element in building relationships and preventing rudeness in conversations. It is considered as an essential communication strategy, which result in enhancing relationships and creating an environment that can be regarded to be comfortable and respectful for individuals. The study investigates the usage of face-threatening acts by some of the characters in the book to confront other people’s social face. They perform a range of speech acts, each carrying its own communicative intent. These acts frequently result in feelings of embarrassment and shame. The study searches the balance between protecting one’s own face and preserving others’ through a qualitative analysis using Brown & Levinson’s theory’s politeness theory. Orwell’s novel’s plot involves different scenarios in which the class differences and power disparities are displayed. In certain pages of the book, for example, an interaction between the hotel owner and Orwell involve the former’s snobbish use of language, which reflects the indifference to other people’s feeling and image. The plot, however, also include certain situations, mostly between friends, which shows the sympathetic and caring use of language. These conversations reflect the social circumstances in which Orwell lived. The analyses of this research reach conclusions such as that Orwell has reflected the impact of face-saving and threatening acts on the characters of the novel.  This study is significant in the sense that it investigates pragmatic features in one of the most prominent novel authors in the recent world of literature.