Intertextual Analysis

of Telltale Heart, Waywaya, and The Necklace

In Partial Fulfilment

Of the Requirements for the Subject

English 19 – Stylistics

Submitted by:

Marn Caryl C. Boja

Submitted to:

Mrs. Ma. Theresa Rada

October 10, 2018

 Introduction

The literary canon is ever growing, and all writers read and are influenced by
what they read, even if they write in a genre different than their favorite or most
recent reading material.

Authors are influenced cumulatively by what they've read, whether they

explicitly show their influences on their characters' sleeves or not. Sometimes they
do want to draw parallels between their work and an inspirational work or influential
canon—think fan fiction or homages. Maybe they want to create emphasis or
contrast or add layers of meaning through an allusion. In so many ways literature
can be interconnected intertextually, on purpose or not.

Professor Graham Allen credits French theorist Laurent Jenny (in 'The
Strategy of Forms') for drawing a distinction between "works which are explicitly
intertextual—such as imitations, parodies, citations, montages and plagiarisms—
and those works in which the intertextual relation is not foregrounded"
(Intertextuality, 2000).

Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another text. It is the

interconnection between similar or related works of literature that reflect and
influence an audience's interpretation of the text. Intertextual figures include:
allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody.
Intertextuality is a literary device that creates an 'interrelationship between texts' and
generates related understanding in separate works. These references are made to
influence the reader and add layers of depth to a text, based on the readers' prior
knowledge and understanding. Intertextuality is a literary discourse strategy utilized
by writers in novels, poetry, theatre and even in non-written texts (such as
performances and digital media. A complex use of intertextuality is considered a
sophisticated tool in writing. Rather than referencing phrases from other works, a
refined use of intertextuality involves drawing upon an ideology, a concept, or even
rhetoric from others.
 Basically, when writers borrow from previous texts, their work acquires layers
of meaning. In addition, when a text is read in the light of another text, all the
assumptions and effects of the other text give a new meaning and influence the way
of interpreting the original text. It serves as a subtheme and reminds us of the double
narratives in allegories.

Julia Kristeva was the first to coin the term "intertextuality" in an attempt to
synthesize Ferdinand de Saussure's semiotics—his study of how signs derive their
meaning within the structure of a text—with Bakhtin's dialogism—his theory which
suggests a continual dialogue with other works of literature and other authors—and
his examination of the multiple meanings, or "heteroglossia", in each text (especially
novels) and in each word. ). She opposed his to her own, saying that readers are
always influenced by other texts, sifting through their archives, when reading a new
one. For Kristeva, "the notion of intertextuality replaces the notion of
"intersubjectivity" when we realize that meaning is not transferred directly from writer
to reader but instead is mediated through, or filtered by, "codes" imparted to the
writer and reader by other texts. For example, when we read James
Joyce's Ulysses we decode it as a modernist literary experiment, or as a response
to the epic tradition, or as part of some other conversation, or as part of all of these
conversations at once. This intertextual view of literature, as shown by Roland
Barthes, supports the concept that the meaning of a text does not reside in the text,
but is produced by the reader in relation not only to the text in question, but also the
complex network of texts invoked in the reading process.
 Research Objectives

This paper employs intertextuality as its main approach. Thus, this aims to
attain the following objectives;

a. To identify the existing type of intertextual relationship in the three short

stories;
b. To explain the relevance of intertextual relationship in interpreting the
intended meaning or relevance of the texts.
 Related Studies

"Intertextuality seems such a useful term because it foregrounds notions of

relationality, interconnectedness and interdependence in modern cultural life. In the
Postmodern epoch, theorists often claim, it is not possible any longer to speak of
originality or the uniqueness of the artistic object, be it a painting or novel, since
every artistic object is so clearly assembled from bits and pieces of already existent
art."
(Graham Allen, Intertextuality. Routledge, 2000)

"Interpretation is shaped by a complex of relationships between the text, the

reader, reading, writing, printing, publishing and history: the history that is inscribed
in the language of the text and in the history that is carried in the reader's reading.
Such a history has been given. (Jeanine Parisier Plottel and Hanna Kurz Charney,
Introduction to Intertextuality: New Perspectives in Criticism. New York Literary
Forum, 1978)

Some critics have complained that the ubiquity of the term "intertextuality" in
postmodern criticism has crowded out related terms and important nuances. Irwin
(227) laments that intertextuality has eclipsed allusion as an object of literary study
while lacking the latter term's clear definition.[8] Linda Hutcheon argues that
excessive interest in intertextuality rejects the role of the author, because
intertextuality can be found "in the eye of the beholder" and does not entail a
communicator's intentions. By contrast, in A Theory of Parody Hutcheon
notes parody always features an author who actively encodes a text as an imitation
with critical difference. However, there have also been attempts at more closely
defining different types of intertextuality. The Australian media scholar John
Fiske has made a distinction between what he labels 'vertical' and 'horizontal'
intertextuality.

Horizontal intertextuality denotes references that are on the 'same level' i.e.
when books make references to other books, whereas vertical intertextuality is
found when, say, a book makes a reference to film or song or vice versa. Similarly,
Linguist Norman Fairclough distinguishes between 'manifest intertextuality' and
'constitutive intertextuality'. The former signifies intertextual elements such as
presupposition, negation, parody, irony, etc. The latter signifies the interrelationship
of discursive features in a text, such as structure, form, or genre. Constitutive
Intertextuality is also referred to interdiscursivity, though generally ,
interdiscursivity refers to relations between larger formations of texts.

Linguist Norman Fairclough states that "intertextuality is a matter

of recontextualization". According to Per Linell, recontextualization can be defined
as the "dynamic transfer-and-transformation of something from one discourse/text-
in-context to another". Recontextualization can be relatively explicit—for example,
when one text directly quotes another—or relatively implicit—as when the "same"
generic meaning is rearticulated across different texts.

Several scholars have observed that recontextualization can have important

ideological and political consequences. For instance, Adam Hodges has studied
how White House officials recontextualized and altered a military general's
comments for political purposes, highlighting favorable aspects of the general's
utterances while downplaying the damaging aspects. Rhetorical scholar Jeanne
Fahnestock has found that when popular magazines recontextualize scientific
research they enhance the uniqueness of the scientific findings and confer greater
certainty on the reported facts. Similarly, John Oddo stated that American reporters
covering Colin Powell's 2003 U.N. speech transformed Powell's discourse as they
recontextualized it, bestowing Powell's allegations with greater certainty and
warrantability and even adding new evidence to support Powell's claims.

Oddo has also argued that recontextualization has a future-oriented

counterpoint, which he dubs "precontextualization". According to Oddo,
precontextualization is a form of anticipatory intertextuality wherein "a text
introduces and predicts elements of a symbolic event that is yet to unfold". For
example, Oddo contends, American journalists anticipated and previewed Colin
Powell's U.N. address, drawing his future discourse into the normative present.

In addition, the concept of intertextuality has been used analytically outside

the sphere of literature and art. For example, Christensen (2016) introduces the
concept of intertextuality to the analysis of work practice at a hospital. The study
shows that the ensemble of documents used and produced at a hospital department
can be said to form a corpus of written texts. Based on the corpus, or subsections
thereof, the actors in cooperative work create intertext between relevant
(complementary) texts in a particular situation, for a particular purpose. The intertext
of a particular situation can be constituted by several kinds of intertextuality,
including the complementary type, the intratextual type and the mediated type. In
this manner the concept of intertext has had an impact beyond literature and art
studies.
 Results and Discussion

After a thorough study of the stories using intertextuality as the anchor of analysis,
the researcher came up with the following commonalities in terms of themes, plot,
and other literary features that exist in the selected short stories in accordance
with its intertextual relationships.

Social Stratification

Social stratification is a kind of social differentiation whereby a society groups

people into socioeconomic strata, based upon their occupation and income, wealth
and social status, or derived power (social and political). As such, stratification is the
relative social position of persons within a social group, category, geographic region,
or social unit.

The categorization of people by social strata occurs in all societies, ranging

from the complex, state-based or polycentric societies to tribal and feudal societies,
which are based upon socio-economic relations among classes of nobility and
classes of peasants is being manifested in The Necklace and Waywaya. It can be
gleaned in the following passages:

“..but she was unhappy as if she had really fallen from a higher station; since with
women there is neither caste nor rank, for beauty, grace and charm take the place of
family and birth. Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple mind are their sole
hierarchy, and often make of women of the people the equals of the very greatest ladies.”

"It annoys me not to have a single piece of jewelry, not a single ornament, nothing
to put on. I shall look poverty-stricken. I would almost rather not go at all.”

"No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who
are rich."

“All those things, of which another woman of her rank would never even have been
conscious, tortured her and made her angry. The sight of the little Breton peasant who did
her humble housework aroused in her despairing regrets and bewildering dreams. She
thought of silent antechambers hung with Oriental tapestry, illumined by tall bronze
candelabra, and of two great footmen in knee breeches who sleep in the big armchairs,
 made drowsy by the oppressive heat of the stove. She thought of long reception halls
hung with ancient silk, of the dainty cabinets containing priceless curiosities and of the
little coquettish perfumed reception rooms made for chatting at five o'clock with intimate
friends, with men famous and sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention
they all desire.”

“She had a friend, a former schoolmate at the convent, who was rich, and whom she did
not like to go to see any more because she felt so sad when she came home.”

"It annoys me not to have a single piece of jewelry, not a single ornament, nothing to put
on. I shall look poverty-stricken. I would almost rather not go at all.”

"No; there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among other women who are rich."

(The Necklace)

The reality of Mathilde’s situation is that she is neither wealthy nor part of the social
class of which she feels she is a deserving member, but Mathilde does everything
in her power to make her life appear different from how it is. She lives in an illusory
world where her actual life does not match the ideal life she has in her head—she
believes that her beauty and charm make her worthy of greater things. Furthermore,
the fact that Madame Forestier—in Mathilde’s view, the epitome of class and
wealth—has a necklace made of fake jewels suggests that even the wealthiest
members of society pretend to have more wealth than they actually have. Climbing
the top of the social ladder in order to fit in has always been the nagging thought of
Mathilde even though she isn’t capable of doing so.

“With her sandals, her bangles of gold, she was no simple peasant; she must come from
the upper class of Laud. Those garments and accessories which Waywaya wears prove
that she is from the upper class of the Lauds. It also denotes that there are also social class
in their tribe.”

“You wanted Liwliwa for my wife.” “Her father is powerful and...” “The way Mother's
father was powerful...”

(Way Waya)
 Waywaya is set in “a time frame before the Spaniards came” in the
Philippines (Jose, 2012) therefore it presents the culture of the pre-Hispanic
Ilokanos living near the rivers of the region. F. Sionil Jose has used words that still
retain the authenticity of the culture reflected in his work. A pre-colonial Philippine
community is ruled by a leader or village chief who belongs to the noble class. He
had wide powers for he exercised all the functions of the government – he has the
executive, the legislator, and the judge. (Bachero, 2002). The leader will have his
eldest child as predecessor. The following text explains the practice of succession
of leadership in the pre-colonial community:
In matters of succession, the first son of the barangay chieftain succeeded his father if the
first son died without leaving an heir, the second son succeeded as chieftain. In the absence
of any male heir, the eldest daughter became chieftain. (Bachero, 2002)

Aside from the noble class, where the chief belongs, there are also the
freeman class and the dependent class. The freemen help the chief in endeavors
that required common efforts such as going to battle, while the dependents, who
were the lowest in the rank, serve as slaves. One may become dependent by: “being
born to dependents of a certain type; being captured in battle; failing to pay a private
debt or a legal fine” (Bachero, 2002).
The next passages show the cultural tradition of how slaves are treated in
pre-Hispanic times:

His first impulse was to do what was customary, to strip her, parade her through
the town and humiliate her…. But he did not undress her; he merely tied her wrist again,
this time loosely, and then marched her in town…

…and while the slave girl washed the pots outside, she closed the bamboo door
and welcomed him in the way he had expected it. When he woke up, Liwliwa had gone his
slave was in the room, fanning with him a small palm leaf. He showed her where she
should sleep, a corner of the kitchen, among the fish traps and cooking pots, and told her
what her chores would be, from sunup to sundown.

Waywaya, like other non-slave women, knows the art of weaving. She was a
free woman before she became a slave. She was also not an ordinary peasant, but
she belongs to a wealthy family. Through this, Jose’s Waywaya displays the
traditional women of Ilokos as mistress of the weaving art and this passage shows
it:

Waywaya asked if she could weave and Dayaw retrieved one of the old looms his
grandmother had left, and there was enough cotton too and vegetable dye which she
mixed in a way different from the women of Daya. She did not use the patterns from
where she came; she fashioned new ones, using the primary reds and blacks of the Taga
Daya and in time, she made trousers for Dayaw, for Parbangon and last of all, a dress for
herself.

Such were the roles of the men and women of the tribe in Waywaya. On the
other hand, traditional beliefs and practices are also reflected in the short story.

Hence, Waywaya and The Necklace depict the social prejudices in terms of
social classes. It can be deemed that social hierarchy has been a prevalent issue
back then and is considered a big deal unlike today’s generation. Though the stories
were published with a large time gap, the gist is that they both portray the general
notion of social stratification and how it affects the life of the characters. Most often
than not, those people who are considered as lowly or below the elite status, tend
to experience more dilemmas compared to well-off people.

To shed light further, in the short story Waywaya, there’s an existing rivalry
of two tribal groups and the main root of it is the dominion over territory and pride.
The people in the short story lived in the land called Daya, located in the east.
Correspondingly, these people are called Taga-Daya, individually, or Dayas,
collectively. The Dayas have their enemy tribe, whom they call the Lauds, who live
in the land of Laud in the west-side of the river beside the land of Daya. So, the
tribes Daya and Laud are only separated by this “mighty river” and no Taga-Daya
should cross this river because it is prohibited:

For one the river was there, a barrier to knowledge of new things, new sights, and perhaps
a new life.

The rule of not crossing this river to the west is made by their leader called the Ulo.
The Ulo, roughly translated to English as “The Head”, is a person who is most
respected and loved in the tribe. The following paragraphs describe his
magnificence:

Still, he was the Ulo, the repository of wisdom and strength until that time when someone
braver, stronger and wiser would lead them to battle.

Thus, the manner of using Ulo is an implication that there’s an existing chain of
command which means that they are socially stratified.

“You wanted Liwliwa for my wife.” “Her father is powerful and...” “The way Mother's father
was powerful...”

Another noteworthy passage that supports the notion of how significant social class is and
the power that it wields over the people is when Ulo handpicked a prospect for Dayaw’s
future bride.

In the same manner, in The Necklace, the main character, Mathilde, is so

unsatisfied that she is virtually oblivious of everything but the wealth she does not
have. Her desire for wealth is a constant pain and turmoil. She cannot visit her
wealthy friend Madame Forestier without being overcome with jealousy, and the
idea of going to a party without expensive clothes drives her to tears. Mathilde feels
the burden of her poverty intensely. She regrets her lot in life and spends endless hours
imagining a more extravagant existence. She is a raging, jealous woman who will do
anything in her power to reverse the “mistake of destiny” that has plunged her into
what she perceives as a wholly inappropriate and inadequate life. This kind of
mindset is infused with the notion of being rich and the urge to belong in the top tier.
Nevertheless, both stories are affected by the prevailing social differences or
economic status of the milieu of a group or locality which contributes to their
decisions that sealed their fate and outcome of the plot.

Furthermore, this type of intertextual relationship is accidental. Accidental

intertextuality is when readers often connect a text with another text, cultural practice
or a personal experience, without there being any tangible anchorpoint within the
original text. The writer has no intention of making an intertextual reference and it is
completely upon the reader's own prior knowledge that these connections are
made. Often when reading a book or viewing a film a memory will be triggered in
the viewers' mind.

Perceived Power of Guilt and Conscience

Closer analysis of the story Telltale Heart reveals that an important precursor-text
to ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’, and probable influence on Poe, is William
Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Both texts center on the murder of an ‘old man’; in both
cases, the murderer is driven to feel guilt over his crime by being ‘haunted’ by his
victim from beyond the grave (Banquo’s ghost in Macbeth, the old man’s beating
heart in Poe’s story); both Macbeth and Poe’s narrator show signs of being at least
a little mentally unstable; in both texts, the murder of the victim is followed by a
knocking at the door.

But what makes Poe’s tale especially effective is the way he employs doubling to
suggest that it is perfectly natural that the narrator should be paranoid about the
sound coming from the floorboards. For before he had murdered the old man, the
narrator had imagined his victim ‘trying to comfort himself’ when he heard a noise
outside his bedroom:

I knew that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise, when he had turned
in the bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy
them causeless but could not. He had been saying to himself – ‘It is nothing but the wind
in the chimney – it is only a mouse crossing the floor,’ or ‘It is merely a cricket which has
made a single chirp.’ Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions:
but he had found all in vain. All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked
with his black shadow before him and enveloped the victim.

But of course, this is really the narrator projecting his own unease around sounds;
and it thus foreshadows his later paranoia over the supposed sound coming from
under the floorboards – the sound that will drive him to confess to his crime.

But along with the ‘motiveless’ nature of the narrator’s crime, the other aspect of
‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ which makes it such a powerful analysis of the nature of crime
and guilt is the slight ambiguity hovering over that sound which taunts the narrator
at the end of the story. It seems most likely that the sound exists only in his head,
since the policemen are apparently oblivious to it as they continue to chat away
calmly to the narrator.

Look at what you have done to Waywaya: you do not love her, you merely possess her.
You are as guilty as your father, as your warriors who have ambushed and maimed that
Taga Laud.

Such a flight was a wish that he sometimes played in his mind, imagined himself starting
out, clearing the land with his bare hands, planting the crops on a patch that the
wilderness would constantly encroach upon. The labor would be severe and the vigil
constant. How to watch over the field, protect it from wild pigs, marauding deer and rats --
and no fence would really keep away the wild buffaloes and when the grain was ripe,
there would be the birds. How much simple it would be if he just stayed and moved with
the daily rhythm that his father had decreed. Here, there was a community, order,
certitude the finality that would assure him and everyone not only of their place but of their
destiny. How was it in other lands? Hate and injustice were everywhere and he himself
had contributed to the inequity of things.

In this scenario, Dayaw and Ulo were having a dispute about conceding and clearing the
air between the two rivaled tribes.

What has war has brought us? Women wailing when they should be singing. How much
blood has been spilled? It was not used to water the crops, quench our thirst, or wash the
dirt from our bodies. And the flesh of our enemies we did not fill our stomachs with it or
make the fields fertile with it. Who knows what they who fell before our lances could have
achieved, what offspring they would have sired, what clearings they would have made? All
this is for the mind to guess, for the death that we bestowed unto them is final.

The impetus for Dayaw in addressing the possibility of truce with the Lauds is the
moment that he realized that he has fallen in love with Waywaya. His conscience
has moved him, and guilt is eating him up, consequently, he wanted to amend the
customs of their tribe and adopt changes for the betterment of it all.

Nature has been on our side Father, “he said. “Not just nature,” the Ulo was exuberant
“We know our past, we don’t repeat its mistakes. That, too, it tradition.” “The past could
 also be a prison, Father,” Dayaw said. “You always look back, not ahead. Do you know
that 15 cross the river, they are cooking not with earthen pots but with copper?” They have
kilus better than our, not for makingpoys but for melting metals. And they have beeswax
and mountain dyes. Hardwood. And their spears...” “Our bamboo spears are lighter,
easier to throw.” “Their spearheads are better.” “We fight in groups, we eat rice – not
camotes.” “They have lowland rice, too, and they use water from the spring...” The Ulo
was silent. Dayaw continued evently. “We have to change, Father. To be where we are,
we have to change...”

“You have already shown that. But now, I want you alive, whatever your faults, whatever
your weaknesses.” “Tradition, Father. We have to live up to it. You said that.” “Don’t throw
it back to me like spoiled meat…” “But I believe in tradition, too, Father. This you never
understood. There are traditions we must uphold because they are not just for us they are
for all people…” The Ulo was silent. “How many seasons passed that she was without
honor among my people? But I can honor her now.” “Then live with dishonor!” the Ulo
screamed at him.

In addition, in the story The Necklace, Madame Loisel believes that objects have the
power to change her life, but when she finally gets two of the objects she desires most, the
dress and necklace, her happiness is fleeting at best. At the beginning of “The Necklace,”
we get a laundry list of all the objects she does not have but that she feels she deserves.
The beautiful objects in other women’s homes and absence of such objects in her own
home make her feel like an outsider, fated to envy other women. The things she does
have—a comfortable home, hot soup, a loving husband—she disdains. Mathilde effectively
relinquishes control of her happiness to objects that she does not even possess, and her
obsession with the trappings of the wealthy leads to her perpetual discontent. When she
finally acquires the dress and necklace, those objects seem to have a transformative power.
She is finally the woman she believes she was meant to be—happy, admired, and envied.
She has gotten what she wanted, and her life has changed accordingly. However, when
she loses the necklace, the dream dissolves instantly, and her life becomes even worse
than before. In reality, the power does not lie with the objects but within herself. The moment
she lost the necklace was she able to realize the true value of hard work and grim
determination. Her intention of replacing the faux necklace in exchange with crippling
poverty and financial debts were the indication that she’s guilty of the mishap that occurred.
Given that she regards her beauty as someone that gotten less than what deserves was set
aside when she lost the necklace because she wanted her guilt of losing the necklace to be
alleviated that’s why she choses to replace it without letting Madame Forestier knew about
it.

When Madame Loisel took back the necklace Madame Forestier said to her with a chilly
manner:
"You should have returned it sooner; I might have needed it."
She did not open the case, as her friend had so much feared. If she had detected the
substitution, what would she have thought, what would she have said? Would she not
have taken Madame Loisel for a thief?

What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? who knows?
How strange and changeful is life! How small a thing is needed to make or ruin us!

This quotation appears near the end of the story, when Mathilde daydreams
during her housecleaning. When Mathilde imagines the night of the party, she
idealizes it, even though this event led to her downfall. She seems to regret nothing
about the night except losing the necklace, and she fails to realize that it was her
desire to appear to be someone other than herself that ultimately ruined her. Despite
her hardships, Mathilde has failed to learn from her mistakes. Instead of asking
herself what would have happened if she hadn’t lost the jewels, she should be
asking herself what would have happened if she hadn’t borrowed them in the first
place. Mathilde believes that life is fickle, but it is she herself who has acted
capriciously and brought about her own dire fate. Shortly after her reverie, she meets
Madame Forestier again and learns that the necklace had been worthless. Had she
simply told Madame Forestier she lost the necklace, she would have learned right
away that it was costume jewelry and would not have sacrificed everything to buy a
replacement. Truly, little would have been needed to save Mathilde.

But one Sunday, having gone to take a walk in the Champs Elysees to refresh herself
after the labors of the week, she suddenly perceived a woman who was leading a child. It
was Madame Forestier, still young, still beautiful, still charming.
Madame Loisel felt moved. Should she speak to her? Yes, certainly. And now that she
had paid, she would tell her all about it. Why not?
 In conclusion, accidental intertextuality is prevalent among the stories. The
stories come across with different genres yet at some point they meet halfway in
terms of themes. It is upon the reader’s discretion wherein he/she will be able to
distinguish the common ground among the three.

In-depth scrutiny of the text and interpretation are required to understand the
context from one text to another. There are different viewpoints that need to be
considered which make the result not absolute. Nevertheless, we can conclude that
even how diverse a particular story is there are lapses that might take place
regardless of the author, year published, theme, characters, and plot. We can also
conclude that interpretations vary, and it does not limit only on one context.

Different authors have different writing styles in which it also influences

his/her works. Guy de Maupassant’s works are known for naturalism, whereas Poe’s
influence on later culture was pervasive. He is highly regarded especially when
working in the gothic mode or with grotesque humor. He is widely regarded as a
central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature, and he
was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. On the other hand,
F. Sionil Jose’s works depict the social underpinnings of class struggles and
colonialism.

With that being said, we can further conclude that regardless of the diverse
philosophical views of the authors, complexity of the plot and characters, having
similar core issues or theme are inevitable.