Hope, Pessimism and Death: A Systemic Functional Analysis of O’ Henry’s The Last Leaf

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the themes of death, hope and pessimism in the short story The Last Leaf written by O’ Henry, using transitivity theory of language in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). In this mixed method study, the researcher takes the text of the short story and analyses transitivity processes in it. The paper offers an insight into the practical application of transitivity theory and into the ways in which the author depicts the said themes in the short story. It is found that the author has used all six transitivity processes for the depiction of the above-mentioned themes of the short story. Material processes are associated with the theme of death while mental processes are frequently used for the theme of pessimism. The use of these processes indicates the way the author exploits language to depict the themes in the short story. The study concludes that the author has used material processes in majority, followed by relational, verbal, mental, existential and
behavioural processes. The results show the way various transitivity processes are used by O’ Henry as techniques to structure language in the short story to elicit various functions and themes in the text.