In the last scene of “The Violin”, the Jhin is being arrested by police for the murder that he committed. As he is being led away, Jhin lashes out in anger upon seeing Jink, whose father had been viciously slain in the murder. In a long dialogue, Jhin describes every detail that lead up to her father’s painful death. The imagery that it utilized in Jhin’s dialogue is effective because his recounting the story is very descriptive. Since they are very descriptive and vivid, the reader cannot help but create images in his or her mind of each description told by Jhin. This is important for the reader because there was never an instance of when another character was present while the murder took place. Therefore, the reader is dependent on Jhin’s narration of the murder. Otherwise, if Jhin had simply confessed that he committed the murder, the reader would have never understood how remorseless Jink’s murder was. For instance, Jhin recounts this gruesome detail, “He cried a lot you know”, Jhin said to Jink, “but that just made it even more fun for me. Feeling your father’s warm, thick blood splatter across my face and eyes only made me wanna keep going!” The reader can sense the sadistic and cruel nature of the murder. One can help but visualize Jink’s father on the ground, tears pouring down his face from the brutal punishment that Jhin is inflicting. All the while, one can visualize Jhin, filled with a guilty pleasure and satisfaction that came from mercilessly beating Jink’s father. The image is rendered more brutal when Jhin finishes his thought. The new mental image will likely consist of Jhin’s red, bloody face as he continuously strikes the father’s battered body. The imagery provided in this scene highlights the barbaric aspect of the murder, which becomes in important when one analyzes another feature of Jhin’s long dialogue, his point of view. Since this dialogue comes straight from Jhin, the audience is directly exposed to his thoughts and feelings, especially when it comes to what he thinks about Jink’s father. In one instance, Jhin reveals that, “Can you believe it? Even as he was dying, all he could ever care about was that damn piece of wood!” The violin that he mentions plays a significant role in this story, especially for Jink and her family. Therefore, by diminishing an instrument like the violin to a “damn piece of wood”, one can observe that the violin is some that not only is of little importance to Jhin, but also it irritates him. The same feeling about the violin is conveyed when Jhin says, “Take away the bow, and you take away the sound of the violin with it. Oh how I despised that sound!” The last sentence of the quote highlights his hate for the violin and that he would do anything to destroy it in a degrading manner. Jihn’s dialogue plays an important role not only in the final scene but also the whole story. Since two significant aspects of the plot are mentioned, it is imperative that the reader understand what the author wants to convey. Imagery and Jihn’s point of view give, respectively, insight to the murder of Jink’s father and Jihn’s feelings on arguably the most vital symbol of the story, the violin. With those two rhetorical figures, there is no ambiguity about the author’s intentions, nor why the dialogue was included in the scene.
Source: “The Violin.” Storium, Scene 3, https://storium.com/game/the-violin/act-3/scene-1
Photo Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Batchelder_violin.jpg (Wikimedia Commons)