Active vs. Passive Voice Instruction In “The Bet,” Anton Chekov usually uses the active voice, but he moves to the passive voice more frequently after the lawyer becomes a prisoner. The passive voice emphasizes the lawyer’s decreased ability to act for himself. Watch how the lawyer's actions give way to passivity in the folowing paragraph, culminating at the end with a shift from active to passive voice.
How many verbs are passive?
Now click here to check your work:Answer: One. The last sentence contains the passive verb. Slowly, life around the prisoner, and finally the prisoner himself, succumb to a passive state. The shift in voice is appropriate given the context (prison, prolonged confinement). How can one identify passive voice? ” BIG HINT : To check for passive voice, insert the word by after the verb: “More than once he could be heard crying” by the guards. If you can include a subject (the guards), you have passive voice. The other instances in which you see a form of the verb be are simply states of being. Try inserting the word by after the verb and you will see that you cannot include a subject. References Chekov, Anton. “The Bet.” Elements of Literature. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003. 221. |