A Journal of the Plague Year

Style and Technique

The narrative style of A Journal of the Plague Year is marked by remarkable restraint and precision, as if the author is keeping a chronicle rather than writing a novel. Defoe skillfully employs a pseudo-documentary form, creating the illusion of a genuine eyewitness diary, which lends the text a special authenticity and tension. The language is rich in detail, everyday observations, descriptions of city streets, human destinies, and daily fears, allowing the reader to feel the atmosphere of plague-ridden London. The author avoids excessive emotion, preferring a dry statement of facts, but it is this detachment that gives rise to deep drama. The structure is predominantly that of a chronicle: the narrative unfolds not according to the laws of classical plot, but follows the passage of time, marking important events, shifts in the mood of the townspeople, and the spread of disease. Defoe skillfully weaves into the text inserted stories, testimonies, and rumors, giving the narrative a polyphonic and layered quality. Among the literary devices, the recurring motifs of fear, loneliness, hope, and despair stand out, as well as frequent references to statistics, lists, routes, and observations, which create an effect of documentary accuracy and heighten the sense of reality.