| By my count, there are thirteen comma-splices
in this superb passage. Dickens can get away with them, of course, because
the main clauses are not only short, but also paralleled
and alternatingly balanced -- good, bad, good, bad, etc. But Dickens does
more than just "get away" with them -- the splices directly add to the
tone he wishes to establish. The events he is about to describe are rushed,
confused, chaotic. Events will run into each other just as his opening
main clauses do. Yet the short, controlled parallel construction of the
syntax implies a subtle control of the events. |