the use of semicolon, sentence structure, and meaning
"The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed. "
"And then they stood about, as soldiers do; now, with their hands loosely clasped before them; now, resting a knee or a shoulder; now, easing a belt or a pouch; now, opening the door to spit stiffly over their high stocks, out into the yard."
These two sentence are extracted from chapter 1 and 5 from "Great expectations" by Charles Dickens. The first one, in the context of Pip first meeting with the horrible man at the church yard; and the second one, in the context of the sergeant coming in at Mrs.Joe's house.
I would really appreciate if you could give me a clear analysis of the use of semicolon, sentence structure, and meaning of the two sentences.
Here is my interpretation of the use of semicolons and the effect they have on the two sentences:
The first one: as a rule, the semicolon is used show a close relationship between clauses. In this case, the marshes, the river, and the sky are related because they are all lines. I wonder if we break this sentence into 3 separate sentences, then would the effect and the meaning of this sentence change?
In my opinion, I think the purpose of the author to connect these clauses into 1 long sentence is: to emphasize the continuance of lines (one line follows another), to indicate that the scene at the church yard, in Pip's eyes, is just black lines, and as if the density of lines predicts somethings bad would happen soon.
The second: I really do not understand the effect of the parallel structure in this sentence, and what the word "now" is repeated for.
thanks!@charlesthefirst
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To answer the first question, you are correct with that interpretation of the semicolon. Breaking the sentence into three separate ones certainly will not affect the meaning of the sentence. Rather, the purpose of having a semi-colon in replacement to other is that it paves way for a more fluid and arguably academic approach to writing. If you had placed a regular punctuation, it would be insufficient in showing an at least semi-decent grasp of the language. You are also correct that it is often utilized for emphasis purposes.
If you had separated the sentence into three ones instead of interconnecting them, the impact would certainly be different. Arguably, one can say that semi-colons offer a smoother tone to the written work. This warrants it to be more appropriate for creative (not necessarily purely academic) endeavors.
