What is the role of syntax in this line?
At this, after a second in which his head made the movement of a baffled dog's on a scent and then gave a frantic little shake for air and light, he was at me in a white rage, bewildered, glaring vainly over the place and missing wholly, though it now, to my sense, filled the room like the taste of poison, the wide, overwhelming presence.
(from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James)
parodying archaisms
describing action
clarifying meaning
intensifying horror

Question

What is the role of syntax in this line?
At this, after a second in which his head made the movement of a baffled dog's on a scent and then gave a frantic little shake for air and light, he was at me in a white rage, bewildered, glaring vainly over the place and missing wholly, though it now, to my sense, filled the room like the taste of poison, the wide, overwhelming presence.
(from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James)
parodying archaisms
describing action
clarifying meaning
intensifying horror

anonymous · Answer

Intensifying horror, since anarchisms aren't present in obvious enough a fashion to be parodied, the action would be sufficiently described by simpler structure and meaning is obstructed by feeling. The syntax in this line fastens the pace and makes us skim over lots of vivid detail, which intensifies the feeling in this line, which is horror.