Learning Path » 5B Interacting
EVinicio - The Victorian Age and Fiction, Vanity Fair
by - (2011-04-03)
Up to 5B The Victorian Age and Fiction
From W. M. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, chapter II
Exercises
1. a) "in an easy frame of mind", "was almost as flurried", "she was exceedingly alarmed", "laughing", "in a fury", "cried".
b) Rebecca's state of mind: satisfied, proud, relaxed, defiant worried.
Amelia's state of mind: nervous, frightened.
2. a) "thank God, I'm out of Chiswick", "I hate the whole house, I hope I may never set eyes on it again. I wish it were in the bottom of Thames".
Rebecca's feelings are caused by the treatment received in the school: she has only had insults and outrage.
b) Amelia "was exceeding alarmed at this act of insubordination", she did not approve her friend's behavior and she tried to understand how Rebecca could do so.
c) Rebecca's personality: revengeful, authoritarian, passionate, impulsive.
Amelia's personality: gentle, simple, passive, calm, submissive, conformist.
3. a) The narrator is a voice outside the story: it's a third person intrusive narrator.
b) The digression is about the custom of caning in English school and how it rest impressed in the students' mind even after long time.
I think it sounds as a justification for Amelia's reaction because it provides an example that supports the students' attitude to not forget the impressions of school.
c) The adjective "heroical" to describe Rebecca's act is used in an ironical way.
d) The reader is not free to judge the characters because the narrator's comments make the reader shared the narrator's judgements.
4. The narrator addresses the reader: "for, consider...".
The narrator digresses: "I know, for instance, an old gentleman... ".
The narrator makes general comments: "for this was the greatest blasphemy Rebecca had as yet uttered", "to say the truth, she certainly was not", " neither of which are very amiable motives for religious gratitude...".
The narrator offers more generalizations: "with some persons those awes and terrors of youth last for ever and ever", "in those days, in England, to say...", "we may be pretty certain that persons whom all the world treats ill...", "the world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflections of his own face".
The narrator refers to the writing of the novel: "twenty-four young ladies should all be as amiable as the heroine of this work", "whom we have selected", "to have prevented us from putting... as heroine in her place".
Exercises
1. a) "in an easy frame of mind", "was almost as flurried", "she was exceedingly alarmed", "laughing", "in a fury", "cried".
b) Rebecca's state of mind: satisfied, proud, relaxed, defiant worried.
Amelia's state of mind: nervous, frightened.
2. a) "thank God, I'm out of Chiswick", "I hate the whole house, I hope I may never set eyes on it again. I wish it were in the bottom of Thames".
Rebecca's feelings are caused by the treatment received in the school: she has only had insults and outrage.
b) Amelia "was exceeding alarmed at this act of insubordination", she did not approve her friend's behavior and she tried to understand how Rebecca could do so.
c) Rebecca's personality: revengeful, authoritarian, passionate, impulsive.
Amelia's personality: gentle, simple, passive, calm, submissive, conformist.
3. a) The narrator is a voice outside the story: it's a third person intrusive narrator.
b) The digression is about the custom of caning in English school and how it rest impressed in the students' mind even after long time.
I think it sounds as a justification for Amelia's reaction because it provides an example that supports the students' attitude to not forget the impressions of school.
c) The adjective "heroical" to describe Rebecca's act is used in an ironical way.
d) The reader is not free to judge the characters because the narrator's comments make the reader shared the narrator's judgements.
4. The narrator addresses the reader: "for, consider...".
The narrator digresses: "I know, for instance, an old gentleman... ".
The narrator makes general comments: "for this was the greatest blasphemy Rebecca had as yet uttered", "to say the truth, she certainly was not", " neither of which are very amiable motives for religious gratitude...".
The narrator offers more generalizations: "with some persons those awes and terrors of youth last for ever and ever", "in those days, in England, to say...", "we may be pretty certain that persons whom all the world treats ill...", "the world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflections of his own face".
The narrator refers to the writing of the novel: "twenty-four young ladies should all be as amiable as the heroine of this work", "whom we have selected", "to have prevented us from putting... as heroine in her place".