4 Matching Annotations
  1. Nov 2020
    1. A similar superstition was once prevalent, as I have heard, in ancient Greece and Rome; not applying, however (as in India), to a diamond devoted to the service of a god, but to a semi-transparent stone of the inferior order of gems, supposed to be affected by the lunar influences

      The backdrop of the narrator's story is westward expansion, and this is important to keep in mind because it can correlate to lines like this. Here, the narrator demystifies the moonstone of its superstition by fitting it into a western geologic history. Notice that he does not totally demystify it. Our narrator may not be superstitious, but he is a little stitious.

  2. Oct 2020
    1. superstitious

      i love how Robinson Crusoe is such a running bit through throughout the entire story. also interesting word choice of "superstitious" on betteredge here right considering all he's been telling jennings about how he believes their experiment (which struck me as rather scientific) to be hocus pocus/trickery. the typical demarcation of superstition as part of an Indian worldview is now blurred

  3. Sep 2020
    1. I have read a heap of books in my time; I am a scholar in my own way

      Betteredege's self-description as a alternative type of scholar is so amusing. What kind of a scholar is this? Of Robinson Crusoe, certainly. At the same time, there's almost a defiant insistence that he is not superstitious. What is he trying to disprove here?

  4. Jun 2017
    1. Caesar should be a beast without a heart, If he should stay at home today for fear. No, Caesar shall not: danger knows full well That Caesar is more dangerous than he: We are two lions litter’d in one day, And I the elder and more terrible; And Caesar shall go forth.

      Caesar, awoken by his wife Calpurnia’s nightmares, sends a servant to bid the priests to offer a sacrifice and tell him the results, which reveals an impossibly ominous future. Calpurnia enters and insists that Caesar remains home, but he rebuffs her, refusing to appear as a coward. But having witnesses the omens of the previous night (dead men walked, ghosts wandered the city, a lioness gave birth in the street, and lightning shattered the skies), she begs him to remain. Yet Caesar claims nothing can change the plans of the gods and deems the signs to apply to the world in general and refuses to believe that they bode ill for him personally.

      Caesar is an illeist (refers to himself in third person) as if his very name deserves recognition in his own speech. He constantly suggests he is greater than man and even “danger knows full well that Caesar is more dangerous than he” as if overshadowing death. He claims he is “without a heart”, unbound by the limitations of life or the fear of death. He self claims a God title where danger is but a child to him. The scene reveals Caesar’s unending pride and overconfidence, as he remains ignorant to the evident extent of menace.