This is really HER song: She secretly wants to not be the "vassal" or "serf" herself but instead be the one in charge, be the hope and the pride, and she fears that if she is not the pleaser that she is today then people would not like her the same. Maybe the truth of the lyrics is the reason that the song affects Joe so much, or maybe not..?

WOW this is such a good sentence describing her life or maybe more accurately: lack of life!! Green as both a colour of vitality and of envy and then in combination with grey which is kind of a sad lifeless colour. Then there is the contrast of laugh/sparkle and disappointment. She is being shy in life and really holding back living her life so much that the sparkle in her eyes is the sparkle of "disappointed shyness"! Also the last part of the sentence about her nose and chin meeting when she smile as if her face sort of almost dissolve and she "loses face" or loses some of her identity in this pleasing smile. The picture also gives her face sort of a clay quality. Which is interesting in that a clay figure is formed and given life by SOMEONE ELSE...

Seems as if the fate of the romance is depicted in the weather; the heat being the affair and the breeze the intervention changing its character.

Maybe far-fetched but florid has a double-meaning: It can refer to a red or flushed complexion as well as something (here the character and her motivations) being very complicated

Clarifying that this is a game to her

So she knows what the mother is not just being tolerant but that the tolerance has a more instrumental purpose.

Business being marriage? That certainly tells us something indirectly about Mrs. Mooney's view on marriage.

This is such a funny description of her affect on him.

I find it a bit surprising that carrying his aunts parcels through the city somehow sends his imagination in a religious line of thought.

Seems the story is told from the perspective of the houses that are being personified.

So he was mentally unstable. Wonder if that is why the uncle and father was concerned about the narrator spending time with him.

I wonder what he is freed from. Is it the expectations on him to become a priest, the bible studies or maybe the "friendship" if self..? I lean towards the last, there is something weird about the relationship, as hinted by the uncle in the beginning of the story.

A lot of climbing stairs in this short story. In dream analysis climbing stairs would often suggest a journey of some sort.

So he cannot stand his own family because they are too "rich" and shallow but he like the worker boy

Even the bolster sends her mind wondering. And about the men she will meet at the ball. It is quite clear already what she is excited (and nervous?) about about the ball.

So the man is not really described, it is not important who he is, only his function as a male dancer at the ball "some one". The metaphor suggests kind of ambivalent feelings about the dance: She both feels like a flower which supposedly is a good thing, but a the same time the flower has been "tossed" into the pool, and it floats on suggesting a lack of control (which I guess can both be a fun and a scary feeling for her).

Interesting structure and use of ; He seems to be nervous about meeting his wife and for each of these imaginary meetings he thinks of the sentence is shortened as if just thinking about it takes up his energy.

wearily, white, wicker. I noticed the use of alliterations a couple of places. That must be something we can look into by computational means...

Who is this narrator? And what is his relation to the young girl? So far he (or she?) does not have a name and have not been introduced at all.

Finally she is enthusiastic about something and strangely enough that thing is waiting. Wondering what exactly this waiting refers to, maybe this is signiling an ambivalence about growing up?

Wonder why the puff is poor and why the mirror glance is deadly-secret...

Very similar to the ending in The Garden Party with one person not being able to express something and the other person understanding it.

Apropos the more fragmented style of writing that we talked about today in class. It works well as a literary device here with silence since it interrupts the reading.

So she does not feel like crying anymore

This is an ordinary name in for instance Germany or Scandinavia but definitely NOT in the UK. Wonder why the author chose that name

Interesting choice of words... Warming oneself at the blaze of lilles, feeling them growing in her breast.

Already the motif of age is clearly present (the contrasting of boys and men and the role the main character wants to and is expected to take on in arranging the party)

That is such a descriptive paragraph. Strong feelings to have about a tree...

His opinion on the "accident"/"crime" is clear. The diamand ends up where it was supposed to be...

Having inspired Mr. Candy to seek 'foreign waters' it seems Jennings will not be entirely forgotten as he predicted

Great respons. Gives the reader a good sense of Jenning's understanding of himself and opinion of the others and that which they represent

Both by the slowly moving forward in the reveling and Gooseberry's excitement creates so much suspense for the reader in this last part

According to wiki the same thing happened to Wilkie Collins.

Jenning is a complex character: "Mixture of some foreign race", now also a mix of gender. Also the whole both white and black hair... (do we know his age?)

Wonder whether that is true..?

Like Betteredge he really likes Rachel and consider her as family.

The most un-English Englishmen living is maybe a stretch. Interesting description of one-self though.

Funny how she disapproves but still cannot help looking at the kiss.

Spying from behind the curtains it seems as if Miss Clack has got the detective fever.

So according to Franklin this narration tells us more about miss Clack's character than about the truth of events

Wow so very pious and humble...

She really puts an effort into reassuring us of her reliability right from the start

Rereading this part after reading about Rosanna's suicide, it is an interesting comment on the class oppression since the love between Rosanna and Franklin is not possible due to class and this is assumed to be the reason for the suicide.

This is a long and interesting description of her appearance. Other than the dark complexion mentioned in the annotation above, the yellow dress also adds to the impression of her being suspicious. Yellow is often noted as the colour of betrayal and jealousy. The gloves and the veil makes her seem as if she is hiding. The carriage is also mentioned as a hiding-place in the end of the paragraph.

Also worth noticing is the sensuality of and degree of details in the description (eg. hair, second skin, yellow stuff that clipped her tight) . The mentioning of her waist and flower association is very interesting. According to a quick google search, the primrose symbolises: Youth/the inevitability to have a realistic image of the world when in love/fallacy about love and other people/female beauty/reproduction/superstition/new beginnings. All very relevant themes. This could both be about her developing into a woman (the theft is happening on her 18th birthday...) or/and about a betrayal by Franklin. Also: her movements are compared to a cat, which often is a symbol of independence.

This is the fourth fime the word appears. I find that this is such a good and descriptive word for a feeling. Also its clear pathological connotation is interesting in that Betteredge knows that it is maybe not that productive a feeling but like a fever you cannot help it, the drama is just human nature... I made a quick search and it appears 12 times in total. Wonder who else will get the fever.

Interesting that he uses these nota bene brackets. He has done it earlier and does it later as well. They are all notes on character or human nature. Betteredge seems to really identify himself as a connoisseur of the human heart and to like his role as narrator.

Well "a murdering thief" is also a fitting description of John Herncastle... Murthwaite's defence of the Indian people and the general theme of morality throughout the novell could definitely be read as a query or a condemnation of the British treatment of occupied India.

Betteredge's love for Robinson Crusoe is maybe also interesting in respect to his concern about rightful status and house procedures. Since Robinson Crusoe fled from his father because the father demanded that he ought to be satisfied with his societal status.

You cannot escape your past and it seems Rosanna has scars that still hurts and always will. Betteredge does not seem to really grasp this (eventhough she explains it beautifully through this metaphor) and he has having a hard time dealing with the fact that he cannot do anything to change it. Seeing himself as a person with great insight to human nature it clearly frustrates him.