16 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2019
  2. gutenberg.net.au gutenberg.net.au
    1. But since you are so very neighbourly, I believe Miss Clara and I must stay

      This part is interesting because Lady Denham previously insisted that they must not stay. But as the evening went on she kept on talking, and enjoyed being the center of the conversation. Also, this shows her ways of inviting herself to consume others’ tea things after “The tea things were brought in.”

    2. And I verily believe if my poor dear Sir Harry had never seen one neither, he would have been alive now

      Lady Denham doubts the use of having a doctor or a surgeon in the area. The fact that she blames her husband’s death on doctors apparently shows her ignorance; and the way she delivers it shows her being too full of herself.

    3. most barbarous conduct

      The use of “barbarous” well captures Lady Denham’s character: being civil in a normal sense appears to others as being barbarous and uncivil.

    4. unreasonably influenced by them

      Charlotte cannot care less about her own role in the social circle; rather, she is the one sitting high up in the theater watching everything going on as if it’s a funny play.

    5. She has accordingly had three teeth drawn

      The contrast between physical weakness and verbal dexterity is amusing.

    6. I rubbed his ankle with my own hand for six hours without intermission

      The use of “ankle” is inappropriate as 1) the scene itself is absurd and 2) ankle has sexual connotations, as well as the action of “rubbing.”

    7. the sea air would probably be the death of me.

      Diana Parker has an elaborate style of communicating. Readers better off not to take her words literally.

    8. I could soon put the necessary irons in the fire.

      This is at once imagery and a metaphor, describing how eager Diana is on her task of bringing families over to Sanditon. It’s partly funny because she is herself claimed to be physically weak, yet her spirits are high and tough enough to accomplish her self-assigned tasks passionately.

    9. from one of my sisters. They never fail me. Women are the only correspondents to be depended on

      Mr. Parker whines and complains about his brother not responding to him promptly -- which shows that he gets anxious and nervous easily, and his declarations about women just based on how fast Diana responds to letter is again, over-generalizing.

    10. health-breathing hill

      The diction here suggests again Mr. Parker’s being overly obsessed with medical issues, in that even the normal natural elements in the town is anthropomorphized to represent health.

    11. by Charlotte with the calmness of amused curiosity, and by Mr. Parker with the eager eye which hoped to see scarcely any empty houses

      The contrast between Charlotte’s and Mr. Parker’s attitudes towards these houses are somewhat farcical for the audience. While Charlotte, upon her first visit, is not associating the houses with any external values, Mr. Parker has come to deem the plain houses a gold mine.

    12. Our ancestors, you know, always built in a hole

      Again, Mr. Parker talks a lot, but always makes unnecessary or irrelevant generalizations. Most of his utterances are completely unrelated to each other and the current topic at hand, yet he says them in an absolutely confident and unapologetic manner -- meanwhile it is Charlotte and Mrs. Parker who has to endure his nonsense.

    13. Who can endure a cabbage bed in October

      Mr. Parker mocks his previous house in a nit-picky and superfluous way, by focusing on the decaying vegetation in early fall. Mr. Parker is rather petty and judgmental of very trivial things. He dislikes something just by associating a very small downside with the whole entity; while Mrs. Parker laments that the children used to run around in the family garden, Mr. Parker criticizes its vegetation conditions.

  3. Feb 2019
    1. So farewell envy of thepeasant’s nest

      This sentence brings the inner space back to the nature.

    2. The dreams of fancy, tranquil and secure.Vain thought! the dweller in that still retreatDearly obtains the refuge it affords.Its elevated site forbids the wretchTo drink sweet waters of the crystal well;

      This is the second transition, where the poet emphasizes the human realm of imagination. The passage transitions the piece from natural description of the surrounding to an internal space where humans are free to explore their emotions.

    3. ottage, whither oft we since repair:’Tis perched upon the green hill-top, but closeEnvironed with a ring of branching elmsThat overhang the thatch, itself unseenPeeps at the vale below; so thick besetWithfoliage of such dark redundant growth,I called the low-roofed lodge thepeasant’s nest

      This passage shows an idyllic nature scene, using pastoral imagery, with words such as "redundant growth." The poet underlines the sublimity and the wildness of nature that is beyond human manipulation.