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Taka Posted 21 years ago
Grammar
Questions
The sentences:
Question #1: What does 'he' in 'What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?' refer to? A young American? If so, why not plural as in the sentence in front?
Question #2: About 'a stunning of full humanity, an incapacity to experience the beautiful...', is it a restatement of the American intellectual obtuseness, which could seem horryfying and barbarous? Or, is it a complement of the verb 'seem'?
I think it's a restatement, but my book says it's a complement...
Young Americans seemed to be natural savages when they came to the university. They had hardly heard the names of the writers who were the daily fare of their Europian counterparts, let alone took it into their heads that they could have a relationship to them. "What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?" .......This American intellectual obtuseness could seem horryfying and barbarous, a stunning of full humanity, an incapacity to experience the beautiful, an utter lack of engagement in the civilization's ongoing discourse.
Question #1: What does 'he' in 'What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba?' refer to? A young American? If so, why not plural as in the sentence in front?
Question #2: About 'a stunning of full humanity, an incapacity to experience the beautiful...', is it a restatement of the American intellectual obtuseness, which could seem horryfying and barbarous? Or, is it a complement of the verb 'seem'?
I think it's a restatement, but my book says it's a complement...
Top answer
Hello Taka 1. 'What's Hecuba to him' is from 'Hamlet'. Hamlet is marvelling that an actor can feign emotion so easily, for an imaginary woe (Hecuba's distress, after the fall of Troy), while he himself, with a real grievance, is unable to act (no pun intended – 'act' as in 'do what he has to do'): 'Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit?
- Hello Taka 1.
- 'What's Hecuba to him' is from 'Hamlet'.
- Hamlet is marvelling that an actor can feign emotion so easily, for an imaginary woe (Hecuba's distress, after the fall of Troy), while he himself, with a real grievance, is unable to act (no pun intended – 'act' as in 'do what he has to do'): 'Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit?
- And all for nothing!
- For Hecuba!
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13 Answers
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Hello Taka
1. 'What's Hecuba to him' is from 'Hamlet'. Hamlet is marvelling that an actor can feign emotion so easily, for an imaginary woe (Hecuba's distress, after the fall of Troy), while he himself, with a real grievance, is unable to act (no pun intended – 'act' as in 'do what he has to do'):
'Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole
1. 'What's Hecuba to him' is from 'Hamlet'. Hamlet is marvelling that an actor can feign emotion so easily, for an imaginary woe (Hecuba's distress, after the fall of Troy), while he himself, with a real grievance, is unable to act (no pun intended – 'act' as in 'do what he has to do'):
'Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
A broken voice, and his whole
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Thank you for the detailed explanation. I understand #1 completely.
Let me ask some more about #2.
If it's a complement, the construction is going to be like "S+V+C1:adjective+C2:noun". Is such juxtaposition possible? Is it grammatically acceptable to say like 'She is beautiful, goregous, and a wonderful woman' ?
Let me ask some more about #2.
If it's a complement, the construction is going to be like "S+V+C1:adjective+C2:noun". Is such juxtaposition possible? Is it grammatically acceptable to say like 'She is beautiful, goregous, and a wonderful woman' ?
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I thought it was much closer to this kind of construction, by the way.
The summer continued hot and dry, a condition which gave rise to the danger of forest fires. ==>'A condition' restates the summer which continued hot and dry.
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I think so, yes: maybe 'she is beautiful, gorgeous; a wonderful woman'. But I wouldn't take exception to it.
I find 'let alone took' in the original odd: I would have put 'taken', as it belongs with the preceding 'had'.
MrP
I find 'let alone took' in the original odd: I would have put 'taken', as it belongs with the preceding 'had'.
MrP
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I think so, yes
Really? I didn't know such a construction was acceptable.
What do you think about the additional example that I've given below the last post of mine?
(By the way, MrP, I didn't say it might be a restatement of 'horrifying and barbarious'; I said it might be a restatement of ' this American intellectual obtuseness ,
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Yes, I see what you mean. I would have taken it for a list of aspects of 'obtuseness'. Maybe someone else can give an opinion.
MrP
MrP
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Another reason why I cannot take it as a list of aspects is that 'a stunting of full humanity', 'an incapacity to experience the beautiful' and 'an utter lack of engagement in the civilization's ongoing discourse' could be categorized in a single group of inability, and 'horryfying and barbarous ' seems to be in a different group.
Anyway, let's wait and see what opinions other people ha
Anyway, let's wait and see what opinions other people ha
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I was puzzled by 'stunning'.
It's not a pretty sentence. But I understand it (now, a little better!) as:
'This American intellectual obtuseness could seem horrifying and barbarous, (being/consisting of) a stunting of full humanity, an incapacity to experience the beautiful, an utter lack of engagement in the civilization's ongoing discourse.'
I would say there's an i
It's not a pretty sentence. But I understand it (now, a little better!) as:
'This American intellectual obtuseness could seem horrifying and barbarous, (being/consisting of) a stunting of full humanity, an incapacity to experience the beautiful, an utter lack of engagement in the civilization's ongoing discourse.'
I would say there's an i
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