Sentence Structure (Hard Times, Charles Dickens)
Hi everyone,
I was just reading Hard Times by Charles Dickens and I was wondering if anyone could help me with the parsing of the underlined part:
The jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail, the town-hall might have been either, or both, or anything else, for anything that appeared to the contrary in the graces of their construction.
To me, it seems as though something might be missing.
Would appreciate it if anyone could shed some light on this. Thanks!
Top answer
Let's first consider a simpler example. eg The first person I saw in the classroom might have been the teacher, for anything I saw to the contrary. This means that I saw nothing about him that made me think he was not the teacher.
- Let's first consider a simpler example.
- eg The first person I saw in the classroom might have been the teacher, for anything I saw to the contrary.
- This means that I saw nothing about him that made me think he was not the teacher.
- Dickens is saying that all those buildings looked the same.
- For example, there was nothing in the architecture of the jail to show that it was not the infirmary.
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Let's first consider a simpler example.
eg The first person I saw in the classroom might have been the teacher, for anything I saw to the contrary.
This means that I saw nothing about him that made me think he was not the teacher.
Dickens is saying that all those buildings looked the same. For example, there was nothing in the architecture of the jail to show that it was not
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