0
Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The analyses of a text #1
Now the protagonist, Philip came to figure out the meaning which the Persian rug, which his friend Cronshaw gave him, possesses. Which is that the life is meaningless.
........................................
What he did or left undone did not matter. Failure was unimportant and success amounted to nothing. He was the most inconsiderate creature in that swarming mass of mankind which for a brief space occupied the surface of the earth; and he was almighty because he had wrenched from chaos the secret of its nothingness. Thoughts came tumbling over one another in Philip's eager fancy, and he took long breaths of joyous satisfaction. He felt inclined to leap and sing. He had not been so happy for months.
"Oh, life," he cried in his heart, "Oh life, where is thy sting?"
For the same uprush of fancy which had shown him with all the force of mathematical demonstration that life had no meaning, brought with it another idea; and that was why Cronshaw, he imagined, had given him the Persian rug. As the weaver elaborated his pattern for no end but the pleasure of his aesthetic sense, so might a man live his life, or if one was forced to believe that his actions were outside his choosing, so might a man look at his life, that it made a pattern. There was as little need to do this as there was use. It was merely something he did for his own pleasure. Out of the manifold events of his life, his deeds, his feelings, his thoughts, he might make a design, regular, elaborate, complicated, or beautiful; and though it might be no more than an illusion that he had the power of selection, though it might be no more than a fantastic legerdemain in which appearances were interwoven with moonbeams, that did not matter: it seemed, and so to him it was.
[Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham]
1. I'd like to know if the result clause of the underlined "for" clause is that in blue.
2. I'd like to know if "that" means "so."
3. And I'd like to know if "regular, elaborate, complicated, or beautiful" modifies "a design."
Thank you in advance for your help.
........................................
What he did or left undone did not matter. Failure was unimportant and success amounted to nothing. He was the most inconsiderate creature in that swarming mass of mankind which for a brief space occupied the surface of the earth; and he was almighty because he had wrenched from chaos the secret of its nothingness. Thoughts came tumbling over one another in Philip's eager fancy, and he took long breaths of joyous satisfaction. He felt inclined to leap and sing. He had not been so happy for months.
"Oh, life," he cried in his heart, "Oh life, where is thy sting?"
For the same uprush of fancy which had shown him with all the force of mathematical demonstration that life had no meaning, brought with it another idea; and that was why Cronshaw, he imagined, had given him the Persian rug. As the weaver elaborated his pattern for no end but the pleasure of his aesthetic sense, so might a man live his life, or if one was forced to believe that his actions were outside his choosing, so might a man look at his life, that it made a pattern. There was as little need to do this as there was use. It was merely something he did for his own pleasure. Out of the manifold events of his life, his deeds, his feelings, his thoughts, he might make a design, regular, elaborate, complicated, or beautiful; and though it might be no more than an illusion that he had the power of selection, though it might be no more than a fantastic legerdemain in which appearances were interwoven with moonbeams, that did not matter: it seemed, and so to him it was.
[Of Human Bondage by Somerset Maugham]
1. I'd like to know if the result clause of the underlined "for" clause is that in blue.
2. I'd like to know if "that" means "so."
3. And I'd like to know if "regular, elaborate, complicated, or beautiful" modifies "a design."
Thank you in advance for your help.
Top answer
1. I am not sure about the terminology, however, yes, I would go back to the "blue" sentence as leading to the underlined clause as a result. 2.
- 1.
- I am not sure about the terminology, however, yes, I would go back to the "blue" sentence as leading to the underlined clause as a result.
- 2.
- " 3.
- " It would be clearer if the writer had separated the 4 adjectives with a dash rather than a comma.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
2 Answers
0
1. I am not sure about the terminology, however, yes, I would go back to the "blue" sentence as leading to the underlined clause as a result.
2. I would read it as "so that."
3. Yes, those adjectives modify "design." It would be clearer if the writer had separated the 4 adjectives with a dash rather than a comma.
2. I would read it as "so that."
3. Yes, those adjectives modify "design." It would be clearer if the writer had separated the 4 adjectives with a dash rather than a comma.
00
Thank you, Doctor D, for your So very kin and helpful answer. 
0
Related Questions