0
Park sang joon Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The analyses of a text #2
The narrator recalls his adolescence.
His old friend Steerforth, who had fled with the narrator's old nurse's niece, just now drowned.
He came to his house, to break the news to his mother.
Now, Rosa Dartle, Steerforth's cousin and mistress, who has a scar which Steerforth had made as a child, talks to Steerforth's mother.
Chapter 56 THE NEW WOUND, AND THE OLD
.................................
'Look here!' she said, striking the scar again, with a relentless hand. 'When he grew into the better understanding of what he had done, he saw it, and repented of it! I could sing to him, and talk to him, and show the ardour that I felt in all he did, and attain with labour to such knowledge as most interested him; and I attracted him. When he was freshest and truest, he loved me. Yes, he did! Many a time, when you were put off with a slight word, he has taken Me to his heart!'
She said it with a taunting pride in the midst of her frenzy - for it was little less - yet with an eager remembrance of it, in which the smouldering embers of a gentler feeling kindled for the moment.
'I descended - as I might have known I should, but that he fascinated me with his boyish courtship - into a doll, a trifle for the occupation of an idle hour, to be dropped, and taken up, and trifled with, as the inconstant humour took him. When he grew weary, I grew weary. As his fancy died out, I would no more have tried to strengthen any power I had, than I would have married him on his being forced to take me for his wife. We fell away from one another without a word. Perhaps you saw it, and were not sorry. Since then, I have been a mere disfigured piece of furniture between you both; having no eyes, no ears, no feelings, no remembrances. Moan? Moan for what you made him; not for your love. I tell you that the time was, when I loved him better than you ever did!'
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know if the underlined clause means "she now regret when she got a chance, she tried to strengthen any power rather than marrying him."
2. I'd like to know if "on" means "when."
3. And I'd like to know if the blue prepositional phrase modifies the whole underlined clause, not "than" clause."
Thank you in advance for your help.
His old friend Steerforth, who had fled with the narrator's old nurse's niece, just now drowned.
He came to his house, to break the news to his mother.
Now, Rosa Dartle, Steerforth's cousin and mistress, who has a scar which Steerforth had made as a child, talks to Steerforth's mother.
Chapter 56 THE NEW WOUND, AND THE OLD
.................................
'Look here!' she said, striking the scar again, with a relentless hand. 'When he grew into the better understanding of what he had done, he saw it, and repented of it! I could sing to him, and talk to him, and show the ardour that I felt in all he did, and attain with labour to such knowledge as most interested him; and I attracted him. When he was freshest and truest, he loved me. Yes, he did! Many a time, when you were put off with a slight word, he has taken Me to his heart!'
She said it with a taunting pride in the midst of her frenzy - for it was little less - yet with an eager remembrance of it, in which the smouldering embers of a gentler feeling kindled for the moment.
'I descended - as I might have known I should, but that he fascinated me with his boyish courtship - into a doll, a trifle for the occupation of an idle hour, to be dropped, and taken up, and trifled with, as the inconstant humour took him. When he grew weary, I grew weary. As his fancy died out, I would no more have tried to strengthen any power I had, than I would have married him on his being forced to take me for his wife. We fell away from one another without a word. Perhaps you saw it, and were not sorry. Since then, I have been a mere disfigured piece of furniture between you both; having no eyes, no ears, no feelings, no remembrances. Moan? Moan for what you made him; not for your love. I tell you that the time was, when I loved him better than you ever did!'
[David Copperfield by Charles Dickens]
1. I'd like to know if the underlined clause means "she now regret when she got a chance, she tried to strengthen any power rather than marrying him."
2. I'd like to know if "on" means "when."
3. And I'd like to know if the blue prepositional phrase modifies the whole underlined clause, not "than" clause."
Thank you in advance for your help.
Top answer
park sang joon 1. " This is my best attempt to paraphrase. ] But she would not have tried to get more power over him any more than she would have married him, if he had been forced to do so.
- park sang joon 1.
- " This is my best attempt to paraphrase.
- ] But she would not have tried to get more power over him any more than she would have married him, if he had been forced to do so.
- on = on the condition that The prepositional phrase is adverbial.
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
3 Answers
0
park sang joon1. I'd like to know if the underlined clause means "she now regret when she got a chance, she tried to strengthen any power rather than marrying him."This is my best attempt to paraphrase.
[ His attraction to her declined, she lost her power of attraction over him.]
But she would not have tried to get more power over him any more th
00
park sang joon1. I'd like to know if the underlined clause means "she now regret when she got a chance, she tried to strengthen any power rather than marrying him."I think you might be misunderstanding this.
The meaning is more or less like this:
I would no more have tried to strengthen any power I had, than [ I would have married him
00
Thank you, AlpheccaStars and CalifJim, for your enlightening me. 
0
Related Questions