Barchester Towers
Chapters 7 to 9 |
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chapter list |
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[4-6]
[10-12] |
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Chapter 7
The Dean and Chapter Take Counsel |
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Te
Deum
See above in Chapter 6.
[TH] |
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Chapter 8
The Ex-Warden Rejoices in His Probable Return to the Hospital |
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Apologist
Trollope may have used this word to recall its classical heritage (an
apologia in ancient Greek is a speech of defence). He could just as
easily have used the word "defender" which, though derived from Latin, is
a more thoroughly Anglicized word. [JC] |
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Omnipotent Parliament
In
Trollope's delineation of the difference between government and
Parliament, he equates Parliament with the divine by employing a word
which was brought into English with the implication of godly power. [JC] |
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Chapter 9
The Stanhope Family |
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She
had fallen, she said, in ascending a ruin…
Having
married a disreputable Italian man named Neroni, Madeline Stanhope goes
with him to Rome. She returns to her family not long afterwards, crippled
for life. She says that her injury was sustained while climbing a Roman
ruin, but it is a distinct possibility that she was maimed through some
fault of her husband's. This would be in keeping with the way that she
continues to use Roman history as a more pretentious and less mundane
background for herself, thereby hiding her nuptial mistake and its effect
on her current life. She is a single mother, a permanent cripple, and a
husbandless yet married woman, but through adopting and circulating
certain Roman ideas about herself, she covers up or even gilds the
evidence of her mistakes. [JM] |
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Grecian bandeaux
A
hairstyle emulating that seen on many classic Greek statues, with the hair
put up in plaits around the head instead of flowing freely. [JM] |
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Eyes
bright as Lucifer's
Lucifer, in Latin, means "bearer of light." When Trollope compares
Madeline's eyes to those of the devil Lucifer, he is making an obvious
reference to their brightness but he is also making a subtle implication
about the Signora's character. Her eyes are not just beautifully bright,
they are "dreadful" and contain no love, but rather mischief and cunning.
[JM] |
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Basilisk
The
basilisk is a mythical beast with widely varying descriptions. Many
descriptions, including that of Pliny the Elder, include a lethal gaze.
The name "basilisk" comes from the Greek basileus, king or
basiliskos, little king; the basilisk was considered the king of
serpents. (Pliny's Natural History, Book VIII, section 33)
OED [JM] |
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Nata
Latin,
"having been born." Madeline Stanhope adds rather a lot to her title as
it appears on her cards; with the gilding, the fancy coronet and her
insertion of a bit of Latin, Madeline is seriously playing up her own
nobility and birth. Taking her father's given name Vesey is a little
strange, and she has no more reason to make a point of what her maiden
name was than does any other married woman. The whole episode with the
visiting cards serves to show what lengths Madeline is putting herself to
in order to appear grander and less pathetic. [JM] |
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Referring Neroni's extraction to the old Roman family from which the worst
of the Caesars sprang
Madeline does not speak of her husband or her marriage, except to make
mysterious references and call her daughter the "last of the blood of the
emperors," implying that her husband Neroni is somehow related to the
classical Nero. Such is surely not the case, but again the Signora is
making the most of her sad state, and doing it well; few seem to realize
her pretentiousness, least of all the men she besots. [JM] |
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[4-6]
[10-12] |
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