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What does this mean: To harden into a rather unattractive mould under domestic unhappiness with a rich wife?
Please, explain to me the full meaning of this sentence(the last clause of the sentence) in other words from "The Sun Also Rises"?
2018-02-15 7:37 pm
"He(Cohn) was married five years, had three children, lost most of the fifty thousand dollars his father left him, the balance of the estate having gone to his mother, hardened into a rather unattractive mould under domestic unhappiness with a rich wife;"
回答 (1)
2018-02-15 8:06 pm
It is not a good sentence so don't feel bad about struggling with its meaning. I'd go as far as to say it contains grammatical errors.
It is talking about the character 'Cohn'. The implication of 'hardened into a rather unattractive mould' is that he has become a nasty person or a person with an unpleasant personality or that he has been forced by circumstances (domestic unhappiness) to assume a persona he finds uncomfortable. The suggestion is that the 'rich wife' is a cause of the 'domestic unhappiness' (meaning an unhappy life at home).
In British English, there is a grammatical tradition in which understatement is used to imply the opposite. For example 'not very good' really means 'bad'. We also use qualifiers like 'quite' or 'rather' in the same way, to imply something that is really much stronger, so 'rather unattractive' actually suggests 'unattractive'. It is easy to misunderstand British understatement but it is a social convention you need to be aware of if you are to see the true meaning of expressions.
It is talking about the character 'Cohn'. The implication of 'hardened into a rather unattractive mould' is that he has become a nasty person or a person with an unpleasant personality or that he has been forced by circumstances (domestic unhappiness) to assume a persona he finds uncomfortable. The suggestion is that the 'rich wife' is a cause of the 'domestic unhappiness' (meaning an unhappy life at home).
In British English, there is a grammatical tradition in which understatement is used to imply the opposite. For example 'not very good' really means 'bad'. We also use qualifiers like 'quite' or 'rather' in the same way, to imply something that is really much stronger, so 'rather unattractive' actually suggests 'unattractive'. It is easy to misunderstand British understatement but it is a social convention you need to be aware of if you are to see the true meaning of expressions.
收錄日期: 2021-05-01 22:20:03
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