Pitiful: (Adjective)
Definition:evoking or deserving contempt by smallness, poor quality
Dictionary.com
Who were these Saints? These crazy, loony, pitiful women? Some of them, without a doubt, were our mothers and grandmothers.
This just meant that the women are like not seen as much.
Mutilated: (Verb)
Definition: to injure, disfigure, or make imperfect by removing or irreparably damaging parts
Dictionary.com
They stumbled blindly through their lives: creatures so abused and mutilated in body, so dimmed and confused by pain, that they considered themselves unworthy even of hope.
This just means that these creatures were so abused and injured, and the body was confused with pain.
Temperament: (Noun)
Definition: the combination of mental, physical, and emotional traits of a person.
Dictionary.com
I described her own nature and temperament.
This just meant that she was describing her mental, physical, and emotional traits.
Congenial: (Adjective)
Definition: agreeable, suitable, or pleasing in nature or character.
Dictionary.com
Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.
This just means that she wanted to read something that was pleasing and exciting.
Untenanted: (Noun)
Definition: an occupant or inhabitant of any place.
Dictionary.com
Else, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted?
I now understand that this word is telling us that the place had no one living in it for a while.
Seldom: (Adverb)
Definition: on only a few occasions; rarely; infrequently; not often.
Dictionary.com
It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer.
I now understand that the author was literally trying to say that it was rare for people like her and John to do this.
Eccentric-(Adjective)
Definition:deviating from the recognized or customary character, practice, etc.; irregular; erratic; peculiar; odd.
Dictionary.com
The working basis of the establishment was an eccentric woman named
Caswell, a sort of musical enthusiast, who had a summer school of music
and the “higher things.” Malicious persons, not able to obtain
accommodations there, called the place “High C.”
The way the word is used in the passage is just suggesting that the women has a weird personality.
Cultivating-(Verb)
Definition: to develop or improve by education or training; train; refine.
Dictionary.com
The voice Helen Furr was cultivating was quite a pleasant one. The voice Georgine Skeene was cultivating was, some said, a better one. The voice Helen Furr was cultivating she cultivated and it was quite completely a pleasant enough one then, a cultivated enough one then. The voice Georgine Skeene was cultivating she did not cultivate too much. She cultivated it quite some. She cultivated and she would sometime go on cultivating it and it was not then an unpleasant one, it would not be then an unpleasant one, it would be a quite richly enough cultivated one, it would be quite richly enough to be a pleasant enough one.
The word in the texts means that they were, improving their voices.
“That’s one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted was infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from. I wanted change and excitement and to shoot off in all directions myself, like the colored arrows from a Fourth of July rocket.”
1) The Bell Jar
2) Sylvia Plath
3) Esther
4) This passage is showing us that Ester did not find the idea of marriage comforting at all. She just wanted an exciting life and didn’t see it with anyone. I actually don’t think that she ever liked the idea of marriage throughout the novel. I feel like everyone around her made her feel that marriage was always like this. Of course it was during a different time period, but I still don’t think that every guy would have been the same. I felt like Esther felt like she was forced to get married one day and for that reason did not enjoy the idea.
5) I think that this text is showing us that Esther doesn’t like anything that she is supposed to do I the future. I think she just wants to live her life with no rules. Women in that point in time were supposed to get married and I honestly think that thinking about anything that she was “supposed” to do stressed her out. I think they included this in the texts because usually a girl from that time would be very excited about being a future wife. I think this passage was showing us that Esther is not like the rest.
6) The fact that Esther is stressed out about being forced to do things because of society’s expectations reminds me of the main character from The Yellow Wallpaper because they both seem so scared about the future. I feel like they are scared about nothing because they don’t have to do anything that they don’t want to do, but they don’t know this. The main character in The Yellow Wallpaper always thought she was being watched, when she wasn’t. I just think they go together because they are both just being paranoid.
2. Asunder
3. Prosaically
6. Shawl
7. Telenovela
8. parasitism
9. Intrinsic
10. Prodigal
11. Geisha
12.eccentricity
13. Lacerated
14. Atrocious
15. recitatif
The glossary assignments during this semester is actually one of the times i wish I did every week. But I didn’t have the time to do so. The words Ive chosen are the words I think relates more to each story and also I didn’t know the meaning for most of them. After defining these words is helped me better understand the text. I also came across some of these words in my other classes.
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