Lit Hum Final

In Book 10, Satan's plans for revenge will "redound" upon him, just as God says it will here. Notice the use of the word "bent." Good characters - Adam, Eve, Abdiel - are often described as "upright" or "erect." Satan, in contrast, is "bent" on "revenge," a phrasing that suggests a connection between revenge and something opposed to uprightness.

so bent he seems On desperate revenge that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head

In Book 10, Satan's plans for revenge will "redound" upon him, just as God says it will here. Notice the use of the word "bent." Good characters - Adam, Eve, Abdiel - are often described as "upright" or "erect." Satan, in contrast, is "bent" on "revenge," a phrasing that suggests a connection between revenge and something opposed to uprightness.

so bent he seems On desperate revenge that shall redound Upon his own rebellious head"

Here, Mary is clearly echoing the sort of horrible, formal advice given to young ladies by the conduct books (books about how to behave and why) being published at the time. The awful humor here is that, of course, in the actual situation of the Bennets, with actual human beings, with real feelings involved, no one wants to hear this unsympathetic nonsense about the purity of women.

that loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex

Satan's behavior in battle is the perfect example of what kind of character he is. He organizes his legions in such a way so as to conceal the "fraud," i.e., the canon. Note the recurrence of words associated with deception here: "hollow," "devilish," "fraud," and "hide," words that can be used to describe Satan more generally.

in hollow cube Training his dev'lish engin'ry, impaled On every side with shadowing squadrons deep, To hide the fraud

Luke, one of Jesus' parables

"A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up."

Crime and Punishment [Marmeladov:] This is how Marmeladov describes Sonia's return from her first prostitution job. Though prostitution wasn't illegal in Russia during this time, Katerina and Marmeladov are committing a moral crime against Sonia by forcing her to do it.

"She walked straight up to Katerina Ivanovna and she laid thirty roubles on the table before her in silence."

Woolf

"Ah, but how long do you think it'll last?" said somebody. It was as if she had antennae trembling out from her, which, intercepting certain sentences, forced them upon her attention. This was one of them. She scented danger for her husband. A question like that would lead, almost certainly, to something being said which reminded him of his own failure. How long would he be read—he would think at once. William Bankes (who was entirely free from all such vanity) laughed, and said he attached no importance to changes in fashion. Who could tell what was going to last—in literature or indeed in anything else? "Let us enjoy what we do enjoy," he said. His integrity seemed to Mrs. Ramsay quite admirable. He never seemed for a moment to think, But how does this affect me? But then if you had the other temperament, which must have praise, which must have encouragement, naturally you began (and she knew that Mr. Ramsay was beginning to be uneasy); to want somebody to say, Oh, but your work will last, Mr. Ramsay, or something like that. He showed his uneasiness quite clearly now by saying, with some irritation, that, anyhow, Scott (or was it Shakespeare ?) would last him his lifetime. He said it irritably. Everybody, she thought, felt a little uncomfortable, without knowing why. Then Minta Doyle, whose instinct was fine, said bluffly, absurdly, that she did not believe that any one really enjoyed reading Shakespeare. Mr. Ramsay said grimly (but his mind was turned away again) that very few people liked it as much as they said they did. But, he added, there is considerable merit in some of the plays nevertheless, and Mrs. Ramsay saw that it would be all right for the moment anyhow; he would laugh at Minta, and she, Mrs. Ramsay saw, realising his extreme anxiety about himself, would, in her own way, see that he was taken care of, and praise him, somehow or other. But she wished it was not necessary: perhaps it was her fault that it was necessary. Anyhow, she was free now to listen to what Paul Rayley was trying to say about books one had read as a boy. They lasted, he said. He had read some of Tolstoi at school. There was one he always remembered, but he had forgotten the name. Russian names were impossible, said Mrs. Ramsay. "Vronsky," said Paul. He remembered that because he always thought it such a good name for a villain. "Vronsky," said Mrs. Ramsay; "Oh, ANNA KARENINA," but that did not take them very far; books were not in their lin

Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov that his home life is so unbearable that he had to leave and sleep outdoors. It's obvious from what he says that the horror of his home is of his own making. He knows it, too. He just doesn't know how to turn things around.

"Allow me to ask you another question out of simple curiosity: have you ever spent a night on a hay barge, on the Neva?

Don quixote

"And so what could my barren and poorly cultivated wits beget but the history of a child who is dry, withered, capricious, and filled with inconstant thoughts [...]?"

Paradise Lost

"And such appeared in hue, as when the force Of subterranean wind transports a hill Torn from Pelorus 1 , or the shattered side Of thundering Aetna, whose combustible And fuelled entrails thence conceiving fire, Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds, And leave a singèd bottom all involved With stench and smoke: such resting found the sole Of unblessed feet."

Diccameron

"But the thing that afforded them no less pleasure was a stream cascading down over the living rock of a gorge separating two of the surrounding hills, which produced a most delectable sound as it descended and looked from a distance as though it was issuing forth under pressure in a powdery spray of fine quicksilver."

To the Lightouse

"But there, like the body of a young man laid up in peat for a century, with the red fresh on his lips, was his friendship, in its acuteness and reality, laid up across the bay among the sandhills."

On Imagination

"But they do not realize [some people] [...] that I am a sworn foe to constraint, assiduity, and perseverance; and that nothing is so foreign to my style as an extended narrative. So often I break off for lack of breath."

Augustine

"But to reach that destination one does not use ships or chariot or feet."

This is in response to Sonia's insistence that "God" won't let Polenka become a prostitute. Believing or not believing in God are versions of individual reality. Raskolnikov sometimes believes in God and sometimes doesn't.

"But, perhaps, there is no God at all," X answered with a sort of malignance, laughed and looked at her.

One of the effects of the Forbidden Fruit is that it turns pure love into lustful desire ("in lust they burn"). Milton makes it perfectly clear that is not a good thing, as evident, for example, in the use of "burn," "carnal desire inflaming," "wantonly," and, most importantly, "dalliance." The latter is the same word that Satan uses in 2.819 to refer to his sexual encounter with his daughter, Sin. Yikes!

"Carnal desire inflaming. He on Eve Began to cast lascivious eyes, she him As wantonly repaid: in lust they burn Till Adam thus gan Eve to dalliance move"

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Corinthians realizes she is completely dependent on her family and that is why Henry Porter doesn't want her

"Every woman she knew was a doll baby. Did he mean like the women who rode on the bus? The other maids, who were not hiding what they were? Or the black women who walked the streets at night?"

CP The novel is obsessed with the lack of justice for children, particularly orphans, as is Raskolnikov. This is a sentiment to which we can all relate. So long as children are suffering in the world, it's hard to think of it as a place where "fairness" and "justice" have meaning.

"Good God!" [X] cried with flashing eyes, "is there no justice upon earth? Whom should you protect if not us orphans?"

This is Svidrigaïlov telling Dounia why Raskolnikov killed and why he is suffering from it. Sounds pretty accurate to us. What do you think?

"He has suffered a great deal and is still suffering from the idea that he could make a theory, but was incapable of boldly overstepping the law, and so he is not a man of genius."

Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky, Svidrigailov 's dream

"He picked her up in his arms, went to his room, sat her on his bed, and began to undress her."

Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov (and the readers) have only heard about Svidrigaïlov at this time. Raskolnikov calling the sketchy man in the park "Svidrigaïlov" foreshadows his presence in St. Petersburg, and prepares us for his nastiness.

"Hey! You Svidrigaïlov! What do you want here?" [x] shouted, clenching his fists and laughing, spluttering with rage.

Satan is proud of his army, so proud that he's absolutely baffled that it was defeated. He thinks that a force as strong as his should never have known "repulse." His pride was so blinding that he didn't realize that God would easily "repulse" such a band, even though they "stood" like "gods."

"How such united force of gods, how such As stood like these, could ever know repulse

Crime and Punishment This is a more complicated sounding version of what Raskolnikov hears the student say in the quote above from 1.6.14. This is when he's trying to explain his article on the matter to Porfiry. Knowing that he wrote an essay about this business helps us understand just how obsessed he really is with the idea.

"I [...] hinted that an 'extraordinary' man has the right [...] an inner right to decide in his own conscience to overstep... certain obstacles, and only in case it is essential for the practical fulfillment of his idea (sometimes, perhaps, of benefit to the whole of humanity)."

Porfiry blames Nikolay's desire to suffer on religious fanaticism. So what is his problem? Legal fanaticism? Doesn't he also sound like an echo of Raskolnikov, and of Sonia? Many of the characters believe that suffering is the chief means for purification.

"I am convinced that you will decide, 'to take your suffering.' You don't believe my words now, but you'll come to it of yourself. For suffering, X, is a great thing."

Death is the product of Sin's relationship with Satan (her father), and he in turn has sex with his mother; actually, he rapes her because he is "inflamed with lust." Milton describes Adam's desire for Eve after the Fall in similar terms as here; thus Adam and Eve both "burn" in "lust" as a result of an "inflaming" desire. As evident here, this combination of words can lead to no good.

"I fled, but he pursued (though more, it seems, Inflamed with lust than rage) and swifter far, Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed, And in embraces forcible and foul Engend'ring with me of that rape begot These yelling monsters"

Of course Raskolnikov is referring to his murderous idea. Part of what his mixed up brain wants to do is "overstep" his fears of the landlady, to reach a place where he is in power, either literally or by becoming fearless.

"I want to attempt a thing like that and am frightened by these trifles," [X] thought, with an odd smile.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, Mr. Darcy finally admitting his feelings for Eilzabeth

"In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you."

Raphael essentially tells Adam not to get too proud. He tells him that Heaven is "too high" for him to 'know what passes there." In other words, Adam shouldn't try to learn more than he already knows. The dichotomy of high and low ("too high," "lowly wise") underlines the difference between pride and humility (recall that pride is often associated with superiority, trying to reach too high, etc.).

"Joy thou In what He gives to thee, this Paradise And thy fair Eve; Heav'n is for thee too high To know what passes there; be lowly wise: Think only what concerns thee and thy being

Crime and Punishment This isn't Raskolnikov talking, but rather another student. The passage simply states the complicated question posed over and over in the novel. What do you think? Can killing ever be justified? If so, when and why? If not, why not.

"Kill her, take her money and with the help of it devote oneself to the service of humanity and the good of all. What do you think, would not one tiny crime be wiped out by thousands of good deeds?"

This of course is Ilya to Raskolnikov on Svidrigaïlov's suicide. It's also a comment of the constant array of suicidal tendencies in the novel. Suicide is presented as a judgment by an individual of both himself or herself and the society in which he or she lives.

"Look at these suicides, too, how common they are, you can't fancy

All's fair in love and war, including incredibly transparent tricks. Luckily, Mr. Bingley is way too good-natured to see through it, even if his sisters do.

"No, my dear, you had better go on horseback, because it seems likely to rain; and then you must stay all night

PL This describes how Satan's associates were allowed to "wander" over the earth because of God's "suff'rance," or forbearance after the Fall. The most important word here is "trial," a word that comes up repeatedly in the poem and in Milton's other writings. It suggests something like a test of man's virtue, which is made manifest when he is tempted and refuses.

"Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve Got them new names, till wand'ring o'er the earth Through God's high suff'rance for the trial of man"

This is the first thing Raskolnikov sees when he enters Sonia's home. Notice how both the chair and the candlestick are rather beaten up? Dostoevsky really wants to emphasize Sonia's poor living conditions.

"On a broken chair stood a candle in a battered copper candlestick."

CP Even though Sonia is judged innocent of Luzhin's accusations due to Andrey Semyonovitch's sharp eyes, and fearless tongue, justice is not done for Sonia, and Luzhin doesn't have to suffer for his crime. Nonetheless, it is probably the closest thing to a "feel good" moment we get in the novel. It might not give us full blown justice, but perhaps, at least, a hope of justice.

"On the contrary, you'll have to answer, gentlemen, for violently obstructing the course of justice."

Here, Colonel Fitzwilliam slips Lizzy a little hint that, while he thinks she's cute and all, he's not about to marry her. He may be the son of an earl, but he's the younger son, which means he's not going to inherit the estate—unless his older brother dies. Lizzy recovers by making a joke about how much it costs to marry an earl's younger son (i.e., how much money does the girl have to bring to the marriage?) but Fitzwilliam is serious: he has to marry a rich woman to support him in the manner to which he's become accustomed—his "habits of expense." He's our clue that, while this system of marriage isn't great for women, it's not great for men, either.

"Our habits of expense make us too dependent, and there are not many in my rank of life who can afford to marry without some attention to money."

To justify having sex, Milton cites the "be fruitful and multiply" idea ("bids increase") and suggests that only Satan ("destroyer") or a like-minded person would encourage abstinence. Milton does not just champion sex for its own sake, however; note the reference to "human offspring" and "mysterious law." For Milton, marriage is something incredibly sacred, and it is within its precincts that such pure love can exist.

"Our maker bids increase, who bids abstain But our destroyer, foe to God and Man? Hail wedded love, mysterious law, true source Of human offspring, sole propriety, In Paradise of all things common else"

King Lear, Shakespeare, Cornwall gouging out Gloucester's eyes

"Out, vile jelly."

We aren't really surprised to see suicide and alcohol abuse linked together in this brutally blunt passage. The girl in question just threw himself off a bridge when Raskolnikov is standing next to her. She lives, but for how long? Maybe she will transform like Raskolnikov...

"She's drunk herself out of her senses," the same woman's voice wailed at her side. "Out of her senses. The other day she tried to hang herself, we cut her down

This is just after the murder, when Raskolnikov is obsessing over possible evidence of his crime. The phrasing "coming upon me" suggests two interpretations of the passage. 1) That the beginning phase of Raskolnikov's "punishment" is being metered out by a force of justice, perhaps God; and 2) that Raskolnikov is personifying "punishment" as a force of justice in and of itself.

"Surely it isn't beginning already! Surely it isn't my punishment coming upon me? It is!"

Here's a situation where the novel doesn't take an absolutely negative view on alcohol. This passage is some funny stuff coming from Razumihin. We can't help laughing. You probably remember that he finds drinking a little less amusing the next morning.

"Then I'll run home in a twinkling - I've a lot of friends there, all drunk - I'll fetch Zossimov - that's the doctor who is looking after him, he is there, too, but he is not drunk; he is not drunk, he is never drunk!"

In this banter between Darcy and Elizabeth (which, incidentally, is one of the first times he gets a sense of the "lively mind" that he talks about falling in love with later), we get one of the several philosophical questions discussed in the novel: just how much should you listen to your friends? Should you listen or should you demand proof for their opinions?

"To yield readily—easily—to the persuasion of a friend is no merit with you." "To yield without conviction is no compliment to the understanding of either."

CP We believe you Dounia! She wasn't quite so impartial when judging Svidrigaïlov, and it got her in a heap of trouble, but she gives Luzhin every chance to even pretend to be a decent guy before she kicks him to the curb.

"Trust me in this matter and, believe me, I shall be capable of judging impartially."

Dante

"Who, even with untrammeled words and many attempts at telling, ever could recount in full the blood and wounds that I now saw? Each tongue that tried would certainly fall short because the shallowness of both our speech and intellect cannot contain so much."

In a sense, here Mrs. Ramsay is astonished to find that twenty years have passed since seeing her friend Carrie, because her memory of her last encounter with Carrie remains sharp and vivid.

"Yes, take it away," she said briefly, interrupting what she was saying to William Bankes to speak to the maid. "It must have been fifteen— no, twenty years ago—that I last saw her," she was saying, turning back to him again as if she could not lose a moment of their talk, for she was absorbed by what they were saying. So he had actually heard from her this evening! And was Carrie still living at Marlow, and was everything still the same? Oh, she could remember it as if it were yesterday—on the river, feeling it as if it were yesterday—going on the river, feeling very cold. But if the Mannings made a plan they stuck to it. Never should she forget Herbert killing a wasp with a teaspoon on the bank! And it was still going on, Mrs. Ramsay mused, gliding like a ghost among the chairs and tables of that drawing-room on the banks of the Thames where she had been so very, very cold twenty years ago; but now she went among them like a ghost; and it fascinated her, as if, while she had changed, that particular day, now become very still and beautiful, had remained there, all these years. Had Carrie written to him herself? she asked

Woolf

"Yes, take it away," she said briefly, interrupting what she was saying to William Bankes to speak to the maid. "It must have been fifteen— no, twenty years ago—that I last saw her," she was saying, turning back to him again as if she could not lose a moment of their talk, for she was absorbed by what they were saying. So he had actually heard from her this evening! And was Carrie still living at Marlow, and was everything still the same? Oh, she could remember it as if it were yesterday—on the river, feeling it as if it were yesterday—going on the river, feeling very cold. But if the Mannings made a plan they stuck to it. Never should she forget Herbert killing a wasp with a teaspoon on the bank! And it was still going on, Mrs. Ramsay mused, gliding like a ghost among the chairs and tables of that drawing-room on the banks of the Thames where she had been so very, very cold twenty years ago; but now she went among them like a ghost; and it fascinated her, as if, while she had changed, that particular day, now become very still and beautiful, had remained there, all these years. Had Carrie written to him herself? she asked.

This time, Razumihin doesn't go drinking. Raskolnikov convinces him that he's loved, that he needs to be there for Dounia. This "blessing" motivates Razumihin to stop drinking.

"You always have been a very rational person and you've never been mad, never," he observed suddenly with warmth. "You're right: I shall drink. Good-bye!"

Crime and Punishment

"You are talking and speechifying away, but tell me, would you kill the old woman yourself?" "Of course not! I was only arguing the justice of it [...]." "But I think, if you would not do it yourself, there's no justice about it [...]"

Uh oh. It looks like Charlotte was right, after all: Jane didn't give Bingley enough encouragement. This is tricky. On the one hand, you can't wear your heart on your sleeve—or your bosom—like Lydia; on the other hand, you need to flirt a little. No wonder half of these people stay single, if the rules are so complicated. What happened to passing someone a note saying "Will you go out with me? Check 'yes' or 'no.'"

"Your sister I also watched. Her look and manners were open, cheerful, and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar regard, and I remained convinced from the evening's scrutiny, that though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation of sentiment. If you have not been mistaken here, I must have been in error. Your superior knowledge of your sister must make the latter probable. If it be so, if I have been misled by such error to inflict pain on her, your resentment has not been unreasonable. But I shall not scruple to assert, that the serenity of your sister's countenance and air was such as might have given the most acute observer a conviction that, however amiable her temper, her heart was not likely to be easily touched."

If Luzhin had his way, Sonia was about to start really suffering. Fortunately, there are some decent people in this novel, not the least of which is Andrey Semyonovitch Lebeziatnikov. Luzhin's plan backfires and the suffering boomerangs back on him.

"[...] immediately after your visit I found that a hundred-rouble note was missing from my table, in the room of my friend Mr. Lebeziatnikov."

Milton reminds us that Adam is still innocent, except he doesn't say "innocent" but rather "yet sinless." Why conceive of Adam's innocence in terms of sin? As with the rose passage discussed above, it seems as though the only way Milton (and we his readers) can conceive of the innocent, pre-fallen world is through the sinful lens of the fallen world.

"and now Led on, yet sinless, with desire to know What nearer might concern him

Adam and Eve have sex, but notice how anything resembling lust or traditional desire seems absent. Adam doesn't "turn" away and Eve doesn't "refuse" the "rites/ Mysterious." The sex here almost sounds automatic, as if desire as we understand it either has no place in the pre-fallen world of Eden or, at the very least, has a different form.

"nor turned I ween Adam from his fair Spouse, nor Eve the rites Mysterious of connubial Love refused"

hen Goneril reduces Lear's posse of knights (reducing any power Lear had left after he divided his kingdom), Lear accuses Goneril of "shaking [his] manhood." Without the kind of power and authority Lear once enjoyed as active king and family patriarch, he feels as though he's been stripped of his masculinity. Yowch.

'll tell thee. To Goneril. Life and death! I am ashamed That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus, That these hot tears, which break from me perforce, Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee! Th' untented woundings of a father's curse Pierce every sense about thee!

Edgar to Gloucester

A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows, Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows, Am pregnant to good pity

Ruth

...because the fact is that I am a small woman. I don't mean little; I mean small, and I'm small because I was pressed small. I lived in a great big house that pressed me into a small package

Luzhin needs a reality check, big time. Here he even admits that his fantasy or "dream" Dounia is nothing like the reality situation. That's "dramatic irony" in action. While we are aware that this is not "facing reality," Luzhin isn't. Dostoevsky shows him though, by soon removing him completely from the novel with no explanation

.And, of course, too, he [X] did love X in his own way; he already possessed her in his dreams - and all at once! No! The next day, the very next day, it must all be set right, smoothed over, settled.

Woolf

A bit of a hypocrite? she repeated. Oh, no—the most sincere of men, the truest (here he was), the best; but, looking down, she thought, he is absorbed in himself, he is tyrannical, he is unjust; and kept looking down, purposely, for only so could she keep steady, staying with the Ramsays. Directly one looked up and saw them, what she called "being in love" flooded them. They became part of that unreal but penetrating and exciting universe which is the world seen through the eyes of love. The sky stuck to them; the birds sang through them. And, what was even more exciting, she felt, too, as she saw Mr. Ramsay bearing down and retreating, and Mrs. Ramsay sitting with James in the window and the cloud moving and the tree bending, how life, from being made up of little separate incidents which one lived one by one, became curled and whole like a wave which bore one up and threw one down with it, there, with a dash on the beach.

Mrs. Ramsay is frustrated that even the most perfect of relationships (her marriage) has flaws, and she vents this by singling out Mr. Carmichael as he walks past

A shadow was on the page; she looked up. It was Augustus Carmichael shuffling past, precisely now, at the very moment when it was painful to be reminded of the inadequacy of human relationships, that the most perfect was flawed, and could not bear the examination which, loving her husband, with her instinct for truth, she turned upon it; when it was painful to feel herself convicted of unworthiness, and impeded in her proper function by these lies, these exaggerations,—it was at this moment when she was fretted thus ignobly in the wake of her exaltation, that Mr. Carmichael shuffled past, in his yellow slippers, and some demon in her made it necessary for her to call out, as he passed, "Going indoors Mr. Carmichael?

Miss Bingley: Here's a good look at some of the expectations for upper class women: music, singing, drawing, a nice voice, and a graceful walk. Notice anything missing? Oh yeah: any skills or accomplishments that aren't purely decorative. No calculus. No economy. No critical thinking. Only things that will help her attract a dude.

A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved

Crime and Punishment Not only does Raskolnikov assume that Sonia does her work in a machinelike way, with no feeling, he implies that prostitution, something one does with one's own body, can actually have an impact on the "heart," by which he really means "soul." A moment later, he suggests that, if she stays a prostitute, she will go crazy, kill herself, or start to enjoy it. In other words, if she keeps it up, she'll lose her soul. He sees her as a criminal, even though she doesn't see him as one.

All that infamy had obviously only touched her mechanically, not one drop of real depravity had penetrated to her [Sonia's] heart; he [X] saw that.

Here, Albany explains why Edgar and Kent get to rule the kingdom - they're "virtu[ous]" so, they deserve it. According to Albany, everybody gets what they deserve. On the one hand, this seems to be true - Edmund is justly punished for ruining his father's and brother's lives, Goneril and Regan end up dead, etc. But wait a minute. Wasn't Albany paying attention five seconds ago when Lear entered the room with the dead Cordelia in his arms?! Cordelia certainly didn't "deserve" to die, so what the heck is Albany talking about? This statement seems pretty absurd, wouldn't you say? Especially since the evidence of Cordelia's unjust and undeserved death (that would be Cordelia's lifeless body) is on stage, in plain sight.

All friends shall taste The wages of their virtue, and all foes The cup of their deservings.

You might say that this is when Augustine hears his "calling," or at least his first one. In fact, you might say that it's Augustine's desire for wisdom that ultimately leads him to God.

All my empty dreams suddenly lost their charm and my heart began to throb with a bewildering passion for the wisdom of eternal truth.

We'd like to blame Wickham for setting out to deceive the entire town, which he did. But Lizzy also blames herself: she set herself up to be deceived by focusing on his pretty face.

As to his real character, had information been in her power, she had never felt a wish of inquiring. His countenance, voice, and manner had established him at once in the possession of every virtue

Not all good things are created equal. Augustine likes to divide things into "high" and "low" orders, in order to show how something that might appear to be fine and dandy, like friendship, shouldn't surmount the more important "high" order good things, like God's law. See, the tricky part of sin is that sometimes it doesn't look like sin

All these things, and their like can be occasions of sin because, good though they are, they are of the lowest order of good, and if we are too much tempted by them we abandon those higher and better things, your truth, your law, and you yourself, O Lord our God

Mr. Darcy agrees with the superficial "accomplishments" that women should have, but his standards are even higher: she should also "improve" her mind through "extensive reading." But not, we suspect, so she can actually have ideas of her own—just so she can actually know what she's agreeing with, when she agrees with all of Mr. Darcy's opinions. (At least until Lizzy teaches him better, that is.)

All this she must possess," added Darcy, "and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading

See what we meant about light? Okay, but the million-dollar question is really: what is the Light? It would be easy to say God, and probably not incorrect, but why doesn't Augustine just say "God" then? Are "Light" and "truth" and "God" synonymous? Well, sometimes Augustine capitalizes the word "truth," and sometimes he doesn't. Same goes for "light." And God is always capitalized in the Christian faith, right...?

All who know the truth know this Light, and all who know this Light know eternity.

Whoops, looks like Augustine misread the Scriptures. You'll notice how he says that he still doesn't understand how God can exist without substance, but he accepts this idea nonetheless. So we're seeing Augustine revise some of his "I have to absolutely positively understand before I believe" attitude.

Although I could form not the vaguest idea, even with the help of allegory, of how there could be substance that was spiritual, nevertheless I was glad that all this time I had been howling my complaints not against the Catholic faith but against something quite imaginary which I had thought up in my own head.

After Goneril and Regan betray him, King Lear calls upon the heavens to take his side and send down a punishing storm. As if in answer to his prayer, Lear, and not his daughters, suffers in the ensuing storm when Lear becomes homeless and wanders the heath. Does Lear deserve this?

Although Lear had hoped that division of his kingdom would prevent strife and result in unity, Lear's decision has clearly resulted in conflict and disorder. Here, Kent reveals that civil war is brewing between Albany and Cornwall and France is preparing to invade.

Alypius is not the most sexually experienced person in the world, so he doesn't get what all the hubbub is about. Augustine, on the other hand, has been all but married to the same woman for ten years—that's his "settled way of life." What makes this quote interesting is how Augustine defends his sexual proclivity by making it synonymous not only with marriage, but also with love. Earlier in Book II, Augustine asserts that lust and love are different, and that as a young man he could not distinguish between the two (see II.2)

Alypius could not understand how it was that I, of whom he thought so highly, could be so firmly caught in the toils of sexual pleasure as to assert, whenever we discussed the subject, that I could not possibly endure the life of a celibate. When I saw that he was puzzled by my words, I used to defend them by saying that there was a great difference between his own hasty, furtive experience and my enjoyment of a settled way of life

This is a pretty funny line. We can almost empathize with Luzhin at this moment. He's gone to some trouble to set up a nice home for Dounia. Too bad he wants her there as his slave.

Am I to get married simply for the sake of the furniture?"

Marmeladov asked Sonia for money to go drinking with. Money she earned by selling her body. He knows that this kind of behavior is low, but he also knows he won't stop. It's a testament to Raskolnikov's compassion that he's so nice to the guy.

And here I, her own father, here I took thirty copecks of that money for a drink! And I am drinking it! And I have already drunk it!

When King Lear, mourning the death of his beloved daughter, Cordelia, asks "Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life?" when Cordelia is dead, he gives voice the question we all ask when a loved one dies: Why? In the play, Shakespeare refuses to console us with his answer because there simply is no good explanation for why Cordelia is dead while creatures with less to offer the world get to live. In other words, Cordelia's death, like so many others, simply isn't fair and there's absolutely nothing that can be done about it. Lear will "never, never, never, never" see his daughter alive again.

And my poor fool is hanged. No, no, no life? Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all? Thou 'lt come no more, Never, never, never, never, never.—

While Raskolnikov revisits his crimes only occasionally, we get the idea that Svidrigaïlov's nightmares are becoming more and more his reality. On top of that, he's seeing ghosts of the people he abused, and of Marfa, who he probably murdered. This quote refers to the young girl he drove to suicide.

And she had destroyed herself, crushed by an insult that had appalled and amazed that childish soul, had smirched that angel purity with unmerited disgrace and torn from her a last scream of despair

Even the hard-hearted Satan cannot help "melting" at the sight of pure, "harmless innocence." It seems that Satan is almost a figure for the reader, at least in the fact that he has a strong, emotional reaction to the sight of "harmless innocence." But he's still Satan; does that mean we shouldn't "melt" at the sight and that we should respond in some other way that is different from Satan's?

And should I at your harmless innocence Melt, as I do"

Pilate speaking

And talking about dark! You think dark is just one color, and but it ain't. There're five or six kinds of black. Some silky, some woolly. Some just empty. Some like fingers. And it don't stay still

Woolf

And the whole of the effort of merging and flowing and creating rested on her. Again she felt, as a fact without hostility, the sterility of men, for if she did not do it nobody would do it, and so, giving herself a little shake that one gives a watch that has stopped, the old familiar pulse began beating, as the watch begins ticking—one, two, three, one, two, three. And so on and so on, she repeated, listening to it, sheltering and fostering the still feeble pulse as one might guard a weak flame with a news-paper. And so then, she concluded, addressing herself by bending silently in his direction to William Bankes—poor man! who had no wife, and no children and dined alone in lodgings except for tonight; and in pity for him, life being now strong enough to bear her on again, she began all this business, as a sailor not without weariness sees the wind fill his sail and yet hardly wants to be off again and thinks how, had the ship sunk, he would have whirled round and round and found rest on the floor of the sea

Mrs. Ramsay is incapable of expressing her love for her husband through words, but she does in fact love him. However, her love does not need to be expressed in words in order for it to be understood by her husband.

And what then? For she felt that he was still looking at her, but that his look had changed. He wanted something—wanted the thing she always found it so difficult to give him; wanted her to tell him that she loved him. And that, no, she could not do. He found talking so much easier than she did. He could say things—she never could. So naturally it was always he that said the things, and then for some reason he would mind this suddenly, and would reproach her. A heartless woman he called her; she never told him that she loved him. But it was not so—it was not so. It was only that she never could say what she felt. Was there no crumb on his coat? Nothing she could do for him? Getting up, she stood at the window with the reddish-brown stocking in her hands, partly to turn away from him, partly because she remembered how beautiful it often is—the sea at night. But she knew that he had turned his head as she turned; he was watching her. She knew that he was thinking, You are more beautiful than ever. And she felt herself very beautiful. Will you not tell me just for once that you love me? He was thinking that, for he was roused, what with Minta and his book, and its being the end of the day and their having quarrelled about going to the Lighthouse. But she could not do it; she could not say it. Then, knowing that he was watching her, instead of saying anything she turned, holding her stocking, and looked at him. And as she looked at him she began to smile, for though she had not said a word, he knew, of course he knew, that she loved him. He could not deny it. And smiling she looked out of the window and said (thinking to herself, Nothing on earth can equal this happiness)— "Yes, you were right. It's going to be wet tomorrow. You won't be able to go." And she looked at him smiling. For she had triumphed again. She had not said it: yet he knew

Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky, Sonya and Raskolnikov read about Lazarus being raised from the dead

And when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. "And he that was dead came forth."

Look how Augustine contrasts eternal wisdom with this "one fleeting instant" of his own understanding. See, humans can't escape the constraints of time, which actually affect their understanding of everything. Oh yeah, and Wisdom is capitalized here because he's referring to God, or God's Wisdom, rather than just the general idea of wisdom.

And while we spoke of the eternal Wisdom, longing for it and straining for it with all the strength of our hearts, for one fleeting instant we reached out and touched it.

After Goneril and Regan bicker about who loves Lear the "most," Cordelia decides that her "love's more ponderous than [her] tongue." In other words, while Goneril and Regan talk as though their love is something quantifiable, Cordelia determines that her love for Lear cannot be measured with words.

And yet not so, since I am sure my love's More ponderous than my tongue.

Lizzy thinks that Darcy hates everyone; Darcy thinks Lizzy purposefully doesn't understand them. Who's the worse communicator?

And your defect is to hate everybody." "And yours," he replied with a smile, "is willfully to misunderstand them

This is part of the reason we question Raskolnikov's "religious conversion" at the end of then novel. He claims he was already religious. He also tells Porfiry he believes in the story of Lazarus "literally." Even though he doesn't think God can or will solve any problems for him, there is much proof that he has many religious experiments way before the ending

And... and do you believe in God? Excuse my curiosity." "I do," repeated Raskolnikov, raising his eyes to Porfiry.

Luke

Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God

PL The word "err" is used twice in this passage. "Err" and its cognates were once associated with wandering or going astray, a notion emphasized here in the idea of being "remote" from the "path" (i.e., the road, the path of uprightness, etc.). Satan's, Adam's, and Eve's falls all involve notions of error and wandering from the right path.

Apostate, still thou err'st, nor end wilt find Of erring, from the path of truth remote!

This is one of the most famous lines in the play. For Gloucester, the gods are not only indifferent to human suffering but they're excessively cruel, causing human misery just as easily and thoughtlessly as "wanton boys" might swat at "flies."

As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods; They kill us for their sport.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Ever think that a change of scenery will solve all of your problems? Well, that only works if scenery was the issue to begin with. Augustine is misdiagnosing his malaise; it's not Carthage that's making him miserable, but his own inadequate soul. Remember what he says in the previous two quotes about (1) not being able to escape from himself and (2) not being able to find himself? So you could understand this move as either running from himself or looking for himself—or both.

As for myself, life at Carthage was a real misery and I loathed it: but the happiness I hoped to find at Rome was not real happiness.

Again, we see Milky lost at sea on his little boat, trying to gage latitude and longitude by triangulating with the stars. But to no avail. No one can help him out. His family dotes on him, spoils him, and swims in a sea of isolating, truculent affluence. His best friend knows him well, but is growing more and more distant, cultivating his own identity and making a place in the world. Milkman has to figure things out on his own.

As the stars made themselves visible, X tried to figure what was true and what part of what was true had anything to do with him

This is, maybe, the most tender of moments in the play. When Lear awakens and finds his daughter at his bedside, he acknowledges the way he's hurt Cordelia and admits that she has "some cause" to wish him harm. Yet, despite everything, Cordelia finds it within herself to utter "no cause, no cause."

Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not. If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me, for your sisters Have, as I do remember, done me wrong. You have some cause; they have not. X No cause, no

"Golgotha" is where Christ is thought to have been crucified. In this snippet from Raskolnikov's brain, he's comparing Dounia to Christ. He thinks she's sacrificing herself to Luzhin to pay for Raskolnikov's "sins."

Bitter is the ascent to Golgotha

Augustine Ironic, isn't it? When you try to rise up against the Lord, the lowest of low things are suddenly able to oppress you. That's the nature of pride and other sins. In this earthly world, they seem to do one thing, but in the spiritual world, they do quite the opposite.

But when I rose in pride against you and made onslaught against my Lord, proud of my strong sinews, even those lower things became my masters and oppressed me, and nowhere could I find respite or time to draw breath.

Bodily desire, like a morass, and adolescent sex welling up within me exuded mists which clouded over and obscured my heart, so that I could not distinguish the clear light of true love from the murk of lust

Bodily desire, like a morass, and adolescent sex welling up within me exuded mists which clouded over and obscured my heart, so that I could not distinguish the clear light of true love from the murk of lust

We've all been here, haven't we? The fact is, not all books are written equal. And that, dear readers, is why we have our handy Tough-o-meter. It's nice to know that even someone as literate and smart as Augustine has trouble with the Scriptures, and it sounds like he's trying to reassure his readership that the Scriptures can be pretty humbling. Even to the most learned mind. It's almost like the Scriptures are written in their own special language, and Augustine's Latinate, philosophical mind is coming up blank.

But I did not understand the first chapters and, on the assumption that the rest of the book would be equally difficult, I laid it aside to be taken up again later, when I should be more used to the style in which God's word is spoken.

Naïve readers often suggest that Eve was tainted from the get go, but Adam reminds us, yet again, that she is "entire[ly]" free "from sin and blame." Just because Eve goes off to garden by herself does not automatically make her a sinner. This passage is important alongside God's remarks about predestination, etc. as it emphasizes the ideas of innocence and purity, which seem to be related to all that stuff about freewill.

Daughter of God and Man, immortal Eve, For such thou art, from sin and blame entire

KL Here, Gloucester reveals that, in addition to his illegitimate son, Edmund, he also has another son "by order of law." ("By order of law" just means Gloucester's other son is legally recognized as a legitimate heir. In other words, this other son isn't a "bastard" like Edmund. Or Jon Snow.) What's interesting about this passage is that Gloucester says he doesn't favor his legitimate son over Edmund. Gloucester's legitimate son, he says, "is no dearer in [his] account." We can't help but notice that the play is full of speculation about which children are most beloved by their fathers. Recall from a previous passage (1.1.1-6), Kent and Gloucester wondered which son-in-law King Lear liked best. And we know that Lear favors Cordelia over Goneril and Regan.

But I have a son, sir by order of law, some year elder than this, who yet is no dearer in my account. Though this knave came something saucily into the world before he was sent for, yet was his mother fair, there was good sport at his making, and the whoreson must be acknowledged.—Do you know this noble gentleman, Edmund? (1.1.19-25)

What a confusing sentence. What seems to be going on is Raskolnikov reading Sonia's mind. She terrified of reading to him, but very badly wants to do so. She wants to help him with his religious education. But remember when she tells Raskolnikov how much she loved reading to her dad? Since Raskolnikov was one of her father's only friends at the end of his life, she can also share in mourning her father by reading to Raskolnikov.

But at the same time he knew now and knew for certain that, although it filled her with dread and suffering, yet she had a tormenting desire to read and to read to him that he might hear it, and to read now whatever might come of it!

Woolf

But here, as she turned the page, suddenly her search for the picture of a rake or a mowing-machine was interrupted. The gruff murmur, irregularly broken by the taking out of pipes and the putting in of pipes which had kept on assuring her, though she could not hear what was said (as she sat in the window which opened on the terrace), that the men were happily talking; this sound, which had lasted now half an hour and had taken its place soothingly in the scale of sounds pressing on top of her, such as the tap of balls upon bats, the sharp, sudden bark now and then, "How's that? How's that?" of the children playing cricket, had ceased; so that the monotonous fall of the waves on the beach, which for the most part beat a measured and soothing tattoo to her thoughts and seemed consolingly to repeat over and over again as she sat with the children the words of some old cradle song, murmured by nature, "I am guarding you—I am your support," but at other times suddenly and unexpectedly, especially when her mind raised itself slightly from the task actually in hand, had no such kindly meaning, but like a ghostly roll of drums remorselessly beat the measure of life, made one think of the destruction of the island and its engulfment in the sea, and warned her whose day had slipped past in one quick doing after another that it was all ephemeral as a rainbow—this sound which had been obscured and concealed under the other sounds suddenly thundered hollow in her ears and made her look up with an impulse of terror.

It's probably a good thing to remind the viewers (er, readers) at home that more often than not, we care about how something is said, rather than what is said. Seriously, that's like Politics 101. Language—and the not-so-insignificant fact that it can be deceptive—is one of the big reasons why Augustine has such a hard time taking the Bible seriously. But what Augustine will eventually realize, in his perpetual search for the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, is that the Truth transcends language

But in your wonderful, secret way, my God, you had already taught me that a statement is not necessarily true because it is wrapped in fine language or false because it is awkwardly expressed

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, Mr. Bankes and Mrs. Ramsey are going to town, he reveals his childhood history

But it had been seen; it had been taken from her. This man had shared with her something profoundly intimate. And, thanking Mr. Ramsay for it and Mrs. Ramsay for it and the hour and the place, crediting the world with a power which she had not suspected—that one could walk away down that long gallery not alone any more but arm in arm with somebody—the strangest feeling in the world, and the most exhilarating—she nicked the catch of her paint-box to, more firmly than was necessary, and the nick seemed to surround in a circle forever the paint-box, the lawn, Mr. Bankes, and that wild villain, Cam, dashing past. (1.9.16)

But it lacked coherence, a coming together of the features into a total self. It was all very tentative, the way he looked, like a man peeping around a corner of someplace he is not supposed to be, trying to make up his mind whether to go forward or to turn back. The decision he made would be extremely important, but the way in which he made the decision would be careless, haphazard, and uninformed

But it lacked coherence, a coming together of the features into a total self. It was all very tentative, the way he looked, like a man peeping around a corner of someplace he is not supposed to be, trying to make up his mind whether to go forward or to turn back. The decision he made would be extremely important, but the way in which he made the decision would be careless, haphazard, and uninformed

Pilate's the most grounded and sensible person in the world of Song and the lady converses on a daily basis with her dad's ghost. Hmm.

But most important, she paid close attention to her mentor - the father who appeared before her sometimes and told her things.

This is a pretty good summation of sin in general—at least, sin of the non-violent variety—and it comes at the tail-end of the chapter on Augustine's childhood. This is right as he's entering into the world of adolescence, where much more serious sins are waiting for him. Rather than saying "I liked sex" or "I liked praise," Augustine instead tells us that his real problem was that he cared too much about himself instead of God... and that opened a whole can of issues for him. Kind of like Pandora's Box.

But my sin was this, that I looked for pleasure, beauty, and truth not in him but in myself and his other creatures, and the search led me instead to pain, confusion, and error.

This little line has a cameo in T.S. Eliot's "The Wasteland": "but Thou pluckest me out, O Lord, Thou pluckest me out" (from the Edward Bouverie Pusey translation, which likes the word "Thou" a lot more). Right before this line, Augustine says that even though he has a pretty good notion of what things to avoid, this world is still full of snares. This really frames Augustine as an innocent bystander, doesn't it? And if sinning is something that we can't always stop ourselves from doing, well, no one knows more about that than Augustine. The point here is that our salvation doesn't lie within ourselves and our own self-discipline, but in God's sheer mercy. Better not take too much credit for anything you do, boys and girls. God's on it

But you will free me, O Lord; I know that you will free me.

Uh oh. Sounds like someone (Mr. Darcy) has a little crush on Lizzy. But let's tear this down a little. What, exactly, does he like about her? Her "intelligent" expression; her "light and pleasing" figure; and the "easy playfulness" of her manners—in other words, her brains, her body, and her personality. That's the full package, Shmoopers, and that's one way we know this marriage is going to last.

But no sooner had he made it clear to himself and his friends that she hardly had a good feature in her face, than he began to find it was rendered uncommonly intelligent by the beautiful expression of her dark eyes. To this discovery succeeded some others equally mortifying. Though he had detected with a critical eye more than one failure of perfect symmetry in her form, he was forced to acknowledge her figure to be light and pleasing; and in spite of his asserting that her manners were not those of the fashionable world, he was caught by their easy playfulness

When Raskolnikov wakes up from his illness, his reality is extremely confused. He's forgotten what we might assume he'd rather forget. But here we see that forgetting is actually causing him pain. Raskolnikov really wants to see life clearly. It's just that everything is so confusing that he can't sort it out.

But of that - of that he [X] had no recollection, and yet every minute he felt that he had forgotten something he ought to remember. He worried and tormented himself trying to remember.

Here Elizabeth realizes for the first time that her father isn't exactly Dad of the Year. It's just one of many, many revelations about her friends and family that Elizabeth has to have before she's worthy of marrying Mr. Perfect.

But she had never felt so strongly as now the disadvantages which must attend the children of so unsuitable marriage, nor ever been so fully aware of the evils arising from so ill-judged a direction of talents; talents, which, rightly used, might at least have preserved the respectability of his daughters, even if incapable of enlarging the mind of his wife

Usually when we hear about "passing from one world into another," it's in reference to somebody dying. Here it's as if Raskolnikov's life before was a kind of death, and through love (and suffering) he is finally born.

But that is the beginning of a new story - the story of the gradual renewal of a man, the story of his gradual regeneration, of his passing from one world into another.

Now that's better. It looks like Raskolnikov is finally going to stop adding to Sonia's misery and start subtracting from it.

But these recollections scarcely troubled [X] now; he knew with what infinite love he would now repay all her sufferings.

Sears is a name we still recognize today. Because of the color of her skin, Reba is denied the celebration honestly earned by being the 500,000th person to walk through the Sears doors. Here we see how racism can result in the bending of rules, how there is no such thing as fair or just.

But they put the picture of the man who won second prize in. He won a war bond. He was white.

Even though Milton describes the primordial waters as "wand'ring" with "serpent error," we aren't supposed to read anything sinful into them. This is the pre-fallen world, and words like "serpent," "error," and "wand'ring" have not yet accrued their negative (i.e., fallen) connotations yet. This is yet another example of Milton's attempt to recreate an innocent universe by purging negative words of their negativity

But they, or under ground, or circuit wide With serpent error wand'ring, found their way, And on the washy ooze deep channels wore

CP There is some truth in this, but because it comes from Svidrigaïlov, we shudder. He makes Dounia's "judging impartially" look like kid stuff. Literally - Svidrigaïlov is asking Raskolnikov to "impartially" judge him and his crimes against women, children, and his servant. Somebody better call a defense lawyer quick. We are in deep water.

But to judge some people impartially we must renounce certain preconceived opinions and our habitual attitude to the ordinary people about us."

There is unconfirmed speculation that Mr. Ramsay is not the love of Mrs. Ramsay's life.

But was it nothing but looks, people said? What was there behind it—her beauty and splendour? Had he blown his brains out, they asked, had he died the week before they were married—some other, earlier lover, of whom rumours reached one? Or was there nothing? nothing but an incomparable beauty which she lived behind, and could do nothing to disturb? For easily though she might have said at some moment of intimacy when stories of great passion, of love foiled, of ambition thwarted came her way how she too had known or felt or been through it herself, she never spoke. She was silent always.

Well, we guess it doesn't make much sense to give up worldly aims just for the sake of it. You see, by now, Augustine has gotten the sense that maybe Manichaeism isn't the way to go, but that still doesn't mean that Christianity is. Plus, it's really convenient for Augustine to write off Christianity until its truth is starring him in the face, because Christianity has all these demands about giving up "worldly aims" (read: sex, ambition, pride). It's like a barter: no truth, no piety. Also, we should point out how truth, which before was a rock, has now become light. This is definitely not the last you will see of this whole light metaphor, so it's worth noting.

But we did not relinquish out worldly aims, because we could not see the light of any truth that we might grasp in place of them

Woolf

But what after all is one night? A short space, especially when the darkness dims so soon, and so soon a bird sings, a cock crows, or a faint green quickens, like a turning leaf, in the hollow of the wave. Night, however, succeeds to night. The winter holds a pack of them in store and deals them equally, they darken. Some of them hold aloft clear planets, plates of brightness. The autumn trees, ravaged as they are, take on the flash of tattered flags kindling in the gloom of cool cathedral caves where gold letters on marble pages describe death in battle and how bones bleach and burn far away in Indian sands. The autumn trees gleam in the yellow moonlight, in the light of harvest moons, the light which mellows the energy of labour, and smooths the stubble, and brings the wave lapping blue to the shore

Satan's words reveal a bitter irony; his revenge will quite literally "back on it self recoil" in the next book, when he and his companions are changed into serpents. The same is true of his remark about how one who "aspires must down as low." Satan tried to soar to the top (of God's throne) but ends up in Hell, a place at the bottom of the universe both literally and figuratively.

But what will not ambition and revenge Descend to? Who aspires must down as low As high he soared, obnoxious first or last To basest things. Revenge at first though sweet Bitter ere long back on it self recoils

Mary is our Greek chorus girl, parroting the advice manuals that were popular in the early nineteenth-century. (It's like going around and quoting self-help books.) Sure, she sounds like a real stick-in-the-mud. At the same time, isn't she kind of right? There is a difference between pride and vanity—and it's a lesson that Lizzy and Darcy both have to learn.

By all that I have ever read, I am convinced that it is very common indeed; that human nature is particularly prone to it, and that there are very few of us who do not cherish a feeling of self-complacency on the score of some quality or other, real or imaginary. Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.

To live a chaste life is one thing. But how are you supposed to avoid having unchaste dreams? Answer: by the grace of God, of course. While this might not sound like a very satisfying (ahem) answer, Augustine is getting at the idea that human will is pretty weak. So weak, in fact, that even when we resolve to not give into lust, our brains keep on lusting while we're asleep. So if you can't trust your own brain, you have to trust in God.

By your grace it will no longer commit in sleep these shameful, unclean acts inspired by sensual images, which lead to the pollution of the body: it will not so much as consent to them

Augustine seems to be pulling a nudge nudge-wink wink here and referring to himself when he says "those who are most gifted with speech." Conceited much? But wait a minute. So, it's difficult to both not say enough about God and to say anything about God? That's what we call a Catch-22. It's not just well-nigh impossible to find someone who can speak about God; speech itself seems to fall short of fulfilling its duty.

Can any man say enough when he speaks of you? Yet woe betide those who are silent about you! For even those who are most gifted with speech cannot find words to describe you.

PL Once again, things could have gone better for Satan if he had "stood." The idea of standing (and its associated rhetoric of uprightness, erectness, etc.) is an important figure or trope in the poem. Courageous figures who do the right thing stand (like Abdiel) while disobedient ones don't. Standing implies effort, which implies free will.

Firm they might have stood, Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress"

Mrs. Bennet is insisting that there are plenty of people to hang out with in the country (as opposed to the town), but the subtext here is that only certain people actually count as "people." And Mrs. Bennet's standards are a lot lower than Darcy's.

Certainly, my dear, nobody said there were; but as to not meeting with many people in this neighbourhood, I believe there are few neighbourhoods larger. I know we dine with four-and-twenty families

Here, at last, we have evidence of a Mrs. Ramsay's success. In smoothing over the differences between Lily Briscoe and Charles Tansley during one afternoon, Mrs. Ramsay irrevocably altered Lily's memories of Mr. Tansley.

Charles Tansley used to say that, she remembered, women can't paint, can't write. Coming up behind her, he had stood close beside her, a thing she hated, as she painted her on this very spot. "Shag tobacco," he said, "fivepence an ounce," parading his poverty, his principles. (But the war had drawn the sting of her femininity. Poor devils, one thought, poor devils, of both sexes.) He was always carrying a book about under his arm—a purple book. He "worked." He sat, she remembered, working in a blaze of sun. At dinner he would sit right in the middle of the view. But after all, she reflected, there was the scene on the beach. One must remember that. It was a windy morning. They had all gone down to the beach. Mrs. Ramsay sat down and wrote letters by a rock. She wrote and wrote. "Oh," she said, looking up at something floating in the sea, "is it a lobster pot? Is it an upturned boat?" She was so short-sighted that she could not see, and then Charles Tansley became as nice as he could possibly be. He began playing ducks and drakes. They chose little flat black stones and sent them skipping over the waves. Every now and then Mrs. Ramsay looked up over her spectacles and laughed at them. What they said she could not remember, but only she and Charles throwing stones and getting on very well all of a sudden and Mrs. Ramsay watching them. She was highly conscious of that. Mrs. Ramsay, she thought, stepping back and screwing up her eyes. (It must have altered the design a good deal when she was sitting on the step with James. There must have been a shadow.) When she thought of herself and Charles throwing ducks and drakes and of the whole scene on the beach, it seemed to depend somehow upon Mrs. Ramsay sitting under the rock, with a pad on her knee, writing letters. (She wrote innumerable letters, and sometimes the wind took them and she and Charles just saved a page from the sea.) But what a power was in the human soul! she thought. That woman sitting there writing under the rock resolved everything into simplicity; made these angers, irritations fall off like old rags; she brought together this and that and then this, and so made out of that miserable silliness and spite (she and Charles squabbling, sparring, had been silly and spiteful) something—this scene on the beach for example, this moment of friendship and liking—which survived, after all these years complete, so that she dipped into it to re-fashion her memory of him, and there it stayed in the mind affecting one almost like a work of art

PL As a punishment for his sin, Satan must exchange the "happy fields" of Heaven for the "horrors" of Hell. As a result of their sins, both Adam and Eve and Satan must say "farewell" to their respective paradises, as if some notion of exile from one's "home" were intimately bound up with the idea of sin. Note also the alliteration in this line ("h" and "f" sounds), a sonorous effect that contrasts with the bleakness of the picture.

Farewell happy fields Where Joy for ever dwells: hail horrors, hail Infernal world

To Mrs. Bennet, "love" is more about proximity than compatibility. Mr. Bingley is "likely" to fall in love with her daughters because (1) he's going to be nearby, and (2) he's rich and single, and they're female and single. With criteria like that, no wonder her marriage is so awful.

Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes

Well this is a neat little definition of truth, now, isn't it? Truths refer to things that actually exist. Now, one of the ways in which Augustine approaches thinking about God is to take God and the Scriptures as absolutely true, and then to come up with explanations of physical or textual problems around those truths. So this line actually gives us insight into Augustine's philosophical reasoning, and gives us a better understanding of how Augustine comes to the conclusions that he does.

Falsehood is nothing but the supposed existence of something which has no being.

Milton goes to great lengths to display the intemperance associated with Eve's sin. Notice how ravenously she eats: "greedily," "engorged without restraint," and "heightened as with wine." The irony, of course, is that Eve is "eating death" (how does one do that?), but she doesn't know it, and continues to eat voraciously.

Greedily she engorged without restraint, And knew not eating death. Satiate at length And heightened as with wine

King Lear can hardly believe his daughter's insolence after she insults him by complaining about his posse of a hundred rowdy knights. (Having enjoyed the power and authority of kingship for so long, Lear isn't used to being treated shabbily by his subjects or his children.) Here, an incredulous Lear asks, "Who is it that can tell me who I am?" This question suggests that Lear doesn't quite know how to define himself now that he's lost all the power that comes with active kingship. In other words, Lear's retirement results in a kind of identity crisis.

Doth any here know me? This is not Lear. Doth Lear walk thus, speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, his discernings Are lethargied—Ha! Waking? 'Tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am? FOOL Lear's shadow.

Women, Lear claims, seem pretty normal from the "waist" up but, down below there's "hell" and "darkness" like a "sulphurous pit." Lear's sexist description of female anatomy calls to mind the symptoms of a very unpleasant venereal disease—"burning, scalding, stench," and so on. It seems that King Lear associates all women with a very unpleasant STD, especially his daughter, Goneril, whose name, as you may have guessed, sounds a whole lot like "gonorrhea."

Down from the waist they are centaurs, Though women all above. But to the girdle do the gods inherit; beneath is all the fiends'. There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit; burning, scalding, stench, consumption! Fie, fie, fie, pah, pah!

Because Edmund feels he's been shafted by society and his father (for being an illegitimate and second-born son), he justifies his disloyalty and scheming against his family. Edmund feels entitled to "grow" and "prosper" at the expense of his father and half-brother. For him, there is no such thing as family loyalty or duty.

Edmund the base Shall top th' legitimate. I grow, I prosper.

We think that clinging to something sounds kind of desperate, right? Also, beauty sounds so flimsy in this quote; is there anything beautiful that stays beautiful? It's like sorrow is the very loss of beauty, or the knowledge that beauty isn't permanent. Not only is the person who clings to beauty weak, but beauty itself is weak, too. Diamonds might disagree with our man Augustine on this point.

Even though it clings to things of beauty, if their beauty is outside God and outside the soul, it only clings to sorrow.

Here Augustine emphasizes the speechlessness of his suffering. It's one thing to moan and lament till the cows come home, but Augustine can't even begin to find the words to talk about his problems with his bros. In fact, it seems like Augustine's suffering often leaves him speechless in the Confessions: it's something he bears silently and keeps to himself. Aside from this big, long book he wrote about his experiences.

Even when I bore the pain of my search valiantly, in silence, the mute sufferings of my soul were loud voices calling to your mercy. You knew what I endured, but no man knew

Woolf

Everything seemed possible. Everything seemed right. Just now (but this cannot last, she thought, dissociating herself from the moment while they were all talking about boots) just now she had reached security; she hovered like a hawk suspended; like a flag floated in an element of joy which filled every nerve of her body fully and sweetly, not noisily, solemnly rather, for it arose, she thought, looking at them all eating there, from husband and children and friends; all of which rising in this profound stillness (she was helping William Bankes to one very small piece more, and peered into the depths of the earthenware pot) seemed now for no special reason to stay there like a smoke, like a fume rising upwards, holding them safe together. Nothing need be said; nothing could be said. There it was, all round them. It partook, she felt, carefully helping Mr. Bankes to a specially tender piece, of eternity; as she had already felt about something different once before that afternoon; there is a coherence in things, a stability; something, she meant, is immune from change, and shines out (she glanced at the window with its ripple of reflected lights) in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby; so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures.

The "they" here refers to "lower things," which is delightfully ambiguous. But we can guess from context that he's referring to pride and other personality vices. Augustine even compares them to insects that swarm. Gross. But he's also putting himself in an awfully passive position here. "I wanted to change, but vices prevented me from doing it. They literally blocked my path." Um, hey Augustine: don't go blaming imaginary bugs for your weaknesses. But seriously, the point he's actually trying to make is that sometimes it feels as though there are things inside of us that prevent us from changing

Everywhere I looked they loomed before my eyes in swarms and clusters, and when I set myself to thinking and tried to escape from them, images of these selfsame things blocked my way, as though they were asking where I meant to go, unclean and undeserving as I was.

PL Once again, things could have gone better for Satan if he had "stood." The idea of standing (and its associated rhetoric of uprightness, erectness, etc.) is an important figure or trope in the poem. Courageous figures who do the right thing stand (like Abdiel) while disobedient ones don't. Standing implies effort, which implies free will.

Firm they might have stood, Yet fell; remember, and fear to transgress

Crime and Punishment We wonder how this book would have turned out if Raskolnikov hadn't killed Lizaveta. Since Raskolnikov is partially inspired by his desire to protect Lizaveta from Alyona's beatings, it's extremely ironic that he ends up killing her too.

Fear gained more and more mastery over him, especially after this second, quite unexpected murder.

One mark of the purity and innocence of Paradise is the fact that the rose is "without thorn." Notice, however, that the only way Milton (and, by extension, his readers) can conceive of the rose is in terms of its one thorn (even if just to say that it doesn't have one). It is almost as if the fallen version of the rose is the only one we can ever know.

Flours of all hue, and without thorn the rose

Well, this is a bit of a switcheroo from the last quote, now isn't it? Ambrose is a good speaker, and so Augustine finds himself listening to Ambrose almost in spite of himself. But, in the spirit of Latin, nota bene: Augustine says that the difference between Ambrose and Faustus is that Ambrose is more learned, while Faustus is the more charismatic speaker (see V.13.2). So, it's Ambrose's intellectual proclivities—i.e., his interest in truth—that begin to pierce through Augustine's preconceptions of Christianity.

For although I did not trouble to take what Ambrose said to heart, but only to listen to the manner in which he said it—this being the only paltry interest that remained to me now that I had lost hope that man could find the path that led to you—nevertheless his meaning, which I tried to ignore, found its way into my mind together with his words, which I admired so much.

Augustine hasn't exactly been innocent of professing his learning, even within the Confessions. But knowledge isn't supposed to take precedence over worship. In fact, worship isn't even an option: it's a duty, to use Augustine's term. Plus, by "worship," Augustine really means to confess, which is, like, the exact opposite of bragging. Though maybe it could be interpreted as humblebragging ... Augustine

For it is sheer vanity for a man to profess his learning, even if it is well founded, whereas it is his duty to you, O God, to confess his sins

And here we come full circle. What began as a search for truth has become a desire for many truths. See, multiplicity is already inherent in language. That's why ten people can hear the same thing in ten different ways. Who we are when we read something is actually a big part of reading—Augustine reading Paul's Epistles in the garden is a perfect example—and the Scriptures have taught Augustine to favor this more personalized way of reading over declarative, eloquent, rigid language.

For my part I declare resolutely and with all my heart that if I were called upon to write a book which was to be vested with the highest authority, I should prefer to write it in such a way that a reader could find re-echoed in my words whatever truths he was able to apprehend

Transformative moment, here we come. Augustine says that he "cannot remember the words [he] used" (VIII.8.2) and that he "performed many bodily actions" (VIII.8.4), so it looks like language is failing him. All Augustine can do is groan and gesture. We imagine he looked something like this. But what exactly is it that ends this key moment? An innocent child's offhand remark to "take it and read it," and a sentence from Paul's Epistles. Make of that what you will

For my voice sounded strange and the expression of my face and eyes, my flushed cheeks, and the pitch of my voice told him more of the state of my mind than the actual words that I spoke.

Augustine is making lust sound a lot like a drug addiction... or a Pringles commercial. Sex has become such a fixture in Augustine's life that it's threatening his lifelong quest for truth and wisdom.

For my will was perverse and lust had grown from it, and when I gave in to lust habit was born, and when I did not resist the habit it became a necessity

Easy come, easy go, right? That's the problem of loving earthly things. It's also, Augustine seems to suggest, the root of all human suffering. You can only really safely love God, because unlike everything else, God doesn't change.

Grief eats away its heart for the loss of things which it took pleasure in desiring, because it wants to be like you, from whom nothing can be taken away.

Woolf

For now had come that moment, that hesitation when dawn trembles and night pauses, when if a feather alight in the scale it will be weighed down. One feather, and the house, sinking, falling, would have turned and pitched downwards to the depths of darkness. In the ruined room, picnickers would have lit their kettles; lovers sought shelter there, lying on the bare boards; and the shepherd stored his dinner on the bricks, and the tramp slept with his coat round him to ward off the cold. Then the roof would have fallen; briars and hemlocks would have blotted out path, step and window; would have grown, unequally but lustily over the mound, until some trespasser, losing his way, could have told only by a red-hot poker among the nettles, or a scrap of china in the hemlock, that here once some one had lived; there had been a house. If the feather had fallen, if it had tipped the scale downwards, the whole house would have plunged to the depths to lie upon the sands of oblivion. But there was a force working; something not highly conscious; something that leered, something that lurched; something not inspired to go about its work with dignified ritual or solemn chanting. Mrs. McNab groaned; Mrs. Bast creaked. They were old; they were stiff; their legs ached. They came with their brooms and pails at last; they got to work. All of a sudden, would Mrs. McNab see that the house was ready, one of the young ladies wrote: would she get this done; would she get that done; all in a hurry. They might be coming for the summer; had left everything to the last; expected to find things as they had left them.

WoolfWool

For now had come that moment, that hesitation when dawn trembles and night pauses, when if a feather alight in the scale it will be weighed down. One feather, and the house, sinking, falling, would have turned and pitched downwards to the depths of darkness. In the ruined room, picnickers would have lit their kettles; lovers sought shelter there, lying on the bare boards; and the shepherd stored his dinner on the bricks, and the tramp slept with his coat round him to ward off the cold. Then the roof would have fallen; briars and hemlocks would have blotted out path, step and window; would have grown, unequally but lustily over the mound, until some trespasser, losing his way, could have told only by a red-hot poker among the nettles, or a scrap of china in the hemlock, that here once some one had lived; there had been a house. If the feather had fallen, if it had tipped the scale downwards, the whole house would have plunged to the depths to lie upon the sands of oblivion. But there was a force working; something not highly conscious; something that leered, something that lurched; something not inspired to go about its work with dignified ritual or solemn chanting. Mrs. McNab groaned; Mrs. Bast creaked. They were old; they were stiff; their legs ached. They came with their brooms and pails at last; they got to work. All of a sudden, would Mrs. McNab see that the house was ready, one of the young ladies wrote: would she get this done; would she get that done; all in a hurry. They might be coming for the summer; had left everything to the last; expected to find things as they had left them.

Here Raskolnikov is referring to Dounia. Yet, he underestimates her. Although Dounia does think Luzhin can help Raskolnikov, once she knows what Luzhin's true intentions are she calls it off. Raskolnikov's love for her certainly makes this easier.

For one she [X] loves, for one she adores, she will sell herself!"

Even though we get dozens of lines like these about Katerina, she remains a somewhat sympathetic character. Part of this is because her kids, and a few others, remain loyal to her and seem to love her. Her abuse is considered a symptom of her illness and her poverty and, thus, not entirely monstrous.

For that's Xs character, and when children cry, even from hunger, she falls to beating them at once.

When we love someone or something, isn't it always with the conceit that we won't lose them, even when we know we might? It's interesting that Augustine specifically says, "as though he would never die;" he's implying that to love anything is to believe that you'll always have it. Yes, Augustine sees loving his friend as a futile act, like pouring water onto sand. But the other big personal loss that Augustine endures in the Confessions is the loss of his mother. The loss of Augustine's good friend is almost like practice for Monica's death. Does Augustine handle that death any differently?

For the grief I felt for the loss of my friend had struck so easily in my inmost heart simply because I had poured out my soul upon him, like water upon sand, loving a man who was mortal as though he were never to die.

Lily is confused about love - it is both a compelling and exciting force, as well as a force that changes a person's character, making them foolish, and even harsh.

For what happened to her, especially staying with the Ramsays, was to be made to feel violently two opposite things at the same time; that's what you feel, was one; that's what I feel, was the other, and then they fought together in her mind, as now. It is so beautiful, so exciting, this love, that I tremble on the verge of it, and offer, quite out of my own habit, to look for a brooch on a beach; also it is the stupidest, the most barbaric of human passions, and turns a nice young man with a profile like a gem's (Paul's was exquisite) into a bully with a crowbar (he was swaggering, he was insolent) in the Mile End Road. Yet, she said to herself, from the dawn of time odes have been sung to love; wreaths heaped and roses; and if you asked nine people out of ten they would say they wanted nothing but this—love; while the women, judging from her own experience, would all the time be feeling, This is not what we want; there is nothing more tedious, puerile, and inhumane than this; yet it is also beautiful and necessary. Well then, well then? she asked, somehow expecting the others to go on with the argument, as if in an argument like this one threw one's own little bolt which fell short obviously and left the others to carry it on. So she listened again to what they were saying in case they should throw any light upon the question of love.

Adam tells Raphael how sweet is his words are. Satan is another guy whose words can be very sweet; Raphael is clearly not Satan, but we should think about what makes words actually sweet and what makes them problematically sweet

For while I sit with thee, I seem in Heav'n And sweeter thy discourse is to my ear Than Fruits of Palm-tree pleasantest to thirst

Satan thinks so highly of his army that he has no doubts about their ability to "repossess their native seat." The pride he takes in his rebellion is evident as well in the fact that he grossly exaggerates ("emptied Heav'n") the number of angels who joined his rebellion (we learn later that only a third of the angels fell with Satan).

For who can yet believe, though after loss, That all these puissant legions whose exile Hath emptied Heav'n shall fail to re-ascend, Self-raised, and repossess their native seat?

Augustine does some pretty complex maneuvers in order to account for God's immutability, including making his "speech" something that does not seem to resemble speech very much at all. His analysis of Genesis in Books XI-XIII is really wrapped up in the specific language of the Bible and the "language" used by God (the creation through a speech act, the idea of the Word, etc.). "Exegesis" is a good buzzword for these sections: it means "critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text, especially of the Bible."

For your Word is not speech in which each part comes to an end when it has been spoken, giving place to the next, so that finally the whole may be uttered. In your Word all is uttered at one and the same time, yet eternally

Gloucester knows that he will get in trouble for helping Lear. So, why does he do it? Is he being loyal to the king or, is he worried about saving his own hide? (He knows that an army has landed in Dover to aid Lear and thinks the king will be "revenged.")

Go to; say you nothing. There is division betwixt the dukes, and a worse matter than that. I have received a letter this night; 'tis dangerous to be spoken; I have locked the letter in my closet. These injuries the king now bears will be revenged home; there's part of a power already footed. We must incline to the king. I will look him, and privily relieve him. Go you and maintain talk with the Duke, that my charity be not of him perceived. If he ask for me. I am ill, and gone to bed. If I die for it, as no less is threatened me, the king my old master must be relieved

We discuss this passage in "Family" but it's worth talking about here as well. When Lear demands his daughters profess their love to him, Goneril and Regan lay it on pretty thick—professing they love Lear "the most." Here, Cordelia points out that Goneril and Regan are being disloyal to their husbands because, as married women, Goneril and Regan owe much of their love and "duties" to their spouses.

Good my lord, You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I return those duties back as are right fit: Obey you, love you, and most honor you. Why have my sisters husbands if they say They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry Half my love with him, half my care and duty. Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters, To love my father all.

You know we like to say that you should never change yourself for someone else? Yeah, Austen doesn't agree. You definitely should change yourself for the person you love—as long as the person you love is trying to make you a better person rather than make you start dressing all preppy.

Her astonishment, however, was extreme, and continually was she repeating, "Why is he so altered? From what can it proceed? It cannot be for me—it cannot be for my sake that his manners are thus softened. My reproofs at Hunsford could not work such a change as this. It is impossible that he should still love me.

This is Razumihin's "morning after" moment. Even though we didn't see him do anything so awful, he beats himself up for talking too much and too crudely while drunk. He's also embarrassed about being drunk in front of Dounia. His reality while drunk conflicts with his reality while sober.

He [X] brought his fist down heavily on the kitchen stove, hurt his hand and sent one of the bricks flying.

This is right before Raskolnikov relives the murder in his nightmares. Dostoevsky's dream sequences seem both realistic and totally exaggerated. He's really good at scary dreams.

He [X] lost consciousness; it seemed strange to him that he didn't remember how he got into the street. It was late evening. The twilight had fallen and the full moon was shining more and more brightly; but there was a peculiar breathlessness in the air.

According to Macon, the patriarch of the Dead family, Dr. Foster, establishes an obsession with color of skin, and a reverence for lighter skin color. This obsession trickles down the family tree, haunting and infecting his grandchildren, isolating them even further.

He delivered both your sisters himself and each time all he was interested in was the color of their skin

Satan's words are full ("replete") of "guile," and yet, ironically, they find an "easy entrance" into Eve's "heart." We see this throughout the poem, and as readers we are not exempt; often, Satan's most deceptive or problematic speeches are the most effective. There is something about his "guile" that appeals to Eve, and to us

He ended, and his words replete with guile Into her heart too easy entrance won

This is another pre-Epilogue moment of religious experience for Raskolnikov. According to Sonia's instructions, he's supposed to tell everybody he's a murder after he bows down. But he can't, because the heckling begins as soon as his knees touch the ground.

He knelt down in the middle of the square, bowed down to the earth, and kissed that filthy earth with bliss and rapture.

Macon about his father

He never read nothing. I tried to teach him, but he said he couldn't remember those little marks from one day to the next.

Usually, it's you or your family that remember something important or significant to you. Imagine Milkman's glee to find that children, strangers, remember his great grandfather. In this way we also see another vehicle through which memory travels (besides image, smell, taste, and emotion): song.

He never read nothing. I tried to teach him, but he said he couldn't remember those little marks from one day to the next.

Mrs. Ramsay thinks about Mr. Carmichael's past, and it makes her all the more puzzled as to his behavior towards her in the present.

He said nothing. He took opium. The children said he had stained his beard yellow with it. Perhaps. What was obvious to her was that the poor man was unhappy, came to them every year as an escape; and yet every year she felt the same thing; he did not trust her. She said, "I am going to the town. Shall I get you stamps, paper, tobacco?" and she felt him wince. He did not trust her. It was his wife's doing. She remembered that iniquity of his wife's towards him, which had made her turn to steel and adamant there, in the horrible little room in St John's Wood, when with her own eyes she had seen that odious woman turn him out of the house. He was unkempt; he dropped things on his coat; he had the tiresomeness of an old man with nothing in the world to do; and she turned him out of the room. She said, in her odious way, "Now, Mrs. Ramsay and I want to have a little talk together," and Mrs. Ramsay could see, as if before her eyes, the innumerable miseries of his life. Had he money enough to buy tobacco? Did he have to ask her for it? half a crown? eighteenpence? Oh, she could not bear to think of the little indignities she made him suffer. And always now (why, she could not guess, except that it came probably from that woman somehow) he shrank from her. He never told her anything. But what more could she have done? There was a sunny room given up to him. The children were good to him. Never did she show a sign of not wanting him. She went out of her way indeed to be friendly.

What does Darcy's boneheaded proposal have to do with marriage? It shows us exactly why he's not ready to tie the knot. He hasn't learned to respect Elizabeth yet, much less think about her feelings. A happy marriage takes a lot more work from both partners.

He spoke of apprehension and anxiety, but his countenance expressed real security

Excuse us while we snicker for a minute. Darcy's proposal to Elizabeth is more about how he's losing class by proposing to her than it is about he, you know, loves her. Smooth move, guy.

He spoke well; but there were feelings besides those of the heart to be detailed; and he was not more eloquent on the subject of tenderness than of pride. His sense of her inferiority—of its being a degradation—of the family obstacles which had always opposed to inclination, were dwelt on with a warmth which seemed due to the consequence he was wounding, but was very unlikely to recommend his suit

Woolf

He stood stock-still, by the urn, with the geranium flowing over it. How many men in a thousand million, he asked himself, reach Z after all? Surely the leader of a forlorn hope may ask himself that, and answer, without treachery to the expedition behind him, "One perhaps." One in a generation. Is he to be blamed then if he is not that one? provided he has toiled honestly, given to the best of his power, and till he has no more left to give? And his fame lasts how long? It is permissible even for a dying hero to think before he dies how men will speak of him hereafter. His fame lasts perhaps two thousand years. And what are two thousand years? (asked Mr. Ramsay ironically, staring at the hedge). What, indeed, if you look from a mountain top down the long wastes of the ages? The very stone one kicks with one's boot will outlast Shakespeare. His own little light would shine, not very brightly, for a year or two, and would then be merged in some bigger light, and that in a bigger still.

Rocked by the epic trek through the Blue Ridge Mountains, Milkman's body is exhausted. Yet, through the exhaustion, steeped in nature, without the weight of things, objects that he owns, Milkman's physical body floats away and all that is left is life-giving, blood-pumping self-reflection. This is a sublime moment, meaning Milkman's physical self sublimes, vaporizes, leaving only his spiritual self behind. His body returns, however, when he is being killed.

He was only his breath, coming slower now, and his thoughts. The rest of him had disappeared. So the thoughts came, unobstructed by other people, by things, even by the sight of himself

Major anxiety dream. Even if Raskolnikov could legally "get away" with the murder, his mind will keep on punishing him. We wonder how long such dreams will continue.

He was overcome with frenzy and he began hitting the old woman on the head with all his force, but at every blow of the axe the laughter and whispering from the bedroom grew louder.

(10.517-22) Because he tempted Eve in the guise of a serpent, Satan and his associates are all transformed into serpents. They are deprived of the ability to speak. It is appropriate that their hissing (a word repeated three times) creates a "din," a word used elsewhere to refer to the unpleasant sound of war (6.408).

He would have spoke, But hiss for hiss returned with forkèd tongue To forkèd tongue, for now were all transformed Alike, to serpents all as accessories To his bold riot: dreadful was the din Of hissing through the hall"

This has got to be one of the most bizarre speeches in the play. Here, King Lear is enraged by his daughter's betrayal of him that he curses her with "sterility" (the inability to produce children). If, however, the gods decide she will have children, Lear says he hopes she experiences a painful labor and has a "thankless child" to make her miserable for the rest of her life. Okay, Lear is clearly upset. But why does he lash out at his daughter's fertility like this?

Hear, Nature, hear, dear goddess, hear! Suspend thy purpose if thou didst intend To make this creature fruitful. Into her womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honor her! If she must teem, Create her child of spleen, that it may live And be a thwart disnatured torment to her. Let it stamp wrinkles in her brow of youth, With cadent tears fret channels in her cheeks, Turn all her mother's pains and benefits To laughter and contempt, that she may feel How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child!—Away, away!

Ruth about Milkman

Her passions were narrow but deep. Long deprived of sex, long dependent on self-manipulation, she saw her son's imminent death as the annihilation of the last occasion she had been made love to

Ruth's love of her father is a little bizarre. We would not believe Macon's suspicions of her incestuous relationship with her father were we not allowed into Dr. Foster's thoughts. Here Dr. Foster seems aware of an unnaturalness in the nature of Ruth's affection, an unnaturalness that seems to have been in place before she married Macon. Why would Toni Morrison include Dr. Foster's trepidations about his daughter's love? Her love, like the many other loves we see in Song is almost obsessive.

Her steady beam of love was unsettling, and she had never dropped those expressions of affection that had been so loveable in her childhood

Adam describes his movements in Paradise as a kind of "wand'ring." We encounter this word first in Book 2 with the rebel angels, and in general it has fairly negative connotations. However, Milton attempts to purge it of those connotations and use it in a more neutral, less problematic way. Sometimes wandering is just wandering.

Here had new begun My wand'ring, had not he who was my guide Up hither, from among the trees appeared

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, Lily is astonished at falling in love with Mrs. Ramsay's way of life.

Here, at last, we have evidence of a Mrs. Ramsay's success. In smoothing over the differences between Lily Briscoe and Charles Tansley during one afternoon, Mrs. Ramsay irrevocably altered Lily's memories of Mr. Tansley.

Milton compares Satan to a giant creature that some "pilot" might mistake ("deeming some island") for an island; the point of the simile is that Satan seems like one thing (a heroic leader, an unjustly maligned angel), but is really another. In other words, he's a gigantic symbol of deception

Him haply slumb'ring on the Norway foam The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff, Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, With fixèd anchor in his scaly rind Moors by his side, under the lee

Confessions, Augustine, Augustine partially believes in the Christian doctrine but can't give up his habit of having sex

His celibacy seemed to me the only hardship which he had to bear.

Guitar could be Cupid. Seriously, the man can philosophize. He has a weepy, loony Hagar on his hands, and he tells her the most practical, sage thing he possibly could. He tells her that love is not about consuming, suffocating, owning the other person. The man is a voice of reason. And yet he's also a murderer. Killing out of love. So much ambiguity in this novel!! We can't pin anyone down.

His head pokes through, because the clouds let him; they don't wrap him up. They let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him

Much like Satan, Belial (described here) is a bad dude; he's just as dangerous too because he "pleases the ear" with "persuasive accent[s]." Milton often points out the way in which what is "pleasing" can cause us to ignore someone's love for "vice." The voice, not just Satan's but God's as well, is a very powerful force in Paradise Lost.

His thoughts were low, To vice industrious but to nobler deeds Timorous and slothful. Yet he pleased the ear And with persuasive accent thus began

Cornwall's own servant feels so much pity for Gloucester that he rebels against his master to try to prevent him from further wounding Gloucester. The servant's reward, of course, is that Regan stabs him.

Hold your hand, my lord. I have served you ever since I was a child, But better service have I never done you Than now to bid you hold

For Mr. Ramsay, his wife's faith that the weather might still be fine tomorrow reflects the inferiority of the female mind.

How did he know? She asked. The wind often changed. The extraordinary irrationality of her remark, the folly of women's minds enraged him. He had ridden through the valley of death, been shattered and shivered; and now, she flew in the face of facts, made his children hope what was utterly out of the question, in effect, told lies. He stamped his foot on the stone step. "Damn you," he said. But what had she said? Simply that it might be fine tomorrow. So it might

We aren't sure if this is a religious moment or not. We aren't sure quite what's going on. Does some invisible force lift him up and toss him on the ground? All we know is Raskolnikov is extremely moved. Whether it's love, religion, or some kind of muscle spasm that moves him, we do not know. Whatever it is, we like it.

How it happened [X] did not know. But all at once something seemed to seize him and fling him at her [X] feet. He wept and threw his arms round her knees.

Here, Regan claims Goneril's profession of love for Lear falls "too short." Hmm. We seem to be detecting a pattern here. Both Goneril and Regan seem pretty determined to measure their so-called love for Lear, as if love is something quantifiable. We wonder how Cordelia will respond to all this

I am made of the self-same metal that my sister, And prize me at her worth. In my true heart I find she names my very deed of love; Only she comes too short, that I profess Myself an enemy to all other joys Which the most precious square of sense possesses, And find I am alone felicitate In your dear Highness' love.

Pilate is uninterested with knowing the who and the why of her father's death. In fact, the who and the why are never explored in great detail. The who and the why lead to the Butlers, the greedy, racist, white land owners, the likes of whom we never meet in present or in flashback form. Pilate remembers details as specific as the color of her mother's ribbon, but there are other details she cannot recall (because she has no interest in them).

I don't know who and I don't know why. I just know what I'm telling you: what, when, and where.

Marmeladov is caught in a vicious cycle of suffering and alcoholism. He drinks because he suffers. The drinking pushes his family further into poverty. This makes him feel guilty, so he drinks more and wallows in his suffering. You can see where we are going with this.

I drink so that I may suffer twice as much!"

Contrary to what he says, Cornwall's wound is very "timely"; the servant has served up justice for Gloucester's eyes.

I have received a hurt. Follow me, lady.— Turn out that eyeless villain. Throw this slave Upon the dunghill.—Regan, I bleed apace. Untimely comes this hurt.

It seems pretty intuitive that we have an easier time learning our native language than trying to learn one in school later on, right? So what does this have to do with Augustine's conversion? Think about it: Augustine is basically saying that when we are not afraid, and actually want to learn something, we are more receptive to it.

I learned it without being forced by threats of punishment, because it was my own wish to be able to give expression to my thoughts.

The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away (Job 1:21), right? That's one of the problems of having it made; you have a lot to lose. Augustine seems to be saying that it's not worth it, even when that thing "that cannot last" is a beloved person. So is he saying that love his bad? No. He's saying that attachment to anything that isn't God is bad. But compare how he reacts to his friend's death as a young man to how he reacts to the death of his mother after he has converted. Is there a big change in his feelings? We certainly think so.

I lived in misery, like every man whose soul is tethered by the love of things that cannot last and then is agonized to lose them

The act of naming - assigning a word to something - is associated in Eden with understanding the "nature" of something. This suggests that names perfectly correspond with what name, that there is no gap or potential for ambiguity between word and thing as there will be after the Fall. The phrase "sudden apprehension" suggests how automatic or close the connection between word and thing is.

I named them, as they passed, and understood Their nature, with such knowledge God endued My sudden apprehension

Like many of the characters in this novel, Marmeladov thinks that, if he can suffer like Christ, he might be purified. At first he says he doesn't want pity, just crucifixion. Then he says he wants both. This strikes us as a very human emotion. If we have to suffer, we want others to feel a little bad for us while we are doing it.

I ought to be crucified, crucified on a cross, not pitied! Crucify me, oh judge, crucify me but pity me!"

It sounds like Augustine just repeated this quote from Psalms 4:4 verbatim, but actually, he is reading it in a very specific way and applying it to himself. Here's what we mean: the King James translation of the line reads, "Stand in awe, and sin not." So, taken on its own, the line seems to be talking about standing in awe before God and being too afraid to sin again. But Augustine is actually trembling before his past, not God, and his fear of his own past actions is what compels him to not sin again.

I read on: Tremble and sin no more, and this moved me deeply, my God,because now I had learnt to tremble for my past, so that in future I might sin no more.

"Deaf corpses" is a little redundant, don't you think? We mean, if they're dead, then isn't it already implied that they can't hear? Or if they're deaf to begin with, why do they also need to be dead? Our point is, this is a weird phrase, and we're going to talk about it. Here, Augustine is getting at the idea of deafness (in the sense of not wanting to listen) as something that will deaden the soul. So we're talking about a metaphoric death here, which is why he uses both "deaf" and "corpses" together. But let's not forget the other important motif in this sentence—fire (head on over to our Symbols, Imagery, Allegory section for lots more on fire)—which is what reinvigorates Augustine and puts life back into his corpse-soul-heart-thingie. The Psalms are able to put the fire back in him not because someone tries to explain them to Augustine in words, but because Augustine read them. Very closely and very carefully, as we here at Shmoop like to read things.

I read the Psalm and there was fire in my heart, but I could think of no means of helping those deaf corpses, of whom I had myself been one

Augustine has said before that it's more important that people believe than understand. Well, Augustine is going about it backwards. After all, what's the important thing to aspire to: God's creation, or God Himself? Remember, Augustine likes to tell us that knowledge in and of itself is useless because it only serves worldly ambitions, like being the smartest person in the room. (We're looking at you, kiddo.)

I read them with pleasure, but I did not know the real source of such truth and certain facts as they contained. I had my back to the light and my face was turned towards the things which it illumined, so that my eyes, by which I saw the things which stood in the light, were themselves in darkness

Hm, one pesky problem about "truth" is that it can be an adjective or a noun. Now, you might be thinking, "Lots of words are like that and I don't lose any sleep over them." To which we reply, "But in this case, doesn't this mean that there is a distinction being made between 'true' things and the truth?" To which you reply, "Is that a rhetorical question?" To which we answer "Is it?" All right, all right, we'll stop.

I realized that above my own mind, which was liable to change, there was the never changing, true eternity of truth.

Old habits die hard. Augustine is the type of person who likes to be right about everything, and he argues as though he knows the truth. But after meeting Ambrose, he starts to question whether the Manichean beliefs that he subscribed to for the better part of a decade hold any water at all. Talk about a paradigm shift. Augustine may be humble as the writer of his Confessions, but the old Augustine wasn't exactly eager to admit being very, very wrong. We assume that the "headlong fall" refers to his spiritual failures.

I refused to allow myself to accept any of it in my heart, because I was afraid of a headlong fall, but I was hanging in suspense which was more likely to be fatal than a fall.

Crime and Punishment This is the first time we hear about Raskolnikov's bad idea. Even though most people already know a lot the book is about an axe murder before they read it, it's still creepy and mysterious.

I want to attempt a thing like that and am frightened by these trifles," [X] thought, with an odd smile.

You know how in Book II.3.5, Augustine's parents care more about him getting good grades in school and becoming a successful lawyer or something (we've been there, Augustine) than they care about the fate of his soul? Well, it turns out that pride has something to do with that. People are generally less concerned with substance and more concerned with how things appear. But all that glitters is not gold, says Augustine. Augustine

I was expected to model myself upon men who were disconcerted by the rebukes they received if they used outlandish words or strange idioms to tell of some quite harmless thing they might have done, but reveled in the applause they earned for the fine flow of well-ordered and nicely balances phrases with which they described their own acts of indecency

Ooh, get out the highlighter, because this is the first time that Darcy admits some of his pride might not have been justified. In fact, it may have been a lot more like conceit.

I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit

Augustine's love life at this point is kind of a train wreck. First, he is peer-pressured into marrying. Then he sends his mistress (and the mother of his child) away to make room for his new wife. Then he gets engaged to a girl who is still too young to even get married. And then, because he didn't think any of this through very well, he ends up taking another mistress. Augustine's lustfulness is causing him to spiral out of control. Remember what he says in Book II about lust being murky, unclear, and chaotic? Preach it, Augustine.

I was impatient at the delay of two years which had to pass before the girl whom I had asked to marry became my wife, and because I was more a slave to lust than a true lover of marriage, I took another mistress, without the sanction of wedlock

This doesn't sound like it belongs under "love." But, as we know, Marfa paid off the debt Svidrigaïlov is talking about. Whatever we think of her, she was in love with him, though her feelings probably changed considerably before she died.

I was in the debtors' prison here, for an immense sum, and had not any expectation of being able to pay it."

Society told Augustine, "Hey, you're a really smart guy," so he's going to go right ahead and believe society on this one. But peoples' oohing and aahing has just flamed the fire of Augustine's pride, and now he thinks he's too good for the Scriptures. Oopsie. Augustine

I was inflated with self-esteem, which made me think myself a great man

No, Augustine doesn't empathize with Oedipus, with the killing his father and marrying his mother and all. (Well, maybe on some Freudian level he does.) Augustine's ability to relate to the stage has more to do with things like pathos and catharsis. After all, who doesn't enjoy a sad movie? But this is madness, says Augustine, because the pity is fake. And no one should be using fake pity like a drug.

I was much attracted by the theatre, because the plays reflected my own unhappy plight and were tinder to my fire.

He's talking about the Aeneid, the Roman epic written by the poet Virgil, which has been taught to every student of Latin since it was written around 25 BC. Augustine may love him a tragic love story, but his appreciation of literature seems to distract him from a very real problem. For Augustine, literature isn't a conduit for genuine emotion, but a fake substitute for the real deal. Like the Splenda of the soul.

I was obliged to memorize the wanderings of a hero names Aeneas, while in the meantime I failed to remember my own erratic ways. I learned to lament the death of Dido, who killed herself for love, while all the time, in the midst of these things, I was dying, separated from you, my God and my Life, and I shed no tears for my own plight.

Sound kind of familiar? This line appears in T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land"—only the translation he uses reads "To Carthage then I came". Augustine finds himself in the big city, and if sex was an issue before, in his little hometown, boy is it everywhere now. Carthage comes to represent vice, especially of the lustful variety. Also, remember way back in Book I.13, when Augustine talks about how much he loves the character Dido because she killed herself for love? Well, she also happened to be from Carthage. Just putting that out ther

I went to Carthage, where I found myself in the midst of a hissing cauldron of lust

Montaigne

I who boast of embracing the pleasures of life so eagerly and so deliberately find in them, when I considered them so minutely, little more than wind. But what of that? We are all wind. And the wind itself, wiser than we, takes pleasure in blustering and veering round, and is content with its own functions. It does not desire stability or solidity, qualities that do not belong to it.

This gives us the willies. Would you trust Svidrigaïlov with your children's future? Sonia almost has to do it. She really doesn't have the means to raise three kids. We can only hope that this was one of Svidrigaïlov's "good deeds" and he found a nice place for them. Either way, their home lives are about to change, for better or wors

I will put those two little ones and X into some good orphan asylum, and I will settle fifteen hundred roubles to be paid to each on coming of age, so that X need have no anxiety about them."

Why couldn't Pilate love more people? Where did her love come from? She ends her life thinking about love, and we never see her going crazy over any kind of love. If Guitar kills her out of love, then we have some pretty conflicting kinds of love on our hands.

I wish I'd a knowed more people. I would a loved 'em all. If I'd knowed more, I would a loved more

King Lear, Shakespeare, Lear speaking after Goneril reduces how many knights he can keep at her home and he feels she is decreasing his masculanity.

I'll tell thee. To Goneril. Life and death! I am ashamed, That thou hast power to shake my manhood thus, That these hot tears, which break from me perforce, Should make thee worth them. Blasts and fogs upon thee! Th' untented woundings of a father's curse. Pierce every sense about thee!

The kiss was from Polenka, Sonia's sister. This is not a "Svidrigaïlov moment," mind you. Raskolnikov expresses deep concern for Polenka many times. The passage also comments on the big impression Sonia makes on him the first time he sees her.

I've just been kissed by someone who, if I had killed anyone, would just the same... in fact I saw someone else there... with a flame-coloured feather

Even after Lear banishes Kent, the man remains loyal by disguising himself as "Caius," in order to serve the king. Some literary critics see Kent as being an emblem of an old school style of service, whereas his counterpart, Oswald, seems to embody a newer model of service—that is, Oswald, like many of the play's young people, is motivated by self-interest rather than loyalty and puts his own needs and desires ahead of his master's.

If but as well I other accents borrow That can my speech defuse, my good intent May carry through itself to that full issue For which I razed my likeness. Now, banished Kent, If thou canst serve where thou dost stand condemned, So may it come thy master, whom thou lov'st, Shall find thee full of labors.

The power of Satan's voice is an important theme throughout Paradise Lost. Here, the emphasis is on the actual sound of Satan's voice and how it renovates the fallen angels' despair. At other moments in the poem his voice is just as effective, though it achieves different results; he uses it to trick Eve, for example, in Book 9, whereas in the early books his speeches seduce us (as readers) into admiring him.

If once they hear that voice, (their liveliest pledge Of hope in fears and dangers [...] they will soon resume New courage and revive"

Here, Charlotte is accepting Mr. Collins, and hoo boy is there a lot to say. Obviously, this passage is dripping with sarcasm: "in as short a time as Mr. Collins's long speeches with allow," "the lady felt no inclination to trifle with his happiness," the "pure and disinterested desire of an establishment"—we might even call Austen catty, if we used that kind of language. But what really grabs our attention is that phrase "pure and disinterested." On the one hand, this is heavy irony: Charlotte's desire to have her own home is the exact opposite of pure and disinterested (meaning "not influenced by personal advantage"). On the other hand, "love" is pretty much the pinnacle of being "interested"—i.e., having a personal investment in something or someone. So, by not being in love with Collins, Charlotte is being disinterested—but not uninterested. Tricky tricky, Miss Austen.

In as short a time as Mr. Collins's long speeches would allow, everything was settled between them to the satisfaction of both; and as they entered the house he earnestly entreated her to name the day that was to make him the happiest of men; and though such a solicitation must be waived for the present, the lady felt no inclination to trifle with his happiness. The stupidity with which he was favoured by nature must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance; and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon that establishment were gained

You tell her, girl. Lady Catherine has just come to tell her exactly why she's not worthy to marry Darcy, and Lizzy sums up exactly why she is: "He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter." Sure, he has more money—but her birth and character are just as good as him. Yep, this is maybe Shmoop's favorite line in all of Pride and Prejudice.

In marrying your nephew, I should not consider myself as quitting that sphere. He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman's daughter; so far we are equal.

Lust, here, is chaotic, like a hurricane buffeting a ship. All these personal desires, physical or ego-stroking or otherwise, convolute our approach to the world. In hindsight, Augustine has clarity about his situation, and it turns out that his intentions were actually really selfish... and kind of sad, to be honest. Augustine

In my pride I was running adrift, at the mercy of every wind. You were guiding me as a helmsman steers a ship, but the course you steered was beyond my understanding. I know now, and confess it as the truth, that I admired Hierius more because others praised him than for the accomplishments for which they praised him.

Read that sentence again. At first you might have assumed that Augustine meant "I created for myself a barren waste," as in he was in a wasteland. But he actually says "created of myself a barren waste," as in he himself became a wasteland (not a wonderland). That's a strange metaphor, isn't it? It's not every day that you compare yourself to a chunk of earth. But by saying that he himself is barren, instead of someone in a barren landscape, he's making that landscape internal. You can always wander out of a barren wasteland, but how do you wander out of yourself? If you figure that out, let us know, because we get pretty sick of ourselves sometimes.

In my youth I wandered away, too far from your sustaining hand, and created of myself a barren waste

As much as Augustine is frustrated by how he isn't able to "know" precisely what the Bible is talking about, his way of coping is to revel in how many "right answers" there are. Sorry for all the scare quotes, but Augustine is all about Truth, as in singular-Truth-with-a-capital-T, so this kind of plurality is new territory for him.

In the same way, from the words of Moses, uttered in all brevity but destined to serve a host of preachers, there gush clear streams of truth from which each of us, though in more prolix and roundabout phrases, may derive a true explanation of the creation as best he is able, some choosing one and some another interpretation.

Lizzy is trying to convince Jane that Bingley really does love her, but Miss Bingley is trying to keep them apart. (Duh.) Notice Austen uses "affection" almost as a synonym for "love." We usually think of "affection" as a pretty mild emotion, but does it mean something stronger for Austen?

Indeed, Jane, you ought to believe me. No one who has ever seen you together can doubt his affection. Miss Bingley, I am sure, cannot. She is not such a simpleton. Could she have seen half as much love in Mr. Darcy for herself, she would have ordered her wedding clothes. But the case is this: We are not rich enough or grand enough for them

Mrs. Ramsay believes that men deserve her protection - first, because they rule the world, and second, for their attitude towards women (as experienced by herself in particular.)

Indeed, she had the whole of the other sex under her protection; for reasons she could not explain, for their chivalry and valour, for the fact that they negotiated treaties, ruled India, controlled finance; finally for an attitude towards herself which no woman could fail to feel or to find agreeable, something trustful, childlike, reverential; which an old woman could take from a young man without loss of dignity, and woe betide the girl—pray Heaven it was none of her daughters!—who did not feel the worth of it, and all that it implied, to the marrow of her bones!

In response to his question about angelic sexuality, Raphael blushes and says, essentially, that they have some kind of spiritual sex. It's not entirely clear, but the implication is that the physical constraints ("obstacle") of human sex do not apply. It seems like the angels have some kind of physical relationship, but it has a spiritual dimension that is more like a high form of love.

Let it suffice thee that thou know'st Us happy and without love no happiness. Whatever pure thou in the body enjoy'st (And pure thou wert created) we enjoy In eminence and obstacle find none Of membrane, joint or limb, exclusive bars

Jane can't believe Wickham's story about Darcy, so she comes up with an explanation: they've been deceived. Unfortunately, they're the ones who are being deceived by that class A liar, Wickham.

Interested people have perhaps misrepresented each to the other. It is, in short, impossible for us to conjecture the causes or circumstances which may have alienated them, without actual blame on either side."

Mr. Darcy is actually taking Lizzy's advice here and practicing talking to people he doesn't know well. (It doesn't seem to be going very well.) But she's so convinced that he's an arrogant jerk, she doesn't even see what he's doing.

It could not be for society, as he frequently sat there ten minutes together without opening his lips; and when he did speak, it seemed the effect of necessity rather than of choice—a sacrifice to propriety, not a pleasure to himself. He seldom appeared really animated.

Augustine is talking about when he's still with the Manichees. They believe that people are not responsible for the evil they do because evil lies in the matter people are made of. We think this is certainly a convenient scapegoat for sinning. But when you know that you're going to have to answer for your sins, you approach sin differently; and that's exactly why Augustine is reluctant to change his sinnin' ways. Augustine

It flattered my pride to think that I incurred no guilt and, when I did wrong, not to confess it so that you might bring healing to a soul that had sinned against you.

Historical Context Snack: men may have had it a little easier than women when it came the whole marrying thing, since they wouldn't be ruined without it. But they weren't supposed to stay swingin' singles forever, either. There was a lot of social pressure on men with money and/ or estates to marry and have children—it was their duty. Austen is bringing the snark here, but it works for a reason: it kind of was a universal truth that rich, single men needed to marry.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Woolf

It partook . . . of eternity . . . there is a coherence in things, a stability; something, she meant, is immune from change, and shines out (she glanced at the window with its ripple of reflected lights) in the face of the flowing, the fleeting, the spectral, like a ruby; so that again tonight she had the feeling she had had once today, already, of peace, of rest. Of such moments, she thought, the thing is made that endures.

Augustine is talking about his darn irrational soul. Augustine can't understand why, even after he has accepted the belief that his soul will die if he doesn't give up his sinful habits and follow God, he still doesn't want to. Apparently, Augustine's soul is actually more afraid of the immediate consequences of giving up the sin it loves so much than it is of the hypothetical of "wasting away to death."

It remained silent and afraid, for as much as the loss of life itself it feared the stanching of the flow of habit, by which it was wasting away to death

So much likening of truth and rocks, right? Again, we come up against the problem of how to tell truth from fiction. Which is hard, because sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. In fact, the whole issue of truth seems to lie in defining the darn thing. How do we recognize it? Where do we find it? How do we not fall into fiction-traps?

It was a fiction based on my own wretched state, not the firm foundation of your bliss.

Song of Solomon, Toni Morrison, Pilate feels the need to wander and can't settle down

It was as if her geography book had marked her to roam the country, planting her feet in each pink, yellow, blue or green state.

Dante

It was from there that we emerged, to see—once more—the stars"

Woolf

It was necessary now to carry everything a step further. With her foot on the threshold she waited a moment longer in a scene which was vanishing even as she looked, and then, as she moved and took Minta's arm and left the room, it changed, it shaped itself differently; it had become, she knew, giving one last look at it over her shoulder, already the pas

Raskolnikov never explicitly says he regrets his pre-prison actions, though there is plenty of evidence to argue an implied regret. Either way, at this moment Raskolnikov is still dehumanizing Alyona, and Lizaveta by stating his failure to bring positive meaning to the murders, and his act of confessing, made the murders crimes, and thus himself a criminal. He doesn't judge the two women as human.

It was only in that that he [X] recognised his criminality, only in the fact that he had been unsuccessful and had confessed it.

Right away, we learn how powerless women are: there's literally no respectable way for the Bennet girls to meet Bingley unless their dad makes the first move.

It will be no use to us, if twenty such should come, since you will not visit them.

Here we broach one of those simple, answerable questions: what is the meaning of life? Guitar believes that to give meaning to one's life, one has to be deliberate in the living of it. One has to have purpose, goals, and beliefs to get behind. But still, we can't help ask the same question on Milkman's mind: can the murdering of random white people give a life meaning?

It's not about living longer. It's about how you live and why

You know the trope of the Justified Criminal? You know, a character who does something bad but for a good purpose and you side with him? Augustine is not that character. His shenanigans are purely for kicks and giggles. When he sits down to try to analyze his behavior later in life, he can't even really come to any conclusion about why he did what he did. Except that, without God in their lives, people flounder around and do all sorts of inexplicable bad things.

Let my heart now tell you what prompted me to do wrong for no purpose, and why it was only my own love of mischief that made me do it.

King Lear KENT The opening lines of Shakespeare's plays often provide clues about the play's most important pressing issues or themes. In King Lear, the play opens as Kent and Gloucester discuss which son-in-law King Lear likes best. Shakespeare might as well hold up a sign that says "This play is going to be all about the dynamics of parent-child relationships!"

KENT I thought the king had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.

Cordelia's not the only one who forgives Lear's terrible behavior. Even after Kent is banished by his king (for no good reason, we night add), he still finds a way to serve his "enemy king." Kent disguises himself as "Caius" so he can get a job being Lear's servant. Now that's devotion, wouldn't you say?

Kent, sir, the banished Kent, who in disguise Followed his enemy king, and did him service Improper for a slave

When Goneril boots her father out of her house, Lear complains about the sting of Goneril's rejection. We don't doubt that Lear's emotional pain is real but we do wonder if Goneril isn't right to order her father out of her home. Lear, after all, is a pretty lousy houseguest. He shows up on his daughter's doorstep with a hundred "rowdy knights" who act as though Goneril's pad is bar or a brothel and he, Lear, expects a warm welcome. So, who's right? Goneril or Lear?

LEAR How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child.—Away, away!

Lily sees the "dark side" of love and is grateful that she does not have to marry. She paints as a preferred alternative to marriage.

Lily perceives love as an exalted adventure guarded over by Mrs. Ramsay. She feels very small in the face of the love that has gripped Paul Rayley.

(9.553-7) "Articulate sound" is a distinguishing feature of humans, God, and angels; Eve is curious for a moment but then (fatally) forgets about this incredibly strange disruption of God's hierarchies. As part of their punishment in Book 10, Satan (and his angels) will be temporarily deprived of the ability to use "articulate sound" (they will become figuratively "mute"), partly because of his misuse of that gift here.

Language of Man pronounced By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed? The first at least of these I thought denied To beasts whom God on their creation-day Created mute to all articulate sound"

Disguised as Poor Tom, Edgar warns Lear not to be seduced or "betray[ed" by women, to stay out of the brothels, and to keep his hands out of "plackets" (slits in the skirts of petticoats). "Foot," by the way, is Edgar's way of punning on the French word "foutre" (f*@k). Edgar's never been betrayed by any women in the play, so what's the deal with this nasty little diatribe against women? Does Edgar hate women as much as King Lear? Or, are we meant to read this passage as the insane ramblings of a (supposed) madman? In other words, is Shakespeare implying that this kind of attitude toward women is crazy?

Let not the creaking of shoes nor the rustling of silks betray thy poor heart to woman. Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets

Dang, so in order to have your soul saved, you have to be "laid low and humiliated"? That does not sound fun at all. So why is Augustine talking about it like it's a good thing? Because God likes people who aren't all egotistical and blown up with pride. In fact, he likes the opposite: he likes people who admit they're wrong when they're wrong. Don't stop, confessin' ... Augustine

Let the proud deride me, O God, and all whom you have not yet laid low and humiliated for the salvation of their souls; but let me still confess my sins to you for your honour and glory.

Well said, Augustine. When we climb for ourselves, we're being self-centered. We forget about God (or in this case, Christ), who, Augustine tells us, is really the one who gave us life in the first place. It's almost like we're aspiring to be as good as God (think Tower of Babel). But instead of aspiring for ourselves, Augustine re-works the metaphor so that we are still aspiring, but for a wholly selfless purpose. Augustine

Let the proud deride me, O God, and all whom you have not yet laid low and humiliated for the salvation of their souls; but let me still confess my sins to you for your honour and glory.

Here, it seems like weakness is a good thing. Ever heard the Bible quotes, "blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5) or "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Matt. 19:24)? Augustine might not be directly alluding to those verses here, but the point is that Christianity has a tradition of advocating humility and eschewing wealth and power, kind of like Christ. This is a very different kind of weakness than the weakness Augustine is talking about when he can't seem to give up earthly delights.

Let the strong and mighty laugh at men like me: let us, the weak and the poor, confess our sins to you

fter Edgar stabs his evil brother in the guts, he decides it's time to "exchange" forgiveness. Aww, how sweet. But wait a minute, is this supposed to be a touching moment or not? At first, Edgar seems to make an offer of peace, by saying that, even though he (Edgar) is a legitimate son and Edmund is a "bastard," he's no better than Edmund. Touching, right?

Let's exchange charity. I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund; If more, the more th' hast wronged me.

This passage could be seen as an argument that Raskolnikov had too much education. He was so focused on ideas and theories that he confused himself right out of happiness. Adapt this sentence to use on your teacher next time you forget your homework.

Life had stepped into the place of theory and something quite different would work itself out in his mind

In retrospect, William Bankes considers his friendship with Mr. Ramsay to have ceased years ago on a stretch of road where a hen tried to protect her chicks.

Looking at the far sand hills, William Bankes thought of Ramsay: thought of a road in Westmorland, thought of Ramsay striding along a road by himself hung round with that solitude which seemed to be his natural air. But this was suddenly interrupted, William Bankes remembered (and this must refer to some actual incident), by a hen, straddling her wings out in protection of a covey of little chicks, upon which Ramsay, stopping, pointed his stick and said "Pretty—pretty," an odd illumination in to his heart, Bankes had thought it, which showed his simplicity, his sympathy with humble things; but it seemed to him as if their friendship had ceased, there, on that stretch of road. After that, Ramsay had married. After that, what with one thing and another, the pulp had gone out of their friendship. Whose fault it was he could not say, only, after a time, repetition had taken the place of newness. It was to repeat that they met. But in this dumb colloquy with the sand dunes he maintained that his affection for Ramsay had in no way diminished; but there, like the body of a young man laid up in peat for a century, with the red fresh on his lips, was his friendship, in its acuteness and reality, laid up across the bay among the sandhills.

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, Mr. Tansley's memory of a working class background continually places him in awkward positions while vacationing with the well-off Ramsays.

Mr. Tansley raised a hammer: swung it high in air; but realizing, as it descended, that he could not smite that butterfly with such an instrument as this, said only that he had never been sick in his life. But in that one sentence lay compact, like gunpowder, that his grandfather was a fisherman; his father a chemist; that he had worked his way up entirely himself; that he was proud of it; that he was Charles Tansley—a fact that nobody there seemed to realize; but one of these days every single person would know it. He scowled ahead of him. He could almost pity these mild cultivated people, who would be blown sky high, like bales of wool and barrels of apples, one of these days by the gunpowder that was in him.

Augustine means that when he was with the Manichees, he couldn't conceive of purely spiritual things. He could only think of physical things—like whether matter was good or evil. We know that Augustine is big on proving stuff, at least early in his life, so he likes the certainty that the "sense of the flesh" can provide. But the wisdom of God is more of a mental exercise than a physical one

My God, you had mercy on me even before I had confessed to you; but I now confess that all this was because I tried to find you, not through the understanding of the mind, by which you meant us to be superior to the beasts, but through the sense of the flesh

Okay, so first, he can't escape himself, next he can't find himself, and now he's a house divided against himself? Why are there always two Augustines and why are they always fighting? Also, why does Augustine say "inner" self? Isn't that already implied? One thing that is pretty clear here is that the division Augustine feels is the rift between his earthly wants and his spiritual wants. Those two things reside under the same metaphorical "roof." Is it possible for them to co-exist? Augustine doesn't seem to think so, so one is going to have to win out (see the next quote for info about The Big Winner).

My inner self was a house divided against itself

After Edgar mortally wounds his wicked brother, Edmund, he says "the gods are just" because they punish humans for their wrong doings. This seems to suggest that Edmund deserved what he got (a stab to the guts). Edgar also implies his father, Gloucester, got what he deserved for having an affair with Edmunds mother. Remember, Gloucester's eyes were plucked out after he was accused of treason, and he fathered a wicked child, Edmund, who betrayed him.

My name is Edgar, and thy father's son. The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us. The dark and vicious place where thee he got Cost him his eyes.

When we think of evil, we usually think of a conscious, active decision to do evil. We don't often think of evil as some sort of substance that floats around the world and contaminates things... that's closer to what the Manichees believe. Also, we probably don't think of sadness and evil as having much to do with one another. Sure, sadness sucks, but it's not necessarily evil, unless we're dividing everything into categories of "good" and "bad." So, basically, the choice of the word "evil" is interesting here because it implies that good and bad—all good and all bad—are always in some sort of contest.

My sorrows are evil and they are at strife with joys that are good, and I cannot tell which will gain the victory

Edgar almost ruins his "Poor Tom" disguise by weeping in pity for Lear's insanity. The "good" characters in King Lear are unable to control their emotions in the face of injustice and suffering.

My tears begin to take his part so much They'll mar my counterfeiting.

Lizzy jokingly tells Mrs. Gardiner that she can't possibly be in love with Wickham, because she doesn't hate him enough now that he's moved on to flirting with someone else. But... we're pretty sure she's kidding. A "pure and elevating passion" like love would never leave you "detesting" someone else. In other words, if you really loved your ex, you'd wish him well. (Although you might still unfriend him on Facebook.)

My watchfulness has been effectual; and though I certainly should be a more interesting object to all my acquaintances were I distractedly in love with him, I cannot say that I regret my comparative insignificance."

Lear

My wits begin to turn.— Come on, my boy. How dost, my boy? Art cold? I am cold myself. Where is this straw, my fellow? The art of our necessities is strange That can make vile things precious. Come, your hovel.— Poor Fool and knave, I have one part in my heart That's sorry yet for thee.

Translation: it's more important to believe in God than to understand him. Okay, but this statement raises some questions. Like, why doesn't Augustine follow his own advice? You will recall that one of the major obstacles preventing him from accepting Christianity is that God's immateriality doesn't make sense to him. Maybe Augustine has learned from his mistakes; or maybe he assumes that he's smarter than most people and doesn't want that to prevent their conversion. So, he's actually subverting knowledge to spirituality here.

Need it concern me if some people cannot understand this? Let them ask what it means, and be glad to ask: but they may content themselves with the questions alone. For it is better for them to find you and leave the question unanswered than to find the answer without finding you.

LOL, Dad. It's so hilarious when one of your daughters is totally humiliated by the man who everyone thought she was going to marry. Right? Right?? We don't know if Mr. Bennet was ever capable of love, or whether his experiences with his wife just crushed his idealism, but either way he's not setting a very good example for his daughters.

Next to being married, a girl likes to be crossed a little in love now and then. It is something to think of, and it gives her a sort of distinction among her companions. When is your turn to come? You will hardly bear to be long outdone by Jane. Now is your time. Here are officers enough in Meryton to disappoint all the young ladies in the country. Let Wickham be your man. He is a pleasant fellow, and would jilt you creditably."

The house in the Hebrides is left to the ravages of time. It is our evidence that time has passed.

Night after night, summer and winter, the torment of storms, the arrow-like stillness of fine weather, held their court without interference. (2.7.1)

PL God reiterates a point he's made throughout the poem. Not even the "lightest...impulse" from God has affected Adam and Eve's behavior. Note the importance God places on words associated with the fate versus free will debate: "decree," "necessitate," "impulse," and "inclining."

No Decree of mine Concurring to necessitate his Fall, Or touch with lightest moment of impulse His free Will, to her own inclining left In even scale

Goneril implies that her husband, Albany, is too mild-mannered when it comes to dealing with Lear. When she refers to Albany's "milky gentleness," she's basically implying he's a wimp for not being harder on Lear when the retired king challenged Goneril's authority. For Goneril, mildness and lack of killer instinct make one feminine. Of course, Goneril goes on to say she forgives her hubby for being a wimp, but she's really not happy about him being such a dummy (he lacks "wisdom"). Brain Snack: "Milky gentleness," as Goneril calls it, is associated with a woman's capacity to nurture children (i.e., breastfeed). In Shakespeare's play Macbeth, when Lady Macbeth accuses her husband of being a wimp (Macbeth's not hot about killing King Duncan and his wife isn't happy), Lady Macbeth accuses her husband of being "too full o' the milk of human kindness" (Macbeth, 1.5.1), which you can read all about in our guide to Macbeth.

No, no, my lord, This milky gentleness and course of yours, Though I condemn not, yet, under pardon, You are much more at task for want of wisdom Than praised for harmful mildness.

Milkman

None of them tore their clothes as he had, climbing twenty feet of steep rock

Milton reminds us that in Paradise Adam and Eve walked around naked, but he also seems to criticize his own, contemporary cultural practices, referring to them as "dishonest shame [...] honor dishonorable." Does Milton think people should walk around naked? Not really, but he implies that the fuss made about "mysterious parts" is misguided.

Nor those mysterious parts were then concealed: Then was not guilty shame, dishonest shame Of nature's works, honor dishonorable"

Woolf

Not that she did in fact run or hurry; she went indeed rather slowly. She felt rather inclined just for a moment to stand still after all that chatter, and pick out one particular thing; the thing that mattered; to detach it; separate it off; clean it of all the emotions and odds and ends of things, and so hold it before her, and bring it to the tribunal where, ranged about in conclave, sat the judges she had set up to decide these things. Is it good, is it bad, is it right or wrong? Where are we all going to? and so on. So she righted herself after the shock of the event, and quite unconsciously and incongruously, used the branches of the elm trees outside to help her to stabilise her position. Her world was changing: they were still. The event had given her a sense of movement. All must be in order. She must get that right and that right, she thought, insensibly approving of the dignity of the trees' stillness, and now again of the superb upward rise (like the beak of a ship up a wave) of the elm branches as the wind raised them. For it was windy (she stood a moment to look out). It was windy, so that the leaves now and then brushed open a star, and the stars themselves seemed to be shaking and darting light and trying to flash out between the edges of the leaves. Yes, that was done then, accomplished; and as with all things done, became solemn. Now one thought of it, cleared of chatter and emotion, it seemed always to have been, only was shown now and so being shown, struck everything into stability. They would, she thought, going on again, however long they lived, come back to this night; this moon; this wind; this house: and to her too. It flattered her, where she was most susceptible of flattery, to think how, wound about in their hearts, however long they lived she would be woven; and this, and this, and this, she thought, going upstairs, laughing, but affectionately, at the sofa on the landing (her mother's); at the rocking-chair (her father's); at the map of the Hebrides. All that would be revived again in the lives of Paul and Minta; "the Rayleys"—she tried the new name over; and she felt, with her hand on the nursery door, that community of feeling with other people which emotion gives as if the walls of partition had become so thin that practically (the feeling was one of relief and happiness) it was all one stream, and chairs, tables, maps, were hers, were theirs, it did not matter whose, and Paul and Minta would carry it on when she was dead. (1.18.2)

Macon and Pilate

Now the land itself, the only one they knew and knew intimately, began to terrify them.

This truth is a little different from the other truths. Instead of being about philosophical or theological grandeur, this truth is about the truth of the past—i.e., "what happened" in the most basic sense. So this passage is an example of a rhetorical question. But why does Augustine implore God at this particular moment? This is right after Augustine tells us about what a fanboy he was for Faustus, so it seems like Augustine just wants to reassure God that he's telling him the honest-to-God truth. So maybe part of confessing is an adherence to telling the truth, even when that truth is unflattering.

O Lord my God, is this not the truth as I remember it?

This quote is not talking about moral weakness, but intellectual weakness. See, Augustine is trying to understand memory and forgetfulness, but he keeps running into the barrier of his own physical limits. So it's like Augustine is stuck with this fallow tract of land that he's trying to farm, and it's just not producing anything. But all of the difficulty that he's encountering lies within himself; he's both the farmer and the field in this metaphor.

O Lord, I am working hard in this field, and the field of my labours is my own self. I have become a problem to myself, like land which a farmer works only with difficulty and at the cost of much sweat.

This passage recalls 4.388-9, where Satan "melts" at the sight of innocence. Milton suggests something similar here, suggesting that one cannot help being "enamored" with the sight of innocence. The "Sons of God" refers to a race of lustful men from Genesis 6, which makes this passage strange because it sounds like Milton is saying it was OK for them to be obsessed with her.

O innocence Deserving Paradise! If ever, then, Then had the Sons of God excuse to have been Enamored at that sight

When Regan points out that Lear is "old" and that his life ("nature") is on the verge of "her confine" (Lear doesn't have much longer to live), she implies that Lear's old age makes him unfit to rule a kingdom. Lear would be better off, says Goneril, if he let someone else take care of him. Is Goneril right—is Lear too old and infirm to govern even himself? Or, is her assessment unfair? For more about the implications of Regan's remarks about Lear's age, check out our discussion of

O sir, you are old. Nature in you stands on the very verge Of her confine. You should be ruled and led By some discretion, that discerns your state Better than you yourself. Therefore, I pray you That to our sister you do make return. Say you have wronged her.

When Lear's daughters betray him, he's outraged and full of grief. Here, he says he suffers from "Hysterica passio," a medical condition that was thought to afflict women. Fun facts: literary critic Coppélia Kahn explains that "From ancient times through the nineteenth century, women suffering variously from choking, feelings of suffocation, partial paralysis, convulsions similar to those of epilepsy, aphasia, numbness, and lethargy were said to be ill of hysteria, caused by a wandering womb." In other words, because Lear is so upset or "hysterical," he compares his excessive emotions to that of an ailing woman. (The implication is that Lear is not acting like a "man" and that women have no control over their feelings.)

O, how this mother swells up toward my heart! Hysterica passio, down, thou climbing sorrow! Thy element's below!—Where is this daughter?

When Goneril and Regan strip Lear of all his knights and say he has no "need" for so many men, Lear proclaims that "need" is not the point. Lear acknowledges he doesn't "need" a retinue of knights but, he says, even the lowliest "beggars / are in the poorest thing superfluous." Translation: even beggars have something more than the bare minimum, so Lear should be able to keep his retinue of knights. If all men were allowed only to have the bare essentials, he would be no better than an animal or, "beast." As an example, Lear points out that Goneril and Regan wear gorgeous clothes that can hardly be said to keep them warm—Goneril and Regan wear such outfits not because they need them for warmth but because they're fashionable. So, is Lear right? When man only has the bare essentials, is he no better than an animal?

O, reason not the need! Our basest beggars Are in the poorest thing superfluous. Allow not nature more than nature needs, Man's life's as cheap as beast's. Thou art a lady; If only to go warm were gorgeous, Why, nature needs not what thou gorgeous wear'st, Which scarcely keeps thee warm. But, for true need— (

Both Regan and Goneril get their just desserts for cruelty and scheming - Goneril ends up taking her sister, Regan, down and then killing herself, too. While there is no system of justice imposed on the characters in Lear, they end up imposing justice on themselves.

O, she's dead! ALBANY Who dead? Speak, man. GENTLEMAN Your lady [Goneril], sir, your lady. And her sister By her is poisoned. She confesses it

Right away, the novel digs into one of our deepest fears: the landlady, or landlord as the case may be. Since it's only been a few years since the serfs were emancipated, and since the serfs were "owned" by people who also owned land, land person-phobia was probably extremely acute in Russia.

[X] was hopelessly in debt to his landlady, and was afraid of meeting her.

Woolf

Oh, but she never wanted James to grow a day older! or Cam either. These two she would have liked to keep for ever just as they were, demons of wickedness, angels of delight, never to see them grow up into long-legged monsters. Nothing made up for the loss. (1.10.12)

Sing to Milkman

Oh, that's just some old folks' lie they tell around here. Some of those Africans they brought over here as slaves could fly. A lot of them flew back to Africa.

Though Macon lives in a world of order and defies his little sister who, to him, represents unnaturalness and evil, this is one of the only moments when we see a grown-up Macon aware of, or freaked out by, a supernatural presence, by a power greater than he.

Oh, that's just some old folks' lie they tell around here. Some of those Africans they brought over here as slaves could fly. A lot of them flew back to Africa.

Being pious is easy when it's, well, easy, but when it involves actually sacrificing the things we enjoy, then it's pretty hard. We might, rather conveniently, choose not to think about how what we do is at odds with what we claim to believe. Hey, if piety were so simple then everyone'd be doing it.

On the one hand we would hunt for worthless popular distinctions, the applause of an audience, prizes for poetry, or quickly fading wreaths won in competition. We loved the idle pastimes of the stage and in self-indulgence we were unrestrained. On the other hand we aspired to be purged of these lowly pleasures

Miss Lucas thinks that if you have everything going for you, you have a right to be proud. Do you agree with Charlotte?

One cannot wonder that so very fine a young man, with family, fortune, everything in his favour, should think highly of himself. If I may so express it, he has a right to be proud.

Lily loves William as a friend. Without romantic love getting in the way, she can share her passions with William.

One could talk of painting then seriously to a man. Indeed, his friendship had been one of the pleasures of her life. She loved William Bankes

King Lear, Shakespeare, Goneril speaking about her father, says he has regressed into being a child

Put on what weary negligence you please, You and your fellows. I'll have it come to question. If he dislike it, let him to our sister, Whose mind and mine I know in that are one, Not to be overruled. Idle old man, That still would manage those authorities That he hath given away! Now, by my life, Old fools are babes again and must be used With checks as flatteries, when they are seen abused. Remember what I have said

Super important moment: Lizzy says that now she finally gets herself. She's just as prejudiced and prideful as anyone else, and she let her own personal feelings deceive her. Hey, better late than never.

Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself

This is an important moment for King Lear because he not only recognizes the homeless problem in his kingdom, he also realizes that something must be done about it. Here, Lear acknowledges that, as king, he had the power and authority to make some social changes. Lear also seems to propose a redistribution of wealth, which is a pretty radical and astonishing thing for a king to do.

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your loop'd and windowed raggedness defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp. Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just

This is an important moment for King Lear, who has never before contemplated the plight of homelessness. Here, he realizes that he hasn't done enough to solve the homeless problem in his kingdom as he acknowledges that, as king, he had the power and authority to do something about it. This is pretty extraordinary because it suggests that the acts of human beings are the things that prove "the heavens [to be] more just." In other words, there can only be justice in the world when human beings behave justly toward each other.

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp. Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou may'st shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just.

Up until now, King Lear has never really thought about the plight of homelessness. This is the first time he acknowledges the "poor naked wretches" in his kingdom as he realizes that he hasn't done enough to solve the homeless problem. Lear's compassion moves him to acknowledge that he should have done something about it when he had the power and authority to make a difference.

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are, That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, Your looped and windowed raggedness, defend you From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp. Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou may'st shake the superflux to them, And show the heavens more just (3.4.32-41)

Gothic moment! The pawnbroker is lying in a pool of her own blood. The symbols of Christianity juxtaposed with images of evil, as if in challenge. If you are into this, check out Flannery O'Connor's stories, such as "A Good Man is Hard to Find."

Raskolnikov thrust it in his pocket without looking at it, flung the crosses on the old woman's body and rushed back into the bedroom, this time taking the axe with him.

After Lear foolishly disowns Cordelia, Kent stands up and urges the king to "reverse" his decision to ban his only loving and loyal daughter. Even Kent can see that Goneril and Regan will betray their father—they're "empty-hearted" and their flattering words mean nothing.

Reserve thy state, And in thy best consideration check This hideous rashness. Answer my life my judgment, Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least, Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound Reverb no hollowness

This passage is really an exploration of grief. Why do we feel sad when we lose loved ones? Is it just that we miss them? Is it something more? Does a belief in God change how we feel about it? Why can't we control our emotions? And what is so soothing about crying during times of grief? That's a lot of implications for one little statement.

Tears alone were sweet to me, for in my heart's desire they had taken the place of my friend.

Lear sees himself as a victim of injustice - his daughters have betrayed him and now he's caught out on the heath during a terrible storm. What's interesting about this passage is the way Lear literally accuses the storm of being his daughters' agent ("servile minister"). For Lear, it seems the whole world is against him.

Rumble thy bellyful! Spit, fire! Spout, rain! Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters. I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness. I never gave you kingdom, called you children; You owe me no subscription. Then let fall Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand, your slave, A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man. But yet I call you servile ministers, That have with two pernicious daughters join Your high engendered battles 'gainst a head So old and white as this. O, ho, 'tis foul!

We don't find out exactly what Lizzy's opinion of matrimony is, but we suspect that it doesn't include essentially prostituting yourself to an idiot in order to have your own house. But let's be real: Lizzy is twenty and pretty. Charlotte is twenty-seven and plain. If Lizzy were in the same situation that Charlotte is, she might not feel so idealistic.

She had always felt that Charlotte's opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own, but she had not supposed it to be possible that, when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage. Charlotte the wife of Mr. Collins was a most humiliating picture! And to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem, was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen.

Little by little, Lizzy has dropped her prejudices against Darcy. Do you think that she's learned her lesson about not judging people? Or is this a one-time-only deal? (We like to think that she's learned her lesson.)

She explained what its effect on her had been, and how gradually all her former prejudices had been removed.

When Milkman meets Susan Byrd and Grace Long, we have the first discussion of "passing," calling to attention the fact that, to escape the injustice, violence, and intolerance rampant in America, people would deny their heritage to live a more free life. Here we see the connection between skin color and shame in America.

She had actually blushed. As though she'd discovered something shameful about him

Money, affluence, and deprivation make one fine cocktail of self-centeredness. The cruelty of having money and lacking love has kept Ruth so far away from her mansion on Not Doctor Street that she doesn't know what else is possible in the world. At this moment, we see that she too lacks community, people, or a chorus of girlfriends, sisters, cousins, mothers, and aunts. Like everyone else in the Dead family, she is completely alienated from the outside world and, thus, completely selfish.

She had been husbanding her own misery, shaping it, making of it an art and a Way. Now she saw a larger, more malevolent world outside her own.

Pilate

She had dumped the peelings in a large crock, which like most everything in the house had been made for some other purpose. Now she stood before the dry sink, pumping water into a blue-and-white wash basin which she used for a saucepan

Hagar is driven crazy without Milkman's love. She is almost inhuman without it, skirting life and death. She has ceased to be her own person and has ceased to be human in many ways. And yet she is driven crazy by one of the most human emotions out there: grief.

She moved around the house, onto the porch, down the streets, to the fruit stalls and the butchershop, like a restless ghost, finding peace nowhere and in nothing

In order to grow into oneself, Guitar believes a person (namely a young woman) needs many people to help her, needs a community to scold her, teach her, praise her, and discipline her along the way. Here the concepts of individuality versus community knock heads once more. You can't have one without the other it seems.

She needed what most colored girls needed: a chorus of mamas, grandmamas, aunts, cousins, sisters, neighbors, Sunday school teachers, best girl friends, and what all to give her the strength life demanded of her—and the humor with which to live it

Lily perceives love as an exalted adventure guarded over by Mrs. Ramsay. She feels very small in the face of the love that has gripped Paul Rayley.

She put a spell on them all, by wishing, so simply, so directly, and Lily contrasted that abundance with her own poverty of spirit, and supposed that it was partly that belief (for her face was all lit up—without looking young, she looked radiant) in this strange, this terrifying thing, which made Paul Rayley, sitting at her side, all of a tremor, yet abstract, absorbed, silent. Mrs. Ramsay, Lily felt, as she talked about the skins of vegetables, exalted that, worshipped that; held her hands over it to warm them, to protect it, and yet, having brought it all about, somehow laughed, led her victims, Lily felt, to the altar. It came over her too now—the emotion, the vibration, of love. How inconspicuous she felt herself by Paul's side! He, glowing, burning; she, aloof, satirical; he, bound for adventure; she, moored to the shore; he, ready to implore a share, if it were a disaster, in his disaster, she said shyly:

This is what Raskolnikov overhears the other student saying in the bar about Lizaveta and the pawnbroker. Man, it seems like there are lots of beatings being administered in this novel. This passage is pretty effective in arousing our sympathy for Lizaveta, and our disgust for the pawnbroker. It makes us take Lizaveta's death much harder than we would have if we hadn't known of the abuse.

She was a complete slave and went in fear and trembling of her sister, who made her work day and night, and even beat her.

Regan seems pretty cold-blooded, don't you think? Not only has she driven her aging father from her home and out into the storm, she also orders her husband to lock the doors behind him! There's no compassion in Regan (or her sister Goneril, for that matter).

Shut up your doors: He is attended with a desperate train, And what they may incense him to, being apt To have his ear abused, wisdom bids fear. X Shut up your doors, my lord. 'Tis a wild night. My Regan counsels well. Come out o' th' storm.

As we all know, behaving badly "just because" is a pretty common human tendency. What's interesting about this quote, though, is that Augustine uses prisoner/slave metaphors not once, but twice. Augustine is pointing to the idea of power, of being under the power of someone else, and of trying to exercise our own power against that someone by breaking their rules. But when we exercise power in that way, it's actually really pathetic, because it's only imitation-power. Which is almost as bad as imitation cheez.

Since I had no real power to break his law, was it that I enjoyed at least the pretense of doing so, like a prisoner who creates for himself the illusion of liberty by doing something wrong, when he has no fear of punishment, under a feeble hallucination of power? Here was the slave who ran away from his master and chased a shadow instead! What an abomination! What a parody of life! What abysmal death! Could I enjoy doing wrong for no other reason than that it was wrong?

Ooh, burn! After Kent strikes Oswald (because he doesn't like Oswald's face), he explains to Cornwall that it's just his personality to be blunt ("plain"), which is why he's being honest with Cornwall now when he says that he doesn't like the looks of Cornwall's face either. (What? Who says Shakespeare can't indulge himself by writing a little trash talk into his scenes?) For Kent, being completely honest and speaking the truth is a matter of pride, even if his big mouth gets him into trouble. So, even if we fault Kent for being so ridiculously loyal to King Lear, we've got to give him props for being so truthful.

Sir, 'tis my occupation to be plain: I have seen better faces in my time Than stands on any shoulder that I see Before me now at this instant

Because Kent is Lear's servant, when Cornwall locks Kent in the stocks, he's being incredibly disrespectful toward King Lear. As Gloucester later points out, "the king must take it ill, / That he, so slightly valued in his messenger [Kent], / Should have him thus restrained"

Sir, I am too old to learn. Call not your stocks for me. I serve the king, On whose employment I was sent to you. You shall do small respect, show too bold malice Against the grace and person of my master, Stocking his messenger

Goneril sure does lay it on thick, doesn't she? Even though she says her love for her father leaves her breathless and "unable" to speak, she still manages to find a bunch of empty, meaningless words to flatter him with.

Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter, Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty, Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare, No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor; As much as child e'er loved, or father found; A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable. Beyond all manner of so much I love you

This is an awfully strange way to open the play, don't you think? Just a few lines into King Lear, Gloucester begins to crack dirty jokes about the mother of his illegitimate child, Edmund. When he asks Kent if he "smell[s] a fault," he's referring to his son, who is standing right there. Gloucester's use of the term "fault" means a couple of things: 1) a sin—Edmund was conceived out of wedlock and, as we soon see, Edmund also turns out to be wicked ; 2) female genitals-Gloucester's implying that Edmund "smells" like his mother's vagina.

Sir, this young fellow's mother could [conceive], whereupon she grew round-wombed, and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault? KENT I cannot wish the fault undone, the issue of it being so proper.

Porfiry thinks that Nikolay is taking the rap for the murders to achieve the kind of suffering only available to the actual murderer. He blames this on Nikolay's religion, which celebrates suffering as a means to access divine love.

So I suspect now that X wants to take his suffering or something of the sort."

At this point in the book, we've really gotten a sense that weakness lies in the proclivity to change. Here, Augustine talks about how he accounted for the existence of evil in the world, and reasoned that evil had to have come from God, because God made everything. But he leaves his own weakness out of the equation. Way to avoid taking responsibility, Augustine.

So I used to argue that your unchangeable substance, my God, was forced to err, rather than admit that my own was changeable and erred of its own free will, and that is errors were my punishment.

So that conflict Augustine has been alluding to since Book II? He just stated it. Now that he's acknowledged that these two wills are irreconcilable, he can't go on pretending that everything is peachy. His two wills are going to have to duke it out.

So these two wills within me, one old, one new, one the servant of the flesh, the other of the spirit, were in conflict and between them they tore my soul apart

PL God makes it clear that Adam will fall through his own "fault." Even though this sounds like predestination, it's actually foreknowledge. God sees all events - past, present, and future - as simultaneous or present, including Adam's fall, which hasn't happened yet (in the poem). Just because God knows it will happen though doesn't mean he makes it happen; He knows how Adam himself will make it happen

So will fall He and his faithless progeny. Whose fault? Whose but his own? Ingrate! He had of Me All he could have; I made him just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall

So, despite the fact that this is a world in which men like to fly off and leave their women folk, Jake (Milkman's grandfather) keeps returning and appearing before Pilate. And not only that, he keeps calling out for his wife, as though she were the one who left him. It's surprising then when we hear Circe tell us that Sing was afflicted with the same kind of nervous love that runs rampant throughout the novel. Jake is the one bemoaning the loss of his wife.

Some women love too hard. She watched over him like a pheasant hen. Nervous. Nervous love.

Now this is weird. According to an earlier conversation between Gloucester and Kent, King Lear has already decided how he'll divide his kingdom among his daughters. So, what's the point of Lear staging a love test to determine which woman will get the "largest bounty" (piece of land)? We might say there is no point—King Lear just wants his daughters to flatter him. Here, we see Lear isn't really interested in knowing who truly loves him most, he wants his daughters to express their feelings for him in a very public way.

Tell me, my daughters— Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state— Which of you shall we say doth love us most? That we our largest bounty may extend Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril, Our eldest born, speak first

KL Here, King Lear demands to know which one of his daughters loves him "most" before he announces the division of his kingdom. When Lear asks "which of you shall we say doth love us the most?" he's operating under the assumption that 1) love is quantifiable and 2) that language is capable of expressing his daughters' love. Yeah, both of these assumptions are dead wrong. Check out "Language and Communication" for more on this.

Tell me, my daughters— [Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state—] Which of you shall we say doth love us most, That we our largest bounty may extend Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril, Our eldest born, speak first.

After the wicked Edmund is mortally wounded by his brother, he says "the wheel has come full circle" (once again, he's at the bottom of fortune's wheel). In other words, he suggests he got exactly what was coming to him. Is he right?

Th' hast spoken right. 'Tis true. The wheel is come full circle; I am here.

This is from Raskolnikov's famous horse dream. When he wakes from it, he decides not to kill Alyona. In his mind, for a moment, he thinks of her as his innocent victim and wants to save her from himself.

The blow fell; the mare staggered, sank back, tried to pull, but the bar fell again with a swinging blow on her back and she fell on the ground like a log.

When Edgar disguises himself as "Poor Tom," an inmate of Bedlam hospital and the kind of guy who roams about the country "roaring" like a madman and begging for charity, his plight draws our attention to the homelessness in the play and in Shakespeare's England.

The country gives me proof and precedent Of Bedlam beggars who with roaring voices Strike in their numbed and mortifièd bare arms Pins, wooden pricks, nails, sprigs of rosemary, And with this horrible object, from low farms, Poor pelting villages, sheepcotes, and mills, Sometime with lunatic bans, sometime with prayers, Enforce their charity. 'Poor Turlygod! Poor Tom!' That's something yet. 'Edgar' I nothing am.

Minta's happiness is reflected on Prue. Mrs. Ramsay sees this and believes that romantic love will find her daughter, and Prue will have an even happier ending than Minta.

The faintest light was on her face, as if the glow of Minta opposite, some excitement, some anticipation of happiness was reflected in her, as if the sun of the love of men and women rose over the rim of the table-cloth, and without knowing what it was she bent towards it and greeted it. She kept looking at Minta, shyly, yet curiously, so that Mrs. Ramsay looked from one to the other and said, speaking to Prue in her own mind, You will be as happy as she is one of these days. You will be much happier, she added, because you are my daughter, she meant; her own daughter must be happier than other people's daughters.

Here, Edgar has mortally wounded his evil brother Edmund. As if to explain, Edgar says "the gods are just" because they punish humans for their wrongdoings. This seems to suggest that Edmund deserved what he got (a stab to the guts) and it also suggests that Gloucester, Edmund's father, got what he deserved for having an affair with Edmund's mother. (Gloucester's eyes were plucked out after he was accused of treason and, he fathered a wicked child, Edmund, who betrayed him.) What's significant about this passage is the way Edgar refers to the body of Edmund's mother as a "dark and vicious place where" Edmund was begot. It seems to imply that all the bad things in the world (like the wicked Edmund, for example), spring from the loins of women. Gloucester implies something similar at the play's beginning, which we discuss in the following passage

The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices Make instruments to plague us. The dark and vicious place where thee he got Cost him his eyes

If you want evidence that divine justice does not exist in the world of the play, look no further. Just as Albany prays to the gods to protect the innocent Cordelia from harm, Lear enters holding Cordelia's lifeless body in his arms. No wonder King Lear is known as Shakespeare's "bleakest" tragedy.

The gods defend her [Cordelia]!—Bear him hence awhile. Edmund is carried off. Enter Lear with Cordelia in his arms, followed by a Gentleman.

PL At the end of the war in Heaven, the rebel angels throw themselves out of God's kingdom. Wait a minute. What? The fact that they hurl themselves over the edge makes the point about free will perfectly clear: they have nobody to blame - not God, not fate, not predestination - but themselves.

The monstrous sight Strook them with horror backward but far worse Urged them behind: headlong themselves they threw Down from the verge of Heav'n

Confessions, Augustine, throughout his life, Augustine feels pressured to do all sorts of things that are at odds with good Christianity because he knows he'll be applauded for it

The more unscrupulous I was, the greater my reputation was likely to be, for men are so blind that they even take pride in their blindness.

Here we watch racism play out. When disrespectfully addressed by a white woman, Guitar's grandmother, who is a revered elder, must drop her eyes, not make eye contact in deference to the white nurse. Despite the fact that Guitar's grandmother knows more of life (even setting aside the fact that she is so cool and has prevailed against so much hardship, there's the simple fact that Guitar's grandmother has lived longer), she must diminish herself. This scene stands in strong contrast to the way Macon Dead, her landlord, treats her not too long after. He shows no respect for her, only concerned about his money. We see right away the inequality running rampant in all aspects of society, making it nearly impossible to survive, to live peacefully as a black woman.

The stout woman turned her head slowly, her eyebrows lifted at the carelessness of the address. Then, seeing where the voice came from, she lowered her brows and veiled her eyes.

Well, they say admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. But what does Augustine mean when he says that his impiety had divided him against himself? Are there two Augustines duking it out? No. He means that by not taking the blame for his actions, Augustine is externalizing his willpower. Remember, the Manichees believe that all particles, including the particles we're made of, are either good or evil. So he thinks believing in all that material nonsense is like eating your friend's birthday cake and saying "My stomach made me do it. Sorry."

The truth, of course, was that it was all my own self, and my own impiety had divided me against myself. My sin was all the more incurable because I did not think myself a sinner.

An incredibly graphic moment. Dostoevsky's word choice is interesting here too. He compares the body to a "glass." This speaks to Raskolnikov's vision of here as a mere object, rather than a human being.

Then [X] dealt her [X] another and another blow with the blunt side and on the same spot. The blood gushed as from an overturned glass, the body fell back.

Don't try this at home. This little family-rejecting story reflects the fact the earliest Christians used the family-metaphor to understand their communal relationships, calling each other brother, sister, even father and child. The letters of Paul back that up.

Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. And he was told, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you." But he said to them, "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do i

Oh, "Explosive Lieutenant," don't be so hard on women. Why does Raskolnikov want to confess to this guy, anyway? The first time he meets him he complains that students and authors are horrible people. In this section he spends lots of time making fun of women for trying to create better opportunities for themselves. He does admit that maybe there aren't quite enough jobs for women.

Then these midwives, too, have become extraordinarily numerous.

This is Darcy and Wickham that she's talking about. Wickham is basically evil, and Darcy is, well, all you have to do is google "Darcy perfect man" to see what people think about him. But when we first meet them, we're just as taken in as Lizzy.

There certainly was some great mismanagement in the education of those two young men. One has got all the goodness, and the other all the appearance of it.

Augustine So say you know that pride is a sin. You try not to be guilty of it, right? But then you get all proud of yourself for not being guilty of pride. What a Catch-22. Augustine says that this pride of not being proud is even worse than outright pride, because it's directly contradicting what you intended. Pride is a tricky business, and true humility is not as easy as it sounds.

There is temptation in the very process of self-reproach, for often, by priding himself on his contempt for vainglory, a man is guilty of even emptier pride; and for this reason his contempt of vainglory is an empty boast, because he cannot really hold it in contempt as long as he prides himself on doing so.

Actually, Augustine, you bring up a good point. When we don't have the answer to some question—like, in this case, what happened when we were in the womb?—how are we supposed to go about finding it? Are some things just unknowable? Having God around as this Magic Eight Ball who knows everything suggests that the answer exists, even if we don't have access to it. Basically, God's existence suggest that, theoretically, everything has an explanation that could be revealed to us. Yet, when Augustine asks God for an answer, what kind of answer does he expect? It's not like God is going to beam down an answer directly to him, à la Star Trek. Instead, the sheer act of asking God shows us the limits of human knowledge.

These questions I must put to you, for I have no one else to answer them.

This is one of the novel's more heartwarming moments. Razumihin and Dounia seem to be a genuinely loving couple. We feel good about their union. The passage also comments on the deep love they both have for Raskolnikov, which is a big part of what binds them together

They [X] were continually making plans for the future; both counted on settling in Siberia within five years at least.

Wow. Isn't that a contrast to the rest of the novel? This is what we all want. In some ways love between Raskolnikov and Sonia seems impossible, even though their attraction is undeniable. This ending makes love seem possible for almost anybody.

They [X] were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other.

To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf, James and Cam on the boat with their father

They both smiled, standing there. They both felt a common hilarity, excited by the moving waves; and then by the swift cutting race of a sailing boat, which, having sliced a curve in the bay, stopped; shivered; let its sails drop down; and then, with a natural instinct to complete the picture, after this swift movement, both of them looked at the dunes far away, and instead of merriment felt come over them some sadness—because the thing was completed partly, and partly because distant views seem to outlast by a million years (Lily thought) the gazer and to be communing already with a sky which beholds an earth entirely at rest

We're back to that old dichotomy between opinion and truth again. Whereas before Augustine defined truth in terms of its eternal quality (it's unchanging like a rock, remember?), now he describes truth as universal. Opinion, it seems, has more to do with a person's ego than anything else, and if there's one thing this book tells us, it's that people are fallible. So one way for us to recognize if something is the truth is if it's true for everybody. Clever, huh? And Augustine gets to this idea when he talks about how the Scriptures can be read in many different ways that are equally correct.

They have no knowledge of the thoughts in his mind, but they are in love with their own opinions, not because they are true, but because they are their own [...] If, on the other hand, they love them because they are true, they are both theirs and mine, for they are the common property of all lovers of the truth.

Here Raskolnikov is questioning the high premium everybody places on suffering as he debates whether or not to turn himself in, and submit to prison. Also notice that he thinks he'll get at least twenty years in prison, but he only gets eight.

They say it is necessary for me to suffer! What's the object of these senseless sufferings? Shall I know any better what they are for, when I am crushed by hardships and idiocy, and weak as an old man after twenty years' penal servitude?"

PL This passage picks up where the previous left off; things like "fate," "predestination," or "high foreknowledge" don't control one's destiny; in fact, God here places the onus on man's "will," which isn't subject to such external forces as "fate," etc.

They therefore, as to right belonged, So were created, nor can justly accuse Their Maker or their making, or their fate, As if predestination overruled Their will disposed by absolute decree Or high foreknowledge

. The worse we've ever said about our little siblings is that they were being pests, and even then we didn't really mean it. How is it possible that the five sisters are so different? And would having good parents really have made a difference?

They were ignorant, idle, and vain

Ruth and Pilate

They were so different, these two women. One black, the other lemony.

The funny phrasing is the translator's interpretation of Dostoevsky's impression of how German immigrants to Russia speak. But we digress. Here we see another landlady, but a more vicious one. Katerina asked for it to be sure, but was also provoked. Like Raskolnikov, Katerina wants to be free from the landlady. As we know, this decision leads to Katerina's death and to a traumatic experience for her kids.

Thief! Out of my lodging. Police, police!" yelled X. "They must to Siberia be sent! Away!

When Edmund learns that his father, Gloucester, is helping King Lear against Cornwall's wishes, he decides to betray his father for political gain. What's interesting about this passage is that Edmund sees his conflict with his father as a conflict between the younger generation and "the old." Why is that? Some argue that, when the play pits the younger generation against the old, it dramatizes a social problem in Shakespeare's England. The argument basically goes like this: In Shakespeare's England, there was a pretty small number of old men who held all the land, wealth, and power (when something like this happens, it's called a "gerontocracy"). There was also a large and growing population of young men without any power. The result? A whole lot of bitter young men (like Edmund) looking to get ahead and willing to do just about anything to accomplish their goals.

This courtesy forbid thee shall the Duke Instantly know, and of that letter too. This seems a fair deserving, and must draw me That which my father loses—no less than all. The younger rises when the old doth fall.

Loyalty? It's not rewarded in King Lear. When Kent finally reveals his true identity to Lear, it's too late.

This is a dull sight. Are you not Kent? X The same, Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius? X He's a good fellow, I can tell you that. He'll strike, and quickly too. He's dead and rotten. X No, my good lord, I am the very man— X I'll see that straight. X That, from your first of difference and decay Have followed your sad steps. X You are welcome hither. X Nor no man else. All's cheerless, dark, and deadly. Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves, And desperately are dead. X Ay, so I think. X He knows not what he says, and vain it is That we present us to him.

When Goneril first confronts her father about the noisy and riotous knights he keeps with him, she claims the knights disrupt her household by treating her palace like a tavern or a brothel. Yet, here, when Lear is absent, Goneril admits to her husband (Albany) that she doesn't like Lear's knights because they protect him, providing Lear with way too much power. Goneril insists that by stripping Lear of all his power, her life and political position are much safer. Whereas Lear sees Goneril's objection to his knights as a matter of family disloyalty, Goneril sees it as a political and military matter.

This man hath had good counsel. A hundred knights! 'Tis politic and safe to let him keep At point a hundred knights! Yes, that, on every dream, Each buzz, each fancy, each complaint, dislike, He may enguard his dotage with their powers And hold our lives in mercy.—Oswald, I say!

Even Edmund, the play's villain, finds himself moved by pity when his brother Edgar describes the death of their father. As a result, Edmund tries to save Lear and Cordelia's lives by confessing that he's ordered his henchmen to hang them. But, just when we might begin to think that things might turn out well, we Learn that Cordelia has already been hanged.

This speech of yours hath moved me, And shall perchance do good.

Ah, puberty... or, as Augustine calls it, "the broiling sea of my fornication" (II.2.1). Same difference. Now, the problem is that people generally like sex, and when people like something, they will find reasons to do it. So that's what Augustine means when he says that "human hearts are not ashamed to sanction" sex. Again, we're seeing a tension between earthly things (in this case, laws) and spiritual ones.

This was the age at which the frenzy gripped me and I surrendered myself entirely to lust, which your law forbids but human hearts are not ashamed to sanction.

Satan's "revenge" is "mischievous." So much is clear. Notice the repetition of "curse" in both "accurst" and "cursed," as if we could forget that Satan is up to no good and that his actions will certainly have consequences. The same type of repetition is evident in the alliteration of "full fraught" and "he hies," a technique that makes the line memorable while also emphasizing Satan's evil dedication.

Thither full fraught with mischievous revenge Accurst, and in a cursèd hour, he hie

ere, Goneril complains to Lear about the licensed fool's "insolence." (A "licensed fool" literally has a license to say whatever he wants. Lear's Fool is a lot like Feste in Twelfth Night.) So, what's Goneril complaining about, exactly? As we can see from this passage, the Fool offers some pretty precise and irreverent social commentary—King Lear is "nothing" now that he's given all his power and land to his children, and so on.

Thou wast a pretty fellow when thou hadst no need to care for her frowning; now thou art an O without a figure: I am better than thou art now; I am a fool, thou art nothing. To Goneril. Yes, forsooth, I will hold my tongue. So your face bids me, though you say nothing. Mum, mum, He that keeps nor crust nor crumb, Weary of all, shall want some. hat's a shelled peascod. GONERIL Not only, sir, this your all-licensed Fool, But other of your insolent retinue Do hourly carp and quarrel, breaking forth In rank and not-to-be endurèd riots.

Pilate

Throughout the fresh, if common, pursuit of knowledge, one conviction crowned her efforts: since death held no terrors for her (she spoke often to the dead), she knew there was nothing to fear

Satan has sex with his daughter ("joy thou took'st/ With me in secret") in what is a gross parody not only of family in general, but also of the relationship between God and His Son (3.63). Moreover, Satan is, essentially, having sex with his own image, which suggests that he really only loves, or desires, himself. Narcissism anyone?

Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing Becam'st enamoured, and such joy thou took'st With me in secret, that my womb conceived A growing burden" (2.764-7)

Following Jesus means saying adios to all familial duties—even taking care of a parent's funeral. Nothing softens the blow of this demand. It would have appeared as irresponsible and downright coldhearted then as it does now.

To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God

Woolf

To her son these words conveyed an extraordinary joy, as if it were settled, the expedition were bound to take place, and the wonder to which he had looked forward, for years and years it seemed, was, after a night's darkness and a day's sail, within touch. Since he belonged, even at the age of six, to that great clan which cannot keep this feeling separate from that, but must let future prospects, with their joys and sorrows, cloud what is actually at hand, since to such people even in earliest childhood any turn in the wheel of sensation has the power to crystallise and transfix the moment upon which its gloom or radiance rests, James Ramsay, sitting on the floor cutting out pictures from the illustrated catalogue of the Army and Navy stores, endowed the picture of a refrigerator, as his mother spoke, with heavenly bliss. It was fringed with joy

It's pretty hard to compete with one of the greatest orators of Western civilization, but that's not really Augustine's point here. He's saying that he judges language by its rhetorical complexity, and quite frankly, he finds the Bible clunky and uninspiring. Learning how to read between the lines of the Bible is an important lesson for Augustine; it's not until he meets Ambrose that he gets the brilliant idea of reading the Bible figuratively instead of literally. (We can't blame him, debates about this kind of thing still rage on today.) And it's not until the last three books that Augustine starts to think about the Bible's potential for multiple meanings.

To me [the Scriptures] seemed quite unworthy of comparison with the stately prose of Cicero, because I had too much conceit to accept their simplicity and not enough insight to penetrate their depths.

This quote brings up a lot of the same issues as the other quotes about truth. Here, Augustine is using "truth" as both an adjective and a noun, and possibly in different ways. And he's conflating the ideas of truth, God, and light. But what's interesting about this passage is that Augustine has managed to make his lifelong quest for truth, as in knowledge, the same as his lifelong spiritual quest. Were they always the same thing? Or is this a new development for our man Augustine?

True happiness is to rejoice in the truth, for to rejoice in the truth is to rejoice in you, O God, who are the Truth, you, my God, my true Light, to whom I look for salvation.

Cordelia seems to recognize that she is one in a long line of people who gets shafted while trying to do the right thing. The kicker is that she doesn't yet know "the worst" consists of her death.

We are not the first Who with best meaning have incurred the worst.

What is the difference between opinions and truth, according to Augustine? Okay, okay, the truth is firm. Like a rock. And opinions are like puffs of wind, we get it. But does that mean that opinions are never the same as the truth? And how do we distinguish between them, according to Augustine?

We can see from this that the soul is weak and helpless unless it clings to the firm rock of truth. Men give voice to their opinions, but they are only opinions, like so many puffs of wind that waft the soul hither and tither and make it veer and turn.

When Lear goes off on Goneril, he insists she's more like a "disease that's in [his] flesh" than a daughter (his "flesh and blood"). Goneril, he says, is "a boil, a plague-sore," a nasty little "carbuncle" and so on. In other words, Goneril, whose name sounds a lot like "gonorrhea," is kind of like a venereal disease. In this way, Lear associates Goneril's disloyalty with the unfortunate consequences of sexual promiscuity.

We'll no more meet, no more see one another. But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter, Or rather a disease that's in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil, A plague-sore, an embossèd carbuncle, In my corrupted blood.

Hmm. A few seconds ago, we were beginning to feel sorry for poor Edmund. After all, it's no fun being labeled an "illegitimate" child. But, by this point in Edmund's soliloquy (a lengthy speech that reveals a character's inner thoughts), Edmund's self-serving speech is starting to sound pretty Darwinian. In other words, Edmund sounds like he ascribes to the idea of "the survival of the fittest," don't you think?

Well, then, Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land. Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund As to th' legitimate. Fine word, 'legitimate.' Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow, I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

King Lear, Shakespeare, during the ceremony of splitting up the kingdom, it's Cordelia's turn to speak

What shall Cordelia speak? Love, and be silent.

Luke Jesus provokes the people of his hometown Nazareth, and guess what they do? Try to throw him off of a cliff. This opening scene of Jesus's ministry definitely foreshadows his rejection by the Jews in general—who, by the way, are his own people. It's also kind of emblematic of the type of conflict with "family" that following Jesus will entail. At least Jesus practices what he preaches.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. [...] All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" [...] And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown."

For Charlotte, there's no "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes Mr. Bingley pushing the baby carriage." Instead, it's "First comes marriage, then comes the baby carriage"—and love is just a bonus.

When she is secure of him, there will be more leisure for falling in love as much as she chooses

If only we could turn suffering off like a light switch. But, as Augustine points out, suffering isn't something that exists outside of ourselves. So why does it feel that way? And even more than that, why does Augustine make it sound like his heart is the one beating up itself? Where is all of this suffering coming from? With phrases like "prey to myself" and "refuge from myself," Augustine sure is making it sound like he is the cause of his own suffering. And we have to agree with him, here, because he is the one refusing to give up on sex in order to save his own soul.

Where could my heart find refuge from itself? Where could I go, yet leave myself behind? Was there any place where I should not be a prey to myself? None.

When Lizzy needles Darcy about his pride, he fights back: it's fine to have a big ego if you actually have the skillz to support it.

Where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.

Edmund is pretty sick and tired of the way society treats younger brothers and illegitimate children (Edmund is both). According to Edmund, he's just as smart and attractive as his older, "legitimate" brother, Edgar. And yet, because of the system of primogeniture, Edgar will inherit everything when his father dies and Edmund will get nothing. (Primogeniture is the system by which eldest sons inherit all their father's land, wealth, and titles.) This is totally unfair - it's not Edmund's fault his dad had an affair or that he was born 12 or 14 months after Edgar.

Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? why 'bastard'? Wherefore 'base,' When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous and my shape as true As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us With 'base,' with 'baseness,' 'bastardy,' 'base,' 'base,

All of Satan's emotions are normally visible on his face, but here he shows his ability to display an "outward calm," even though he's as far from calm as one could get. The rhetoric of artificiality is quite patent here; we see it not only in "smoothed over," but also in "artificer." The latter contains the word "art" in it, suggesting that Satan is also some type of bad artist or something, or at least one that is more focused on the inauthentic than the natural.

Whereof he soon aware, Each perturbation smoothed with outward calme, Artificer of fraud

Augustine is using a really neat rhetorical technique here. Look at how each of his questions build on the previous one. To get an answer to the very basic "Who am I?" he specifies the answer to "What kind of man am I?" And then, to define what kind of man he is, he asks, "What evil have I not done?" So, it would seem that the kind of people we are is determined by our sins.

Who am I? What kind of man am I? What evil have I not done?

Confessions We tend to think of babies as innocent, but according to Augustine, ignorance does not equal impunity. As Augustine points out later in the paragraph, the fact that it definitely would not be acceptable for an adult to throw a tantrum shows that tantrums must be sins for children, too. The bigger point here is that no human on earth can escape sin, which means that everyone, no matter how good, needs to seek out God's mercy.

Who can recall to me the sins I committed as a baby? For in your sight no man is free from sin, not even a child who has lived only one day on earth.

Hmm. If King Lear is so intent on retirement, why in the world does he need one "hundred knights" to follow him around? It seems that Lear wants to retain a lot of power and authority but doesn't want all the hassles and responsibility of being an active ruler.

With my two daughters' dowers digest this third. Let pride, which she calls plainness, marry her. I do invest you jointly with my power, Preeminence, and all the large effects That troop with majesty. Ourself, by monthly course, With reservation of an hundred knights By you to be sustained, shall our abode Make with you by due turns. Only we still retain The name, and all the additions to a king. The sway, revenue, execution of the rest, Belovèd sons, be yours, which to confirm, This coronet part between you

After the Fall, Sin and Death build a bridge to earth; Adam and Eve have left the earth "open wide" for Sin and Death. In other words, while the characters Sin and Death can now make their way towards earth, the point is sin and death more generally have now become a part of the (fallen) world.

Within the gates of Hell sate Sin and Death, In counterview, within the gates that now Stood open wide

King Lear begins his retirement with retinue of a hundred knights. Eventually, Goneril and Regan demand he get rid of his men and decrease Lear's knights to a number of seventy-five, then fifty, then twenty-five, then one, and then, finally, zero. A big fat goose egg. What happens to all those men who were once employed in Lear's service? They simply disperse, becoming part of a growing population of what historian A.L. Beier referred to as "masterless men," homeless wanderers that roamed the countryside. As Beier notes, vagrants were called "masterless" because they were unemployed and landless in a period when the able-bodied poor were supposed to have masters" (Masterless Men: The Vagrancy Problem in England 1560-1640, p. xix). The dispersal of King Lear's knights not only speaks to Lear's dramatic loss of power but also offers a bit of social commentary in the play.

X Hear me, my lord. What need you five-and-twenty, ten, or five, To follow in a house where twice so many Have a command to tend you? X What need one?

KL Cordelia, as we know, refuses to play King Lear's game of "who loves daddy the most." Here, she says that she loves her father "according to [her] bond," which means that she loves him just as much a daughter should love her father, "no more nor less." It turns out that Cordelia is about to be married and insists that she reserves half her love for her future husband and half for her father. She also points out that her sisters, Goneril and Regan, dishonor their husbands when they claim to love their father more than their spouses. Is this the reason Lear flips out and banishes Cordelia, depriving her of a dowry? Is Lear jealous of Cordelia's future husband?

X I love your Majesty According to my bond; nor more nor less. X How, how, Cordelia? Mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes. X Good my lord, You have begot me, bred me, loved me. I return those duties back as are right fit: Obey you, love you, and most honor you. Why have my sisters husbands if they say They love you all? Haply, when I shall wed, That lord whose hand must take my plight shall carry Half my love with him, half my care and duty. Sure, I shall never marry like my sisters, To love my father all.

KL Hmm. Seems like Shakespeare's trying to tell us there's going to be a whole lot of family drama up in this play. According to Gloucester, his illegitimate son, Edmund, is a bit of an embarrassment—Gloucester claims he has "often blushed to acknowledge" Edmund (because the young man was conceived out of wedlock). When Kent says he doesn't understand Gloucester's meaning, Gloucester puns on the word "conceive" (to understand or to biologically conceive a child) in order to crack a dirty joke about the mother of his illegitimate son. (Edmund, by the way, is standing next to his father the entire time!) It's not so surprising, then, that Edmund turns out to have a grudge against his father.

X Is not this your son, my lord? X His breeding, sir, hath been at my charge. I have so often blushed to acknowledge him, that now I am brazed to 't. X I cannot conceive you. X Sir, this young fellow's mother could, whereupon she grew round-wombed and had indeed, sir, a son for her cradle ere she had a husband for her bed. Do you smell a fault?

When King Lear disowns Cordelia, who refuses to say she loves her father the most, he "disclaim[s] all [his] paternal care" and insists that Cordelia is no more to Lear than a "barbarous Scythian" or a man that eats his parents and/or his children ("makes his generation messes to gorge his appetite"). In other words, Lear equates Cordelia's so-called betrayal of her father with a kind of barbarous cannibalism. According to literary critic Stephen Greenblatt, this is Lear's biggest "folly." Cordelia is the one daughter that actually does love King Lear. Lear's banishment of Cordelia, as we see, sets the play's tragic events in motion.

X Let it be so. Thy truth, then, be thy dower, For by the sacred radiance of the sun, The mysteries of Hecate and the night, By all the operation of the orbs From whom we do exist, and cease to be, Here I disclaim all my paternal care, Propinquity, and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian, Or he that makes his generation messes To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom Be as well neighbored, pitied, and relieved As thou my sometime daughter.

Here, King Lear says he wants to divide his kingdom into three parts. But, anyone who's seen the play Henry IV Part 1 and remembers the rebels' plans to divide Britain into three territories knows that this is a big no-no.

X Meantime we shall express our darker purpose.— Give me the map there. He is handed a map. Know that we have divided In three our kingdom,

When Lear encounters Poor Tom (Edgar disguised as a poor, naked, beggar), he concludes that Poor Tom's terrible state must have been caused by Tom's "daughters." When the Fool points out that "Poor Tom" has no children, Lear insists that there's nothing in the world that could have reduced a man to such a lowly state... except "his unkind daughters." For Lear, it seems that all the problems of the world are caused by women.

X Now all the plagues that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters! X He hath no daughters, sir. X Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters.

After Goneril and Regan betray Lear (who has given them all his land and power), he's quick to condemn all women as he attempts to blame the troubles of the world on "unkind daughters." What's particularly interesting about this passage is the way Lear compares his daughters to "pelicans." In Shakespeare's day, mother pelicans were thought to have wounded their breasts so their young could feed off their blood. (Ew.) King Lear's being a bit of a martyr here, as he suggests that he is like a mother pelican who has been sacrificed so his greedy daughters can thrive. Lear is pretty fond of using this kind of imagery—earlier in the play, he compared Cordelia to a man who eats his parents (or children). History Snack: In the late sixteenth century (just a short time before Shakespeare wrote King Lear), Queen Elizabeth I (who never had any kids) used the image of the pelican in order to portray herself as a kind of loving and self-sacrificing "mother" to her "children" (the subjects of England).

X Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults light on thy daughters! KENT He hath no daughters, sir. X Death, traitor! Nothing could have subdued nature To such a lowness but his unkind daughters. Is it the fashion that discarded fathers Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Judicious punishment! 'Twas this flesh begot Those pelican daughters.

As she bends over her ailing father to revive him with a kiss, Cordelia reveals that she has one of the kindest, loving hearts in English literature. Even after her father unfairly banished her, love and forgiveness come naturally.

X O, my dear father, restoration hang Thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss Repair those violent harms that my two sisters Have in thy reverence made. KENT Kind and dear princess

Because Lear has no sons to inherit his crown after he dies, Lear believes that dividing up his kingdom now (among his daughters and sons-in-law), he will prevent any "future strife" that might result if he dies without an heir. Although Lear says he's going to divide the kingdom into three equal parts, here, he stages a kind of love test (based on who says they love Lear the most) to determine who will get the largest portion of his kingdom. (Check out "Language and Communication" if you want to know more about the nature of this "love test.")

X Our son of Cornwall, And you, our no less loving son of Albany, We have this hour a constant will to publish Our daughters' several dowers, that future strife May be prevented now. The two great princes, France and Burgundy, Great rivals in our youngest daughter's love, Long in our court have made their amorous sojourn, And here are to be answered. Tell me, my daughters— Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state— Which of you shall we say doth love us most, That we our largest bounty may extend Where nature doth with merit challenge. Goneril, Our eldest born, speak first.

Now this is interesting. Lear admits that he's angry with Cordelia because he "loved her the most" and was hoping to "set [his] rest on her kind nursery." In other words, Lear was hoping that Cordelia would play mother or nursemaid to him when he retired, which makes Lear more of a child or a baby than a father, don't you think? This is especially apparent when Lear says he's going to spend his retirement "crawl[ing] toward death" (1.1.43). Compare this passage to 1.4. below.

X Peace, Kent! Come not between the dragon and his wrath. I loved her most, and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery. To Cordelia. Hence and avoid my sight!— So be my grave my peace, as here I give Her father's heart from her.

Cornwall blinds Gloucester for being a "traitor" (that is, loyal to King Lear). Is Gloucester under any obligation to serve Cornwall?

X See 't shalt thou never.—Fellows, hold the chair.— Upon these eyes of thine I'll set my foot. X He that will think to live till he be old, Give me some help! As Servants hold the chair, Cornwall forces out one of Gloucester's eyes. O cruel! O you gods! X One side will mock another. Th' other too.

Kent is the only one who stands up to Lear after the king disowns Cordelia for refusing to flatter Lear. When Kent points out that Cordelia (not Goneril and Regan) loves Lear the most, he's told to shut his mouth, or else. But Kent won't be silenced—he's worried about Lear's safety so he speaks what's on his mind. His reward for being so blunt? Lear banishes him, of course.

X Thy youngest daughter does not love thee least, Nor are those empty-hearted whose low sound Reverb no hollowness. X Kent, on thy life, no more. X My life I never held but as a pawn To wage against thy enemies; nor fear to lose it, Thy safety being the motive. X Out of my sight

After Lear banishes his loyal servant Kent, Kent manages to find a way to serve his beloved master. Here, he appears on the heath, disguised as "Caius" in order to join Lear's retinue. But why? Lear's kind of a lousy master, after all. Some literary critics see Kent as upholding an old and dying model of service, where servants put their master's needs above all else. Kent's loyalty, say some, is pitted against Shakespeare's representation of Oswald, a disloyal servant who only ever looks out for himself. So, what do you think? Is the play nostalgic for the days when servants were loyal enough to follow their master's into their graves? Before you decide, you might want to check out the end, where Kent says he's going to follow his (dead) master on a "journey."

X What art thou? X A very honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as the King. X If thou be'st as poor for a subject as he is for a king, thou art poor enough. What wouldst thou? X Service. X Who wouldst thou serve? X You. X Dost thou know me, fellow? X No, sir, but you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master.

When Lear asks "who is it can tell me who I am?" it is his Fool who responds in an interesting and provocative way. The Fool's answer ("Lear's shadow") can be read in a couple of ways. On the one hand, it could mean the person who can tell Lear who he "is" is Lear's Fool (who is thought of as Lear's "shadow" because he follows or shadows Lear around the countryside). Alternatively, we can read the line thus: Lear is nothing but a shadow, which suggests that Lear is merely a shadow of his former self now that he's given away all his land. In other words, the Fool is saying that Lear, (whose status has changed since retirement) is nothing without his former power and title. This is pretty ballsy, don't you think? However we decide to read this passage, one thing is certain—Lear's Fool is one of the few people who ever tell it like it is.

X Who is it that can tell me who I am? X Lear's shadow

he writers of One Life to Live must have read King Lear because this play is beginning to look and sound a lot like a soap opera. After Albany finds out that his wife has been sleeping with Edmund (and that his sister-in-law, Regan, is trying hook up with Edmund too), he charges Goneril and Edmund with "treason." Because Albany is a ruler, Goneril's infidelity doesn't just make her a disloyal spouse, it makes her a criminal against the state.

X [...] Edmund, I arrest thee On capital treason; and, in thine attaint, This gilded serpent.—For your claim, fair sister, I bar it in the interest of my wife. 'Tis she is sub-contracted to this lord, And I, her husband, contradict your banns. If you will marry, make your loves to me. My lady is bespoke.

After King Lear gives his kingdom away to his daughters, the Fool chastises him for giving away all his land and power. (After all, Goneril has just kicked Lear out of her palace and Lear is about to become homeless.) Here, the Fool cracks a joke, comparing Lear to a snail that has given away his shell and has no home. What's most interesting to us about this passage, however, is the Fool's suggestion that Lear is a cuckold. A "cuckold" is a common Elizabethan term for a man who has been cheated on by his wife and, in Shakespeare's plays, horns are a pretty common sign that a man has been cuckolded. So, why does the Fool imply that Lear has "horns"? (Lear's wife is dead.) The Fool seems to equate the betrayal by Lear's daughters with like sexual infidelity—it's as though Lear's daughters, Goneril and Regan, are no better than a cheating wife. That's a pretty odd thing to imply, don't you think?

X [...] I can tell why a snail has a house. X Why? X Why, to put 's head in, not to give it away to his daughters and leave his horns without a case.

In this passage, Shakespeare reveals Edmund's motives for trying to destroy his father, Gloucester, and his brother, Edgar. Edmund has been mistreated and labeled a "base" "bastard" for two reasons: 1) he's an illegitimate child, the product of Gloucester's affair with an unmarried woman; 2) Edmund is not an eldest son (Edgar was born first). In Shakespeare's day, primogeniture (the system by which eldest sons inherit all their fathers' wealth, titles, lands, power, debt, etc.) was the rule. Edmund is not only seen as a lesser being than his older half-brother, Edgar, he also stands to inherit nothing from his father. But, Edmund objects to the way society views him as insignificant and insists that he's just as noble and well-composed as his brother, Edgar. It is here that Edmund resolves to go after Edgar's "land" as he composes a scheme for revenge.

X [...] Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother? why 'bastard'? Wherefore 'base,' When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous and my shape as true As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us With 'base,' with 'baseness,' 'bastardy,' 'base,' 'base,' Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take More composition and fierce quality Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed Go to th' creating a whole tribe of fops Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well then, Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land. Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund As to th' legitimate. Fine word, 'legitimate,' Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top th' legitimate. I grow, I prosper. Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

When Lear announces his decision to divvy up his kingdom among his daughters, he says he's transferring the burdens of kingship and responsibility to "younger strengths" (his daughters and sons-in-law) while Lear, an aging king, "crawl[s] toward death." In this passage, Lear conjures an image of a feeble old man who cannot walk upright and must "crawl" like an infant, which suggests that King Lear's retirement (and old age in general) are infantilizing—leaving one as weak and vulnerable as an infant. Lear's decision to give up his crown to "younger strengths" seems like a pretty poor choice, don't you think?

X [...] and 'tis our fast intent To shake all cares and business from our age, Conferring them on younger strengths, while we Unburdened crawl toward death.

Lear's Fool (Lear's personal comedian) seems pretty smart when he points out that Lear's daughters became more like his "mother" when Lear gave up his power and his kingdom to them. The Fool notes that Lear might as well have pulled down his "breeches" (pants) and given his daughters a "rod" to spank him with. Speaking of mothers, we also want to point out that, even though there's a lot of talk about moms in this play, there aren't actually any mothers present in King Lear. What's up with that?

X [...] e'er since thou mad'st thy daughters thy mothers. For when thou gav'st them the rod and put'st down thine own breeches,

Notice any parallels between Edmund and Lear's wicked daughters, Goneril and Regan? Each character uses deceptive words to fool their fathers. When Edmund forges a letter in order to frame his brother and fool his father, it becomes pretty clear that language simply can't be trusted. FYI—Shakespeare uses a forged letter in his play, Twelfth Night, to make a similar poin

X [...] if this letter speed And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top th' legitimate. I grow, I prosper.

Although Cordelia is clearly Lear's most loving daughter, she refuses to participate in Lear's love test. Instead of professing her love and obedience like her two-faced sisters, Cordelia insists that she "cannot heave [her] heart into [her] mouth." In other words, Cordelia insists that her love for Lear is literally unspeakable. Brain Snack: Shakespeare seems to make a similar point in Sonnet 18, which is all about whether or not the poet can find words to convey how he truly feels about his beloved.

X [...] what can you say to draw A third more opulent than your sisters'? Speak. X Nothing, my lord. X Nothing? X Nothing. X Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again. X Unhappy that I am, I cannot heave My heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty According to my bond, nor more nor less. X How, how, Cordelia! Mend your speech a little, Lest it may mar your fortunes.

What a relief this moment is. We can't imagine how Dounia will get away from Svidrigaïlov, but she's saved by the gun, just in the nick of time. Dounia doesn't take advantage of the situation, just nicks his forehead to make a point. (Or she's just a bad shot.) In any case, he won't be so lucky when he turns the same gun on himself.

X raised the revolver, and deadly pale, gazed at him [X], measuring the distance and awaiting the first movement on his part.

When Gloucester reads the fake letter that Edgar supposedly wrote to his brother, Edmund, he seems ready to believe that his son would conspire to kill him. But why? Shakespeare explores how Gloucester's relationships with his two sons dramatize some common issues surrounding primogeniture (the system by which eldest sons inherit their fathers' wealth, titles, lands, power, debt, etc.). The letter proposes that the brothers kill their father so they can share Gloucester's wealth ("revenue"), which gives voice to a common fear that all sons look forward to their fathers' deaths. This kind of anxiety can also be found in other plays like Hamlet and Henry IV Parts 1 and 2.

X reads This policy and reverence of age makes the world bitter to the best of our times, keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the oppression of aged tyranny, who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If our father would sleep till I waked him, you should half his revenue forever and live the beloved of your brother. Edgar.' Hum? Conspiracy? 'Sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue.' My son Edgar! Had he a hand to write this? A heart and brain to breed it in?—When came this to you? Who brought it?

Some pronoun clarification: "they" are the Manichees and "you" is God. In fact, this is the very first we hear of the Manichees in the Confessions, considering how important they are in Augustine's development. Augustine sees the Manichees as people who lay claim to a false truth. And that's a pretty dangerous sign, because it means that any shmuck can claim truths. Now, logically, we might say "But why should we believe Augustine's truth? Why is his truth any more real than what the Manichees believe?" Well, dear readers, this little conundrum isn't lost on Augustine either, which is why he is so intent on showing why the logic behind Christian notions of God, good and evil, free will, and the creation are foolproof.

Yet "Truth and truth alone" was the motto which they repeated to me again and again, although the truth was nowhere to be found in them. All that they said was false, both what they said about you, who truly are the Truth, and what they said about this world and its first principles, which were your creation

What does it mean that such wisdom "needs no light besides itself"? This quote kind of reminds us of when Augustine talks about having his back to the light, so that he can only see what it illumines. In fact, that's the exact word he uses both there and here. Augustine is also talking about how God is unchangeable and has always existed... In

You alone are the life which never dies and the wisdom that needs no light besides itself, but illumines all who need to be enlightened, the wisdom that governs the world, down to the leaves that flutter on the trees

CP Profiry The fresh air in question is the fresh air of hard labor in the Siberian prison camp, which does seem to do Raskolnikov some good. What we find interesting about this passage is that Porfiry is trying to convince Raskolnikov that this process of criminal justice will provide him with personal justice - a chance to start a new life.

You must fulfill the demands of justice. I know that you don't believe it, but indeed, life will bring you through. You will live it down in time. What you need now is fresh air, fresh air, fresh air!"

Raskolnikov knows that confessing, the act of speaking his crimes, causes him to suffer - yet, he can't stop doing it. He needs to tell. The suffering of telling is less than the suffering of not telling.

[X] had to tell her [Sonia] who had killed X. He knew the terrible suffering it would be to him and, as it were, brushed away the thought of it.

Wow, talk about an about-face from that last quote. Now Augustine is talking about looking for God, and not seeing him because he himself doesn't realize the extent of his own erring. Even though before he was talking about not being able to escape himself. Here, he's conveying suffering through the idea of separation and isolation; but it's not just isolation from God, but isolation from himself, too. Does Augustine mean to say that he had given up on himself? Does he mean that he didn't know who he was or wanted to be? What exactly does it mean to be lost anyway?

You were there before my eyes, but I had deserted even my own self. I could not find myself, much less find you.

Although Lear had hoped that division of his kingdom would prevent strife and result in unity, Lear's decision has clearly resulted in conflict and disorder. Here, Kent reveals that civil war is brewing between Albany and Cornwall and France is preparing to invade.

[...] There is division, Although as yet the face of it be covered With mutual cunning, 'twixt Albany and Cornwall, Who have—as who have not, that their great stars Throned and set high? [...] But true it is, from France there comes a power Into this scattered kingdom, who already, Wise in our negligence, have secret feet In some of our best ports and are at point To show their open banner.

Boccacio

[...] all respect for the laws of God and man virtually broken down and been extinguished in our city

Lear's Fool (Lear's personal comedian) seems pretty smart when he points out that Lear's daughters became more like his "mother" when Lear gave up his power and his kingdom to them. The Fool notes that Lear might as well have pulled down his "breeches" (pants) and given his daughters a "rod" to spank him with. By basically giving his kingdom to his daughters, Lear has not only given up his adult authority, he has deprived himself of all power. We talk about this in "Family" too, so check it out if you want to think about how Lear's poor political choices resonate in his family relationships.

[...] e'er since thou mad'st thy daughters thy mothers. For when thou gav'st them the rod, and put'st down thine own breeches, (

CP When Luzhin says this in reference to Dounia and her mother, the gig is pretty much up. Our judgment of Luzhin is pretty negative. Luzhin is also one of the novel's most judgmental characters, as our quote demonstrates.

[...] it rested with him to punish them and there would always be time for that.

What a creepy moment. We knew Ilya was "explosive," but why would he beat Raskolnikov's landlady? Is it because of the story Raskolnikov told him at the police station? Did Raskolnikov somehow cause this? Well, only in his dreams. It never happens, but it sure seems real when we read it.

[...] she was beseeching, no doubt, not to be beaten, for she was being mercilessly beaten on the stairs.

Crime and Punishment Uh oh. He really sounds like a criminal here. Depending on the crime, rehearsing can get you into almost as much trouble as actually committing it.

[...] was positively going now for a "rehearsal" of his project, and at every step his excitement grew more and more violent.

Svidrigaïlov is so quotable. We heard from Pulcheria that Svidrigaïlov had alcohol issues. But really, that's probably the least of his problems. Raskolnikov thinks Svidrigaïlov is being so talkative because he's had too much to drink. We bet that Svidrigaïlov isn't saying anything he doesn't want to say.

[Svidrigaïlov:] "I've drunk too much though, I see that. I was almost saying too much again. Damn the wine! Hi! there, water!

We love Razumihin's energy. Even though he dropped out of college, he knows multiple languages and is very business savvy. Do you think he's reached the point where he doesn't need the structure of school to guide his studies?

[X:] "And the great point of the business is that we shall know just what wants translating, and we shall be translating, publishing, learning all at once.

Many of the violent moments in the novel involve Katerina. Sure, she has a right to be mad about the stolen money, but it's painful to read about her treatment of her husband nonetheless. It's also darkly comic. We are angry with Marmeladov for not being stronger and we want something to wake him to the reality of it. He himself thinks the hair-pulling might help.

[X:] "Mercy on us, can he have drunk it all? There were twelve silver roubles left in the chest!" and in a fury she seized him by the hair and dragged him into the room.

We don't blame you for shuddering. The girl in question is only fourteen. By Svidrigaïlov's own later admission, he sexually abused her, which caused her to kill herself.

[X:] "X hated this girl, and grudged her every crust; she used to beat her mercilessly. One day the girl was found hanging in the garret. At the inquest the verdict was suicide."

Did you find it odd that Dounia has a better education than Luzhin, yet she can't get a decent job and he can? This is because very few professional positions were open to women in Russia (and elsewhere) in the 1860s.

[X:] "X[X] makes no secret of the fact that he had a cheap education, he is proud indeed of having made his own way." (3.3.124)

he narrator tells us later that Katerina's education is what allows her to maintain a certain "dignity" and pride through all of her trial and tribulations. The suggestion is that education has value beyond helping one get that dream job. It can also be a source of sustenance. We don't know if Katerina is the best character to demonstrate that point.

[X:] "[...] but X X, my spouse, is a person of education and an officer's daughter."

Andrey Semyonovitch has a different take on Sonia's prostitution. He sees it as a practical move to alleviate suffering. The suffering of prostitution, in his mind, is better than the suffering of starving

[X] "Even as it is, she was quite right: she was suffering and that was her asset, so to speak, her capital which she had a perfect right to dispose of."

We say elsewhere that Raskolnikov isn't very romantic to Sonia. That's not entirely true. He throws himself at her feet an awful lot, though he usually follows it with this kind of comment. More importantly, this passage shows that Raskolnikov sees Sonia as a symbol of everybody's suffering.

[X] "I did not bow down to you [Sonia], I bowed down to all the suffering of humanity," he said wildly and walked away to the window.

Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky, Raskolnikov is so consumed by his bad idea that he doesn't care about his poverty anymore

[X] was crushed by poverty, but the anxieties of his position had of late ceased to weigh upon him.

PL What's a poem without a character named Sin? Sin springs out of Satan's head - a strange birth indeed. Milton alludes here to a mythological story where Athena (ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, victory, and other things) sprung from Zeus' head. Who better than Satan to give birth to something as far from wisdom as sin? The passage says as much about Sin as it does about Satan and about Milton's relationship to ancient myth.

a Goddess armed Out of thy head I sprung! Amazement seized All the' Host of Heav'n. Back they recoiled afraid At first and called me Sin, and for a sign Portentous held me

Aha! Proof that Raskolnikov hasn't been doing his homework, and evidence that he's dropped out of school. Dostoevsky belabors this point so we understand that education is a big issue here.

a painted table in the corner on which lay a few manuscripts and books; the dust that lay thick upon them showed that they had been long untouched.

PL The repetition of "free will" in this passage points to its importance and centrality in the poem, but the tortured syntax makes the issue more complicated than a simple matter of emphasis. Adam can control his own happiness ("left free to will"), but free will can turn into something else if he's not careful. What exactly? We're not sure.

advise him of his happy state— Happiness in his power left free to will, Left to his own free will, his will though free Yet mutable

Moloch proposes that the fallen angels continue to batter God's throne through what he earlier calls "open war" (2.51). Here, he importantly suggests that achieving "victory" is not necessarily as important as being really annoying. He wants to make "perpetual inroads," almost like some annoying insect, because this will at least be some form of "revenge," which is not necessarily synonymous with victory, but is just as valuable.

and by proof we feel Our power sufficient to disturb His Heav'n, And with perpetual inroads to alarm, Though inaccessible, His fatal throne, Which if not victory is yet revenge

Satan's plans to get revenge will backfire; all his "malice" does exactly the opposite of what he wants because it serves to "bring forth/ Infinite goodness." Also, he will experience "treble confusion," a state not unlike that in which he finds himself at the beginning of the poem. In a sense, then, he will end up right where he began when he made his plans for revenge.

and enraged might see How all his malice served but to bring forth Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy shown On Man by him seduced, but on himself Treble confusion, wrath and vengeance poured

There are dozens of lines like this one to be found in Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov does not like drunks and the first chapter, in particular, emphasizes this point.

and the drunken men whom he met continually, although it was a working day, completed the revolting misery of the picture

Satan's first encounter with Eve (the evil dream he whispers in her ear) closely resembles his second (the Forbidden Fruit); in both, he appeals to Eve's pride, offering her the possibility of divinity ("thyself a goddess") and greater happiness while also boosting her self-esteem ("fair angelic Eve"). Here, as in Book 9, Satan attempts to get Eve to share in his misery by making her more like him (he fell because he wanted to be the god).

fair angelic Eve, Partake thou also! Happy though thou art, Happier thou may'st be, worthier canst not be. Taste this, and be henceforth among the gods Thyself a goddess, not to Earth confined"

Satan and his legions are turned into serpents after the Fall as a result of their role in it. Serpents can't walk upright like angels or humans; in Paradise Lost, the ability to stand "erect," or to stand at all, is a mark of either distinction or proximity to God. This is a fitting punishment, for it further removes the fallen angels from the realm of humans, angels, etc.

for now were all transformed Alike, to serpents all as accessories To his bold riot"

Part of the problem with Satan's pride is that it makes him an "aspirer" to God's throne; he's not just dissatisfied with God's Son, but, it seems, with God as well. Otherwise, his legions wouldn't attempt to place him on God's "throne." As in many other passages, pride is associated with an inappropriate movement upwards or an attempt to gain control of something that is supposed to be out of reach (God's throne, knowledge, etc.).

for they weened That selfsame day by fight, or by surprise To win the Mount of God, and on His throne To set the envier of His State, the proud Aspirer

"Infidel" is also sometimes translated as "atheist." The other prisoners also seem to dislike Raskolnikov because of the nature of his crimes. Likely, they assumed he had to be an atheist to do what he did. But maybe they think he's an atheist because of the way he treats Sonia, who they all adore. Interestingly, they learn to accept Raskolnikov when he learns to accept Sonia.

had never talked to them about God nor his belief, but they wanted to kill him as an infidel.

Milton here describes Belial; notice the rhetoric of "seeming." It is implied in the famous simile about the island (described above), and discussed more explicitly here. Belial is "false and hollow," a description that resonates nicely with the canon sequence (described below). Things are not always what they seem in this poem; in fact, they are often not what they "seem

he seemed For dignity composed and high exploit: But all was false and hollow"

The serpent is the proper "vessel," the "fittest imp" for Satan. It's not totally clear why, especially since Milton is at pains to point out how everything is innocent. Is the serpent already a deceptive animal? Notice the contrast between "dark suggestions" and "sharpest sight," a dichotomy which plays on the contrast through the poem between darkness (Hell, Satan, etc.) and light (Heaven, good angels, etc.).

his final sentence chose Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud in whom To enter and his dark suggestions hide From sharpest sight

Pride is associated with a sense of superiority, and Satan - here disguised as the serpent - deceives Eve with the ridiculous idea that one can have a "more perfect" life. How can there be something beyond perfection? The very fact that "more perfect" occurs alongside the idea of attaining more than "fate/ Meant" suggests quite clearly both Satan's illogic and the dangers of pride.

look on me! Me who have touched and tasted yet both live And life more perfect have attained than fate Meant me, by vent'ring higher than my Lot

It's a good thing Raskolnikov isn't a drinker. It's also ironic that he acts like a drunk, considering how he feels about them.

walked along the pavement like a drunken man, regardless of the passers-by, and jostling against them, and only came to his senses when he was in the next street.

Raphael uses similitude to give some idea of what Heaven is like, knowing full well that this is at best an imperfect approximation. Raphael seems a lot like John Milton, who must have faced the same exact problem of trying to explain "spiritual" things in earthly or "corporal" terms.

what surmounts the reach Of human sense, I shall delineate so, By likening spiritual to corporal forms, As may express them best, though what if Earth Be but the shadow of Heav'n, and things therein Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?

Miss bingley/ Darcy about Elizabeth

when the door was closed on her, "is one of those young ladies who seek to recommend themselves to the other sex by undervaluing their own; and with many men, I dare say, it succeeds. But, in my opinion, it is a paltry device, a very mean art." "Undoubtedly," replied Darcy, to whom this remark was chiefly addressed, "there is a meanness in all the arts which ladies sometimes condescend to employ for captivation. Whatever bears affinity to cunning is despicable.

Satan here appeals to Eve's pride, suggesting that she deserves to know good and evil; it's only natural ("proportion meet"). One should note the irony of using a phrase like "proportion meet." The world is already perfect, yet somehow Satan's rhetoric - maybe because of its own neat "proportions" - convinces Eve that things aren't fair, right, or in "proportion."

ye shall be as Gods Knowing both good and evil as they know. That ye should be as Gods, since I as Man, Internal Man, is but proportion meet"

Satan's subservience to "public reason" - probably some sense of duty or responsibility to his legions - is what partly causes him to go through with his plans of revenge. He suggests that the only reason he's still going through with it is because he made a promise. He makes a distinction between a "public" and a more private self, crediting all his evil plans to the former and all the nicer ones (about abhorring what he's about to do, melting at the sight of Adam and Eve right before this, etc.).

yet public reason just, Honor and empire with revenge enlarged By conquering this new world compels me now To do what else, though damned, I should abho

Satan's subservience to "public reason" - probably some sense of duty or responsibility to his legions - is what partly causes him to go through with his plans of revenge. He suggests that the only reason he's still going through with it is because he made a promise. He makes a distinction between a "public" and a more private self, crediting all his evil plans to the former and all the nicer ones (about abhorring what he's about to do, melting at the sight of Adam and Eve right before this, etc.).

yet public reason just, Honor and empire with revenge enlarged By conquering this new world compels me now To do what else, though damned, I should abhor"