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At Home’ at Old Jolyon’sChapter 1 Those privileged to be present at a family festival of the Forsytes have seen that charming and instructive sight — an upper middle-class family in full plumage. But whosoever of these favoured persons has possessed the gift of psychological analysis (a talent without monetary value and properly ignored by the Forsytes), has witnessed a spectacle, not only delightful in itself, but illustrative of an obscure human problem. In plainer words, he has gleaned from a gathering of this family — no branch of which had a liking for the other, between no three members of whom existed anything worthy of the name of sympathy — evidence of that mysterious concrete tenacity which renders a family so formidable a unit of society, so clear a reproduction of society in miniature. He has been admitted to a vision of the dim roads of social progress, has understood something of patriarchal life, of the swarmings of savage hordes, of the rise and fall of nations. He is like one who, having watched a tree grow from its planting — a paragon of tenacity, insulation, and success, amidst the deaths of a hundred other plants less fibrous, sappy, and persistent — one day will see it flourishing with bland, full foliage, in an almost repugnant prosperity, at the summit of its efflorescence. On June 15, eighteen eighty-six, about four of the afternoon, the observer who chanced to be present at the house of old Jolyon Forsyte in Stanhope Gate, might have seen the highest efflorescence of the Forsytes. This was the occasion of an ‘at home’ to celebrate the engagement of Miss June Forsyte, old Jolyon’s granddaughter, to Mr. Philip Bosinney. In the bravery of light gloves, buff waistcoats, feathers and frocks, the family were present, even Aunt Ann, who now but seldom left the corner of her brother Timothy’s green drawing-room, where, under the aegis of a plume of dyed pampas 4grass in a light blue vase, she sat all day reading and knitting, surrounded by the effigies of three generations of Forsytes. Even Aunt Ann was there; her inflexible back, and the dignity of her calm old face personifying the rigid possessiveness of the family idea. When a Forsyte was engaged, married, or born, the Forsytes were present; when a Forsyte died — but no Forsyte had as yet died; they did not die; death being contrary to their principles, they took precautions against it, the instinctive precautions of highly vitalized persons who resent encroachments on their property. About the Forsytes mingling that day with the crowd of other guests, there was a more than ordinarily groomed look, an alert, inquisitive assurance, a brilliant respectability, as though they were attired in defiance of something. The habitual sniff on the face of Soames Forsyte had spread through their ranks; they were on their guard. The subconscious offensiveness of their attitude has constituted old Jolyon’s ‘home’ the psychological moment of the family history, made it the prelude of their drama. The Forsytes were resentful of something, not individually, but as a family; this resentment expressed itself in an added perfection of raiment, an exuberance of family cordiality, an exaggeration of family importance, and — the sniff. Danger — so indispensable in bringing out the fundamental quality of any society, group, or individual — was what the Forsytes scented; the premonition of danger put a burnish on their armour. For the first time, as a family, they appeared to have an instinct of being in contact, with some strange and unsafe thing. Over against the piano a man of bulk and stature was wearing two waistcoats on his wide chest, two waistcoats and a ruby pin, instead of the single satin waistcoat and diamond pin of more usual occasions, and his shaven, square, old face, the colour of pale leather, with pale eyes, had its most dignified look, above his satin stock. This was Swithin Forsyte. Close to the window, where he could get more than his fair share of fresh air, the other twin, James — the fat and the lean of it, old Jolyon called these brothers — like the bulky Swithin, over six feet in height, but very lean, as though destined from his birth to strike a balance and maintain an average, brooded over the scene with his permanent stoop; his grey eyes had an air of fixed absorption in some secret worry, broken at intervals by a rapid, shifting scrutiny of surrounding facts; his cheeks, thinned by two parallel folds, and a long, clean-shaven upper lip, were framed within Dundreary whiskers. In his hands he turned and turned a piece of china. Not far off, listening to a lady in brown, his only son Soames, pale and well-shaved, dark-haired, rather bald, had poked his chin up sideways, carrying his nose with that aforesaid appearance of ‘sniff,’ as though despising an egg which he knew he could not digest. Behind him his cousin, the tall George, son of the fifth Forsyte, Roger, had a Quilpish look on his fleshy face, pondering one of his sardonic jests. Something inherent to the occasion had affected them all.
IE Gmc
Lat Scand Fr It Gk Celt
Fact – feat No – nay Name – noun
Delightful-fr+native
Class, satin
Offensiveness – 3 morphemes – a root & 2 prefixes Derivational analysis Offense-offensive, detect-detective Offensive-offensiveness, vendictiveness Analysis on the Immediate Constituents Offensive+ness Offense+ive+ness
Window – vindauga(Scand) Lady – hlafdige(bread kneader)-OE Maintain – L manutenere<manu-hand, tenere-hold> to hold by the hand
Affixation Delightful - adj-forming - native Gmc - the idea of presence of some quality - N-stems - productive - frequent - neutral Subconscious - convertive - borrowed Rom - the idea of being under, below - N, V, adj-stems - Productive - Frequent - Neutral Compound words Granddaughter 1) neutral 2) determinative 3) proper 4) only root stems 5) endocentric 6) fully-motivated Waistcoat 1) neutral 2) additive 3) proper 4) only root stems 5) endocentric 6) partially-motivated Drawing-room 1) neutral 2) determinative 3) derivative 4) 1 – derived, 1 – root 5) Endocentric 6) Partially Dark-haired 1) neutral 2) determinative 3) derivative 4) 1 – derived, 1 – root 5) Endocentric 6) Fully-motivated Sideway 1) neutral 2) determinative 3) proper 4) only root stems 5) endocentric 6) fully Conversion Present – a present (N>V – to provide with a thing described by a N) Rise – a rise, fall – a fall (V>N – a sg action) Chance – a chance (N>V – 1) Look – a look (V>N – 2)
Drawing-room – the withdrawing room to which ladies withdrew after dinner, leaving the men to their wine & cigars Glove – the palm of the hand Person – actor’s face mask Thing – that which is said
Branch - a division of some larger or more complex organization - a division of a stem, or secondary stem arising from the main stem of a plant - a part of a forked or branching shape - a natural consequence of development - a stream or river connected to a larger one Leave - go away from a place - go and leave behind, either intentionally or by neglect or forgetfulness - move out of or depart from - make a possibility or provide opportunity for - have as a result - put into the care or protection of someone - give by will after one's death
efflorescence of the Forsytes – metaphor their armour Dundreary whiskers – metonymy a piece of china
Birth – berth – homophones Knew – new Air – heir
a)Obscure(Fr) – b)vague(L-Fr) – c)unclear(CGmc) – d)incomprehensible(L) – e)hidden(L-Gk) – f)concealed(OE) – g)unknown(OE) a) not clearly understood or expressed b) lacking clarity or distinctness c) poorly stated or described d) incapable of being explained or accounted for e) difficult to find f) not accessible to view g) not famous or acclaimed Relative synonyms, ideographic, borrowing from other l-s.
Clear - unclear (contradictories, derived) Old – young (contradictories, root)
Date: 2015-12-11; view: 797
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