SETTING

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 390.

PLOT STRUCTURE

ANALYSIS

GLOSSARY

NOTES

‘Nemo me impune lacessit.'-‘No one provokes me with impunity'

In pace requiescat! – ‘Rest in piece'

a field azure – poetic synonym for sky

to vow

impunity

retribution

immolation

connoisseurship

imposture

quack

vintage

to encounter

motley

pipe

to pass for

to lose a bargain

to impose upon

to afflict

insufferably

to abscond

cavern

draught

mould

to leer

to repose

arms

serpent rampant

recess

trowel

to recoil

crypt

foulness

lined with

promiscuously

circumscribing

to endeavour

to pry into

at sb's heels

padlock

astounded

to implore

trowel

tier

obstinate

to hearken

fabric

yell

to clamour

to surpass

Identify the components of the plot:

a. Is there an exposition? What is the stylistic function of inversion in the opening sentence of the story? Why does the author use the definite article?

b. At which points do the complication and the climax come?

c. Is there a denoument?

1) Pick out extracts containing information about the time

- What do you know about the period of the year described? What associations is the reader expected to have? What details remind the reader of the feast? What trope renders its atmosphere ? How does it fit the plot of the story?

- At what time of day does the episode take place?What associations do you make with this time? How does this add to the atmosphere in the text?What associations do you make with this time setting?

(calmness; conspiracy; a sense of mystery caused by the darkness; other:__________)

2) Pick out the characteristic details scattered through the text to describe the vaults. What epithets are used? Identify the simile and comment on its associative power.

3) Identify the passage containing an extended description of the second crypt of the catacombs.Which of the senses (sight, smell, hearin) do the images of this description appeal to primarily? Underline words and expressions with the meaning of dimensions. What other aspects of the crypt are emphasized?

4) Which of the following statements are true? You may tick more than one.

The vaults are described :

· in considerable physical detail

· in terms of the reactions it provokes in the narrator and F

· through associations

· through a series of metaphors and similes.

5) What mood is sustained by this setting? What is the symbolic significance of the choice of this setting?