Commentary

1. He was a fine open-faced boy…

This sentence is rich in epithets. The epithet is a word or a group of

* Bon Dieu! (Fr.) – боже мой!

** Jeames and Chawles – cockney forms for James and Charles

*** Vehmgericht (German) – тайное судилище

**** Raggles – a former domestic of the Crawleys, now Rebecca’s landlord

***** that kep him up – that kept him up

words giving an expressive characterization of the object described. Grammatically epithets commonly appear as attributes. They disclose the emotionally coloured individual attitude of the writer towards the person or thing qualified. Thus Thackeray speaks of little Rawdon as ‘a fine open-faced boy’, calls him ‘generous and soft in heart’.

2. … Molly, the cook, who crammed him with ghost stories at night, and with good things from the dinner…

‘Ghost stories’ and ‘good things from the dinner’ are treated by the author as word combinations of the same rank. The parallel use of these word combinations so different in meaning helps the author to create a humorous effect.

3. He was a fine open-faced boy, … fondly attaching himself to all who were good to him – to the pony – to Lord Southdown … - to Molly, the cook, … - to Briggs … and to his father especially…

Note the reverse way in which little Rawdon’s attachments are listed. First comes the pony, then Lord Southdown, who gave him this pony, then Molly, the cook, then Briggs, who actually brought him up, and finally the father. This reverse enumeration helps in creating a humorous effect.

4. Here, as he grew to be about eight years old, his attachments may be said to have ended.

Make note of the use of the Subjective Infinitive Construction. The Perfect Infinitive shows priority of the action expressed by it.

5. It was the little boy’s heart that was bleeding.

A common device to achieve emphasis is to place “it is” or “it was” before the member of the sentence that is to be accentuated. It is usually followed by a clause introduced by “that” or “who”.

6. What mayn’t I hear her singing? Why don’t she ever sing to me…?

The violation of grammar rules that we see here may occur in children’s speech.

7. The cook looked at the housemaid; the housemaid looked knowingly at the footman – the awful kitchen inquisition…

The stylistic device used in this sentence is known as parallelism. It consists in the similarity of the syntactical structure of successive phrases, clauses or sentences. Parallel constructions are often accompanied by the repetition of one or more words. In the sentence analysed these words are “cook” and “housemaid”. The latter word completes the first clause and is repeated at the opening of the second clause. The sameness of the structure and vocabulary accentuated the fact that everyone in the servants’ quarters was drawn into gossip.

Scandal lived in the kitchens as well as in the parlours. According to Thackeray, the servants gossiped about their masters, criticized them and passed their sentence on them. The satirical effect is heightened by juxtaposing the words ‘kitchen’ and ‘inquisition’ so different in the sphere of usage.