Literary+Elements+&+Vocab

Vocabulary
 * 1) Hoar – white with frost
 * 2) “They were plainly, but not ill clad, through the thick hoar of dust which had accumulated on their shoes and garments from an obviously long journey lent a disadvantageous shabbiness to their appearance just now.”
 * 3) Pg. 1
 * 4) Phlegmatically – having or showing a slow and stolid temperament
 * 5) “On Elizabeth-Jane’s arrival she had been phlegmatically asked by an elder woman to go upstairs and take off her things.”
 * 6) Pg. 108
 * 7) Penuriousness – marked by or suffering from poverty
 * 8) “He pointed at himself and family with a wave of the hand intended to bring out the penuriousness of the exhibition.”
 * 9) Pg. 5
 * 10) Wanton – immoral
 * 11) “‘When you take away from among us the fools and the rogues, and the lammigers, and the wanton hussies, and the slatterns, and such-like there’s cust few left to ornament as song with in Casterbridge, of the country round.’”
 * 12) Pg. 37
 * 13) Enervated – to reduce the mental or moral vigor of
 * 14) “Henchard’s visits here grew so frequent and so regular that it soon became whispered, and then openly discussed, in Casterbridge that the masterful, coercive Mayor of the town was raptured and enervated by the genteel widow Mrs. Newson.”
 * 15) Pg. 59
 * 16) Piquancy – **:** agreeably stimulating to the palate; // especially: // spicy
 * 17) “His well-known haughty indifference to the society of womankind, his silent avoidance of converse with the sex, contributed a piquancy to that would otherwise have been an unromantic matter enough.
 * 18) Pg. 59
 * 19) Demure – Reserved, Modest
 * 20) “Farfrae was footing a quaint little dance with Elizabeth-Jane–an old country thing, the only one she knew, and though he considerately toned down his movements to suit her demurer gait, the pattern of the shining little nails in the soles of his boots became familiar to the eyes of every bystander.”
 * 21) Pg. 77
 * 22) Trowel – a scoop-shaped or flat-bladed garden tool for taking up and setting small plants
 * 23) “It had, in the first place, the characteristics of a country mansion–birds’ nests in its chimneys, damp nooks where fungi grew, and irregularities of surface from Nature’s trowel.”
 * 24) Pg. 100
 * 25) Flexuous – lithe or fluid in action or movement
 * 26) “Miss Templeman deposited herself on the sofa in her former flexuous position, and throwing her arm above her brow–somewhat in the pose of a well-known conception of Titan’s–talked up at Elizabeth-Jane invertedly across her forehead and arm.”
 * 27) Pg.109
 * 28) Unpropitious – unfavorable
 * 29) “The way to his house was crooked and miry–even difficult in the present unpropitious season.”
 * 30) Pg. 134
 * 31) Alacrity – Speed or quickness
 * 32) “… and their shoulders against door-posts; while there was a curious alacrity in the turn of each honest woman’s head upon her neck and in the twirl of her honest eyes, at any noise resembling a masculine footfall along the lane.
 * 33) Pg. 185
 * 34) Adumbrating – overshadow, obscure
 * 35) “‘Ah–well you may ask that!’ said Henchard, the new-moon-shaped grin adumbrating itself again upon his mouth.”
 * 36) Pg.178
 * 37) Inexorable – not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped ** : relentless **
 * 38) “He had some business with them and, thought he entreated her to wait a few minutes, she was inexorable, and tripped off homeward alone.”
 * 39) Pg. 142
 * 40) Rectitude – the quality or state of being correct in judgment or procedure
 * 41) “Stubberd, with a suppressed gaze of victorious rectitude at the old woman, continued…”
 * 42) Pg. 145
 * 43) Peremptory – putting an end to or precluding a right of action, debate, or delay
 * 44) “Mrs. Stannidge thereupon said with a considerate peremptoriness that she and her mother had better take their suppers if they mean to have any.”
 * 45) Pg. 32

Literary Elements Back to Homepage
 * 1) Allusion- Use of Roman Gods (Jove, Aphrodite, and Minerva)
 * 2) Metaphor- Bird in the furmity tent
 * 3) Dialogue- This moves the book forward and displays many details not previously revealed to the reader and sets in motion other plot events (Henchard asks if anyone would like to buy his wife)
 * 4) Foil- Farfrae foils Henchard
 * 5) Foreshadowing- Example: Comments in the furmity tent suggested that Henchard would actually sell his wife in his drunken state.
 * 6) Irony- Henchard builds a business out of nothing and reunites with his family after twenty years only for his business to get destroyed by competition and his family to die or leave him.
 * 7) Point of View- Observations of characters wand occasionally omniscient text from the narrator
 * 8) Tragedy- The story ends with Henchard dying alone.
 * 9) Theme- The importance of having character. Despite not showing character in his ‘war’ against Farfrae, Henchard insists on suffering alone for his sins.
 * 10) Symbols- The collision of Henchard’s and Farfrae’s wagons signified a collision of two men, one of tradition and one of innovation.