top of page
Search
Lex

Desperate Characters: Things of Note


Enter my Desperate Characters: Things of Note, it is just as it sounds, through page 95, if you’d like to go in blind/spoiler free I’d recommend looking away, but you’re welcome to come along if you’d like.


Here, as you will see, I like to turn analyzation into a bit of an art form itself, adding in my own flourishes around the edges of owned text. Sometimes it is akin to poetry, others an interpretation/embellishment of what already is and other times (most of the time) it is an off-the-cuff add-on that isn’t really planned, but rolls off my mind’s tongue and is therefore gobbled and spit and jotted down here in big, haphazard lines-


Things of Note in Desperate Characters by Paula Fox


“ I care about everything,”

said the big gluttonous fool with teeth for claws and big jelly eyes, “In my desperate fashion. It’s desperation that keeps me going…are you desperate?” (Fox, 65)


“I think I’ve got rabies,” she said

“Have a plum pie,” he responded and oh did he laugh and choke on that laugh until it bubbled up and out of his mouth in big chunks of white foam, like that coming out of a bruise, or a hand with a bite from a cat that-


Banalities

ba-nal-i-ty / noun / “the fact or condition of being banal; unoriginality,” (Oxford Languages Definitions)


Espaliered

Es-pal-ierd / (past tense) / “to train (a tree or shrub) to grow flat against a wall,” (“”)


Topiary

to-pi-ar-y / noun / “the art or practice of clipping shrubs or trees into ornamental shapes,” (“”)


“She was always in control…except for one problem…saying hello,” (Fox 66-67)

in which she would flee to the corners and cower and talk to the walls and I am not right here, something is not right here-


Genuflection

JEN-yuh-flekt / verb / “1 a: to bend the knee b: to touch the knee to the floor or ground especially in worship 2: to be humbly obedient or respectful, “(Merriam Webster Definitions)


Truculently

truc-u-lent

“1: aggressively self-assertive: belligerent 2: scathingly harsh: vitriolic truculent criticism 3: feeling or displaying ferocity: cruel, savage,” (Merriam Webster Definitions)


Versailles

A city crouched and seated in North central France, near Paris (vocabulary.com), the capital of Yvelines (dictionary.com), started as a hunting lodge built by Louis XIII in 1623, before growing to become that of a marker of the accomplishments and failures of the King and Queen as the French Revolution turned (History Crunch)


Debauched

de-bauched / adjective / “indulging in or characterized by sensual pleasures to a degree perceived to be morally harmful; dissolute,” (Oxford Languages)


“She had put herself to sleep again, nursing memories of Francis Early, like an old crone with a bit of a rag for a baby,” (Fox 92)

and these rags bite and eat with teeth for edges and claws for fingers, reaching and gnawing on you hands and your wrists and-


“How’s the bite?” “…Better I think… it’s sore, my whole arm is sore, but.. it looks better,” Sophie Bentwood (Fox)

“Can’t you leave room for doubt…,” Sophie to Otto (“”)

Pejorative

Pe-jo-ra-tive / adjective / “expressing contempt or disapproval,” (Oxford Language Definitions) noun / “a word expressing contempt or disapproval,” (“”)


Brassiere

Bras-siere /noun/ “full form of bra” (“”)


The Death Of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy


Fou rire pg. 95 French for “crazy laugh” (as quoted from the article here)


Mullishly -> i.e. stubbornly or without movement towards leniency


Efficacy

Ef-fi-ca-cy / noun / the ability to produce a desired or intended result


Winsome

Win-some / adjective/ attractive or appealing in appearance or character


Ailanthus tree-> the tree of heaven (Oxford Language)


Idolently

In-do-lent / Adjective / “1. Wanting to avoid activity or exertion; lazy 2. Medicinal: (of a disease or condition) causing little or no pain,” (“”)


Languidly

Lan-guid /adjective/ “ 1. (of a person, manner, or gesture) displaying or having a disinclination for physical exertion or effort; slow and relaxed 2. Weak or faint from illness or fatigue,” (“”)


“Staring passively as if waiting for a sign…,” Sophie Bentwood


-and would it crawl up the walls and paint them in pretty hues, or would it smile back in the reflection of the kitchen cutlerly, set nice and neat on the table?


(And everything will be just perfect tonight, dears)


Or would it come on the back of a cat, smoothed and arched and still somewhat flattened- and wasn’t it impossible for a cat to be flat?


But it was flat and it was lying on our dining table and eating our jam and catching at the tablecloth, and that there was a sound that hadn’t been there before and there was a cat that hadn’t been there before and that there is something in my hand and it-


“I think I’ve got rabies,” Sophie Bentwood


Quoted text from Desperate Characters by Paula Fox and Oxford Language Definitions, others as noted otherwise.


Flourishes (not including definitions or the sort) and add-ons are my interpretations and creativity with the text at hand.

Recent Posts

See All

Desperate Characters: An Essay

Paula Fox’s novel Desperate Characters features that of a Sophie Bentwood, in which case in the opening scene of the novel, falls prey to...

Comments


bottom of page