DOUBLE-DYED
(Augusta Elton) “…My brother and sister will be enchanted with this place. People who have extensive grounds themselves are always pleased with any thing in the same style.”
Emma doubted the truth of this sentiment. She had a great idea that people who had extensive grounds themselves cared very little for the extensive grounds of any body else; but it was not worth while to attack an error so double-dyed,…The Narrator on Emma Woodhouse, Emma, Chapter 32
Double-dyed? Wow! I had to look this one up. It is a pejorative term and means without qualification, an arrant fool, or complete folly. How perfect! With one precise word, Jane Austen has sliced Augusta Elton’s character to the bone. No puffed up padding here!
It has often been said that the novel Emma reads like a mystery, with little clues and plot line twists to support the theory. But to find the clues, one needs either a deeper understanding of the plot and character development or some enlightened sole (the gumshoe variety mind you) to point them out to you. A novice reader might totally miss Austen’s astute choice of the word double-dyed. I did! It took me several chapters to discern that Augusta Elton was the arrant fool that Emma supposes her to be, when all along Austen had laid out the clue at their first meeting.
So, all humility aside, who is the double-dyed fool here?
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What a great word! I’ll have to start using it to insult unsuspecting people. :)
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Hello JaneFan, and thank you for joining in the discussion. Double-dyed is quite an amazing word, and one that I have not seen often, – – but so appropriate! Very clever of you to keep it in your great come-back arsinal! Let me know how it works! Best wishes, Laurel Ann
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