Dialect / Romance Time Period

" I may receive your letters on some occasions when I need them most to support my spirits. I love you very tenderly. Remember me with affection, should you never hear from me again. Your affectionate brother, Robert Walton " (pg. 21) From this passage, one might believe that Robert and the one he is addressing the letter to are in a relationship. In out world today, this is the way we would speak to a significant other. Here Robert is speaking to his sister so we know that this is surely not true. I believe that the author is writing with the language of her time. People actually spoke like this to their family members out of respect and love. Our world has changed and the average person who might read this nowadays would probably be a little creeped out. This book was written in the romantic period of time so I would expect a language sounding like this one. Throughout the book this fluid language sets the time of the story and gives the story character. Seeing sentences arranged in this beautiful style often help me, as the reader, actually hear the words as they are being said.

Tromper? Tight? Chaps?

"Couldn't we just live together, Brett? Couldn't we just live together?" - Jake
" I don't think so, I'd just tromper you with everybody. You couldn't stand it" - Brett (pg. 62)

With small exchange between Jake and Lady Brett I want to bring up two points. First of all, Lady Brett's first impression held to be true. Let us just say that she is a woman with needs and she isn't afraid to show it. Jake truly loves her (like many other men) and I do believe she has feelings for him (like she also does for many other men), but she cannot be with him because he is incapable of meeting her needs. I guess Brett never understood the saying, "What is on the inside counts most." Actually, she probably just chose to let it go in one ear and out the other.

The other point I wanted to bring up is that in the book, Hemingway does a nice job of including dialect. The reader might not know what the word means, but after recognizing it through out the book and using comtext clues, one can infer what it means. By using this dialect, he completes the characters French qualities. It also created an accent almost for the charaters in my head.

Tight - being drunk
Chaps - gentlemen
Flat - house, where one lives
Tromper - french for "to commit adultery"