Katherine Mansfield,A Dill Pickle,Objectives,1. Understand the story: theme rhetorical question 4.Writing: learn to describe a scene or object with accuracy: verbs.,What’s the text about? How do you like the story? What’s the hero’s name? If you were the heroine, would you leave the man? What is your definition of love? How do you understand the title --- the Dill Pickle?,Questions,Who: Vera and her ex-lover (his name was never told) When: 6 years after their separation Where: in a restaurant What: They recalled their previous days Why: How: use flashbacks to reconstruct the whole story,Plot,It is about a young man and a young woman, who had been lovers, met each other after six years of separation. As they sat and reminisced, we understand what had happened six years ago that led to the end of their relationship. Now, six years later, they had the opportunity to renew their relationship, but somehow they separated again.,Plot,Theme of the story,A love story: about the relationship between lovers Question: What do you know about these two characters? Can you give a character sketch for each of them based on the information scattered in the text.,Character Analysis,Vera Questions for thinking: How did Vera feel when she saw her former lover? Was she still attached to him? Why did Vera break up with the man six years earlier? Do you think Vera left the man again for the same reasons as the first time? What indeed did Vera want? Why had she been so lonely? Was it because, as the man said, she was an egoist?,Vera 5. What does the “strange beast” stand for? Why does the author describe it as a “strange beast”? Is this image conventionally associated with women? 6. How do you understand that Vera was “born out of her time”?,Character Analysis,The man Questions for thinking: What is the man’s name? Why isn’t he given a name? Was the man still in love with Vera? If not, why did he seem so happy talking to her and ask her to stay? Why did he “let it go at that” when Vera told him she had sold her piano? In what tone did he mention the break-up letter? Do you think he really understood now what Vera had written about him? Do you agree with what the man said about Vera? Did he understand her to some extent?,Character Analysis,Character Analysis,The woman: sensitive; lonely; physically weak/financially difficult; spiritually alive and strong; cherishing the memory very much; easily moved; The man: egotistical; self-conscious; self-involved; self-engrossed; insensitive to others’ feelings; stingy,Examples for the woman’s character: 1.I don’t feel very well. I can’t bear this weather. Loathe it(cold). 2. …and of how it(the trick of interrupting her) used to exasperate her six years ago. 3. But now, as he spoke, the memory faded. His was the truer. (Her memory became weaker and weaker, while his memory , the memory of the wonderful time they had at Kew Gardens, was the truer.) 4. No, I’ve no piano. Sold. Ages ago. 5. “ The dog was called Bosun,” “What dog? Had you a dog?” 6. But as she watched him draw her glove through his fingers, gentle, gently, her anger really did die down./she lifted her head as though she drank something. 7. “ Just the same. I am as alone as ever.”,Character Analysis,Examples for the man’s egoism,“She smiled, he frowned.” He was used to interrupting her. Although the woman obviously had a hard time in the past six years, he paid no attention to her plight, just talking about (boasting) himself and his travels. Are you still so fond of perfumes? Ah, when I was in Russia…/ “He let it go at that.” The difficult finance of Vera seems to have nothing to do with him. “I couldn’t help laughing as I read it.” The letter she sent him six years ago: He trivializes the letter, and by doing this, also trivializes their relationship. He claimed that they are both egotistical and self-engrossed, but the fact is that it was he alone who has the problem. “But the cream has not been touched,” he said. “Please do not charge me for it.” (Stingy, mean, a niggard),Character Analysis,Detailed Analysis,1.Para 1: “And then, after six years, she saw him again.” Question: What can you infer from this sentence? 1) They must have known each other before. 2) For some unknown reason, they had not seen each for 6 years. 2. Para 2: “ He didn’t know her. She smiled, he frowned…in a dark room” Question: Why “smile”? Why “frown”? Why “closed his eyes”? (She smiled because she was very glad to see her old friend. He frowned because he could not recognize her. That he closed his eyes implied he was searching his memory.),Lesson 9 – A Dill Pickle,,The woman:,What she says: She hesitated, but of course she meant to “Yes, I'd like some coffee.“,What she is feeling: After all these years I'd love to speak to him.,The man:,What he says: Really for the moment I didn't know you.,How the reader judges it: What a hurtful thing to say: He couldn't recognize her after only 6 years.,,,Try to describe their feelings when they talked.,Detailed A。