Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Here Burnett explains, with gentle irony, the source of Ermengarde's misery: a brilliant father whose gifts become a burden to a slow child. The mock-solemn logic, 'If you have a father who knows everything... he frequently expects you to be familiar with the contents of your lesson-books at least,' lets the reader feel both the comedy and the cruelty of Ermengarde's situation. The long, branching sentence, with its piled clauses and its semicolon, imitates the weight of expectation pressing on her. Copying this passage lets a student study how an author can use irony and elaborate syntax to win sympathy for a character the world dismisses.
Miss St. John’s chief trouble in life was that she had a clever father. Sometimes this seemed to her a dreadful calamity. If you have a father who knows everything, who speaks seven or eight languages...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize Chapter 3, then explain what Burnett most wants the reader to notice about Sara. What choices in the chapter help create that impression?
Discussion Questions
- How does Burnett's ironic tone shape the way we see Ermengarde, and why? Point to the moments in the chapter that show it.
- Burnett recalls Captain Crewe's image of Sara riding out 'with her sword drawn' just before Sara reaches out to Ermengarde. Why place that image here, and what does it help us see about Sara's response in this scene? Use the chapter's details to explain.
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary
Item 1
A person one knows slightly; the early stage of knowing someone.
Item 2
Disagreeing with or opposite to one another.
Item 3
Lucky; favored by good circumstances.
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 6 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free