Questions 1–3 refer to the passage below.
(SIR PETER:) When an old bachelor marries a young wife,
what is he to expect? ’Tis now six months since Lady
Teazle made me the happiest of men—and I have been
Linethe most miserable dog ever since! We tift a little going
(5)to church and fairly quarrelled before the bells had done
ringing. I was more than once nearly choked with gall
during the honeymoon, and had lost all comfort in life
before my friends had done wishing me joy. Yet I chose
with caution—a girl bred wholly in the country, who
(10)never knew luxury beyond one silk gown, nor dissipation
above the annual gala of a race ball. Yet she now plays
her part in all the extravagant fopperies of fashion and
the town, with as ready a grace as if she never had seen
a bush or a grassplot out of Grosvenor Square!*—I am
(15)sneered at by all my acquaintance and paragraphed in the
newspapers. She dissipates my fortune, and contradicts all
my humors; yet the worst of it is, I doubt I love her, or I
should never bear all this. However, I’ll never be weak
enough to own it.
(1777)
*a fashionable section of London
Select an Answer
You can use the TAB button to navigate through answers, use of the up/down arrows is unavailable here.
In lines 3–4, the phrases “the happiest of men” and “the most miserable dog” are best described as
metaphors characterizing Sir Peter’s conflicted state of mind
allusions to literary characters famed for their good and bad marriages
clichés illustrating the contrast between Sir Peter’s previous hopes and present reality
stock attitudes about marriage based upon popular myth
euphemisms describing Sir Peter’s transition from a devoted bridegroom to an adulterous husband