Humpty Dumpty as an Allusion:
Irreparable Damage
Humpty Dumpty, an imaginary egg character who falls from a wall and shatters his shell into hopeless pieces, provides an allusion to irreparable damage. In the children’s nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty’s fall is declared unfixable,” All the King’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty back together again”. Tender Is the Night uses this allusion stating,” It would be hundreds of years before any emergent Amazons would ever grasp the fact that a man is not only vulnerable in his pride, but delicate as Humpty Dumpty once that is meddled with.” Man’s vulnerability in his pride is compared to the delicate shell of an egg, which was the embodiment of Humpty Dumpty. The book implies the consequences of meddling with a man’s pride would not only be detrimental, but cause irreparable damage in the same way Humpty Dumpty’s shell was irreparably shattered.
Works Cited:
Denslow’s Humpty Dumpty, 1904
Fitzgerald, Scott, Tender Is the Night, 1934
Delahunty, Andrew, Sheila Dignen and Penny Stock. “Humpty Dumpty” The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
Irreparable Damage
Humpty Dumpty, an imaginary egg character who falls from a wall and shatters his shell into hopeless pieces, provides an allusion to irreparable damage. In the children’s nursery rhyme, Humpty Dumpty’s fall is declared unfixable,” All the King’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty back together again”. Tender Is the Night uses this allusion stating,” It would be hundreds of years before any emergent Amazons would ever grasp the fact that a man is not only vulnerable in his pride, but delicate as Humpty Dumpty once that is meddled with.” Man’s vulnerability in his pride is compared to the delicate shell of an egg, which was the embodiment of Humpty Dumpty. The book implies the consequences of meddling with a man’s pride would not only be detrimental, but cause irreparable damage in the same way Humpty Dumpty’s shell was irreparably shattered.
Works Cited:
Denslow’s Humpty Dumpty, 1904
Fitzgerald, Scott, Tender Is the Night, 1934
Delahunty, Andrew, Sheila Dignen and Penny Stock. “Humpty Dumpty” The Oxford Dictionary of Allusions. New York: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
RSS Feed