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Reregistration
Task B - our answer (i)
his proposal was that (if he were there) he would
defenestrate Wagner
'Defenestrate' is a formal, Latinate term, meaning to throw someone out
of a window (cf. the Defenestration of Prague [1618], when the Thirty
Years War was sparked off because two Austrian officials were thrown out
of the windows of Prague castle). Here the formality of 'defenestrate'
and 'his proposal was that' is clearly at odds with Skater's angry threat
to Wagner. Of course it is possible that Skater actually said something
like 'I propose to defenestrate you if you were here'. But given that,
in spite of the fact that he is on the other end of a telephone, 'his
assertive roar' could be heard several desks away from Wagner's, it is
more likely that he used much blunter language, and that the formal language
here is being used to signal Christie's detached and amused attitude to
the considerable upset he has secretly caused. In other words, the 3rd-person
narration is assuming the same viewpoint vas Christie.
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