vocab pt.2 Flashcards
undistinguished
(adj) common; nothing special (23)
pretense
(n) pretending or feigning; make-believe; a false show of something (24)
“All pretenses but living itself have long since vanished from the very atmosphere of this room.” (24).
exasperated
(adj) irritated; provoked; irked (28)
viciously
(adv) with violence or fury (29)
sullen
(adj) showing irritation or ill humor by a cgloomy silence or reserve (29)
“Ruth: ‘get carefareand milk money–(waving one finger)–and not a single penny for no caps, you hear me’ Travis: (with sullen politeness) ‘yes’m…’ “
vindicated
(v) cleared of accusation, blame, or doubt (30)
“ (the boy finally turns around and rolls his eyes at her knowing the mood has changed and he is vindicated; he does not, however, move towards her yet)…” (30).
proposition
(n) a suggested plan (33)
vengeance
(n) revenge (35)
tentatively
(adv) uncertainly (44)
furtively
(adv) stealthily; in a way that hides motive (44)
RUTH: “(Studying her mother-in-law furtively and concentrating on her ironing, anxious to encourage without seeming to)”
futile
(adj) useless (45)
MAMA: “ But Lord, child, you should know all the dreams I had ’bout buying that house and fixing it up and making me a little garden in the back—(She waits and stops smiling) And didn’t none of it happen. (Dropping her hands in a futile gesture)”
tyrant
(n) dictator; harsh ruler (52)
forlornly
(adv) pitifully; desperately; hopelessly (57)
“(RUTH comes in forlornly and pulls off her coat with dejection. They both turn to look at her)” (they: mama, and beneatha)
mutilated
(adj) maimed; damaged (61)
assimilationism
(n) belief that minority cultures should be absorbed into a dominant culture (63)
insinuatingly
(adv) with more meaning than is spoken; implied (66)
MAMA ”…Lord, that’s a pretty thing just went out here! (Insinuatingly, to her daughter) Yes, I guess I see why we done commence to get so interested in Africa ’round here.”
haphazardly
(adv) carelessly (66)
arrogant
(adj) proud; haughty (76)
eccentric
(adj) deviating from the norm; strange (80)
GEORGE “Oh, don’t be so proud of yourself, Bennie—just because you look eccentric. BENEATHA How can something that’s natural be eccentric?”
oppressive
(adj) tyrannical (81)
BENEATHA: “ It means someone who is willing to give up his own culture and submerge himself completely in the dominant, and in this case oppressive culture!”
cliché
(n) trite or overused expression or idea (82)
plaintively
(adv) sorrowfully; pathetically (86)
“RUTH (Plaintively) Walter Lee—why don’t we just try to talk about it …”
menacingly
(adv) threateningly (90)
“(MAMA clamps her lips together, and RUTH advances toward her son menacingly)”
exuberant
(adj) marked by unrestrained enthusiasm (93)
“—(And she builds with momentum as she starts to circle the room with an exuberant, almost tearfully happy release”
presumably
(adv) probably; reasonably supposed (96)
“At rise: Packing crates mark the intention of the family to move. BENEATHA and GEORGE come in, presumably from an evening out again.”
rebuff
(n) blunt refusal (96)
“(He starts to kiss her, she rebuffs him again and he jumps up)”
revelation
(n) new information (91, 105)
“RUTH She said Mr. Arnold has had to take a cab for three days … Walter, you ain’t been to work for three days! (This is a revelation to her) Where you been, Walter Lee Younger?…”
amiably
(adv) good-naturedly (114)
ludicrous
(adj) ridiculous (124)
ominous
(adj) menacing; threatening “still surrounded by the now almost ominous packing crates” (131).
plunder
(v) to rob; to loot “just plain idiots who will come into power and steal and plunder the same as before” (134).
wrought
(v) shaped; made “Yes—just look at what the New World hath wrought” (137).
monologue
(n) long speech by one person
eccentricity
(n) quality of being strange or unusual in behavior “BENEATHA ignores the eccentricity of his actions” (138).
epitaph
(n) inscription on a tombstone “You done wrote his epitaph too” (145).
