English Language & Usage Asked on April 19, 2021
A paragraph from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield:
"…Can I say of her face – altered as I have reason to remember it, perished as I know it is – that it is gone, when here it comes before me at this instant, as distinct as any face that I may choose to look on in a crowded street? Can I say of her innocent and girlish beauty, that it faded, and was no more, when its breath falls on my cheek now, as it fell that night? Can I say she ever changed, when my remembrance brings her back to life, thus only; and, truer to its loving youth than I have been, or man ever is, still holds fast what it cherished then? "
It is a rhetorical question that needs no answer. All your examples fit the pattern of:
Can I admit A to be true, when all my feelings point to its not being true?
This means that despite A being factually true, I feel and wish the opposite to be true.
Can I say she is dead, when my memories of her are so vivid?
Answered by Anton on April 19, 2021
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