what does "i was shrined in double retirement." mean?
By 54susan
@54susan (281)
China
November 6, 2009 7:47am CST
i've been reading jane.eyre these days.but,there's a sentence that confused me
in the first chapter."i was shrined in double retirement."
i did google translate,retirement seems to only have a meaning"stopping working".
but here,what does it mean?
can anybody here help me?
thx in advance:)
1 person likes this
1 response
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
6 Nov 09
"Retirement" in the context of that passage means that she felt shut off from the world by being in the breakfast room and with the 'moreen' curtain drawn around her. Moreen is a heavy fabric of wool or wool and cotton, used especially in furnishing.
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
6 Nov 09
In Jane Austen's time 'retirement' more commonly meant being alone or apart from the world. Some people still use the word in that sense (people 'retire to bed', for example) but today it is much more commonly used to describe the end of one's working life.
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
6 Nov 09
I'm not quite sure why she says "double retirement" but I think that the breakfast room was apart from the rest of the house and, with the curtain drawn, she would not have been disturbed by whoever else was in the house. In the next paragraph she goes on to describe the scene a little more.
