Duror

Question 1

“Stood Duror, in an icy sweat of hatred, with his gun aimed all the time at the feeble minded hunchback grovelling over the rabbit”

Answer 1

• This introduces how Duror feels towards the cone gatherers. He aims his gun at Calum foreshadowing the events at the end of the novel. The use of language, specifically word choice helps to express his hatred: “icy”, “hunchback”

Question 2

“The wood and always been his stronghold and sanctuary”

Answer 2

• Duror feels a connection to the wood. It’s a safe place for him where he can find comfort, making him more sympathetic.

Question 3

“The sweetness of her youth still haunting admits the great wobbling masses of pallid fat that composed her face added to her grotesqueness”

Answer 3

• This shows that Duror can no longer love his wife as he is disgusted by her as she had been through an accident and she is paralysed and now seated for comfort leading to obesity, bringing sympathy for him as he couldn’t help it.
• This also foreshadows later in the novel as he thinks he killed her, to end the suffering of her imperfection - he would rather she had died than to go through this.

Question 4

… the Germans were putting idiots and cripples to death in gas chambers. Outwardly, as everyone expected, he condemned such barbarity; inwardly… he had profoundly approved.”

Answer 4

• This shows that Duror agrees with Nazi ideology due to his hatred of anything but perfection, showing how corrupt Duror is.

Question 5

Effie’s says that she has never known Duror to “say an indecent or false word”

Answer 5

• This shows that Duror is highly respected within the wood, showing that to Effie and many others, he isn’t a bad man and is instead nice.

Question 6

“He had felt sap, poisoned, flowing out of him into the dark earth”

Answer 6

• This shows that Duror is infecting the world around him, portraying his bad mental state for everyone to see.