All 4 Uses of
ordeal
in
Gone with the Wind
- Melanie and Charles, who were on excellent terms with their uncle, had frequently offered to relieve her of this ordeal, but Pitty always set her babyish mouth firmly and refused.†
Chpt 2.8ordeal = very difficult or painful experience
- Scarlett breathed more easily knowing that experienced hands were near, but she nevertheless yearned to have the ordeal over and done with.†
Chpt 3.19 *
- She should go up and sit with Melanie and distract her mind from her coming ordeal but she did not feel equal to it.†
Chpt 3.21
- But inwardly they felt that running an Indian gantlet would be infinitely preferable to suffering the ordeal of Yankee grins and not being able to tell the truth about their husbands.†
Chpt 4.46
Definitions:
-
(1)
(ordeal) a very difficult or painful experience
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Much more rarely, ordeal can refer to a primitive method of determining a person's guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to dangerous or painful tests believed to be under divine control. Escape or survival was usually taken as a sign of innocence.