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bourgeois sensibilities

 
 
WBYeats
 
Reply Mon 14 Apr, 2014 04:32 am
http://bodhi.name/book/eng/Christie%20-%20Cards%20on%20the%20table.html

Shaitana interrupted him. "But it shocks your bourgeois sensibilities? My dear fellow, you must free yourself from the limitations of the policeman mentality."

Poirot said slowly, "It is true that I have a thoroughly bourgeois attitude to murder."
"But, my dear, why? A stupid bungled butchering business - yes, I agree with you. But murder can be an art! A murderer can be an artist."
"Oh, I admit it."
"Well then?" Mr. Shaitana asked.
"But he is still a murderer'"
"Surely, my dear Monsieur Poirot, to do a thing supremely well is a justification! You want, very unimaginatively, to take every murderer, handcuff him, shut him up, and eventually break his neck for him in the early hours of the morning. In my opinion a really successful murderer should be granted a pension out of the public funds and asked out to dinner!"

Poirot shrugged his shoulders."I am not as insensitive to art in crime as you think. I can admire the perfect murderer; I can also admire a tiger - that splended tawny striped beast. But I will admire him from outside his cage. I will not go inside. That is to say, not unless it is my duty to do so. For you see, Mr. Shaitana, the tiger might spring."

Mr. Shaitana laughed. "I see. And the murderer?"

"Might murder," said Poirot gravely."My dear fellow - what an alarmist you are! Then you will not come to meet my collection of - tigers?"

"On the contrary, I shall be enchanted."
"How brave!"
"You do not quite understand me, Mr. Shaitana. My words were in the nature of a warning. You asked me just now to admit that your idea of a collection of murderers was amusing. I said I could think of another word other than amusing. That word was dangerous. I fancy, Mr. Shaitana, that your hobby might be a dangerous one!"

Mr. Shaitana laughed, a very Mephistophelean laugh. He said, "I may expect you then, on the eighteenth?"
Poirot gave a little bow. "You may expect me on the eighteenth. Mille remerciments."

"I shall arrange a little party," replied Shaitana. "Do not forget. Eight o'clock."
He moved away. Poirot stood a minute or two looking after him.He shook his head slowly and thoughtfully.
=================================
1. From dictionaries:

- (disapproving) interested mainly in possessions and social status and supporting traditional values

Does BOURGEOIS here mean old-fashioned people's feelings? old-fashioned attitude?

2. Shaitana MOVED AWAY. Does it simply mean he WALKED AWAY? Or other connotations?
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 14 Apr, 2014 04:42 am
Bourgeois comes from French, and refers to what we might call the middle class. The term bourgeoisie was used contemptuously by the French aristocracy, before the French revolution, to refer to the class of people who were not either peasants nor members of the nobility. It refers to businessmen, lawyers, successful craftsmen, doctors . . . and unfortunately for the aristocracy, those were the people who won the revolution. The term was then used as a term of contempt for people lacking taste and hide-bound by narrow-minded moral values. Well-educated people tended to use it just as much as members of the aristocracy, and it became an insulting term.

So Shaitana is using the term to imply that Poirot is narrow-minded and rigidly moralistic.

Yes, moved away, is i read it here, just means that Shaitana physically moved away from Poirot.
WBYeats
 
  1  
Reply Wed 16 Apr, 2014 03:03 am
@Setanta,
Thank you~~
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