Aloofness

Aloofness

Bartleby

refuses to associate with others or even to mingle with other employees. [Am. Lit.: Melville Bartleby the Scrivener]

Chapin, Joseph

successful attorney blinded by his emotional coldness and his need for propriety and respectability. [Am. Lit.: John O’Hara Ten North Frederick in Benét, 732]

de Coverly, Major

so aloof that nobody dares to ask him his first name. [Am. Lit.: Catch-22]

Gatsby, Jay

enigmatic and aloof from intimacy; addressed others as “old sport.” [Am. Lit.: The Great Gatsby]

Hatteras, Captain

paranoid sea captain remains incognito for half a voyage. [Fr. Lit.: Captain Hatteras]

Havisham, Miss

eccentric lady who resents men; maintains a detached attitude toward Pip. [Br. Lit.: Great Expectations]

Miriam

mysteriously reluctant to reveal her past. [Am. Lit.: The Marble Faun]

Morgan, Captain

officious officer; will not talk with enlisted men. [Am. Lit.: Mister Roberts, Magill I, 605–607]

Trot, Dame

“not troubled with other folks’ strife.” [Nurs. Rhyme: Mother Goose, 13]

Winterbourne

distant from even his own feelings about Daisy. [Am. Lit.: Daisy Miller]

Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.