Dressing table (The Pretext)

Even though it is not described in detail what the “plain prim dressing table” (Lewis, 1968, p. 632) in Mrs. Margaret Ransom’s room looks like it could be similar to the one in the picture. It would match the university setting and the Chippendale chairs in the drawing room. According to the definition of Hornby (2015) a dressing table is “a piece of bedroom furniture like a table with drawers and a mirror on top” (p. 468). Because there is a “mirror above her […] dressing table” (Lewis, 1968, p. 632) the dressing table in the picture is portrayed without a mirror on top. Further it is “plain” and “prim” (Lewis, 1968, p. 632) like in “The Pretext”.

Sources:

Hornby, A. S. (2015). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lewis, R. W. B. (1968). The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.