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The Lime Kiln
Laughter represents the bonds of common humanity from which Ethan Brand has exiled himself. Since humor is a uniquely human attribute, laugher demonstrates humanity or bonds people together in a shared experience. When the new lime-burner, Bartram, feels frightened because he is alone with Brand, he attempts to hide his fear with a laugh, and Brand responds by calming his fears. Then, the tavern-goers’ laughter mingles their voices together into one grand noise, indicating their closeness with one another. Later, the delighted young people in the crowd laugh at Bartram’s son, Joe, while he makes silly faces that are magnified by the German Jew’s box. Likewise, everyone laughs at the spectacle of the dog chasing its tail.
On the other hand, Brand’s laughter demonstrates his isolation. His laugh, which provokes fear rather than merriment, precedes him to the kiln. When Bartram and Joe hear it, Joe immediately runs to his father for comfort, because such an unhappy laugh seems out of place in the world. Brand’s cold, mirthless laughter scares listeners because it reinforces his isolation from others: he laughs at jokes that no one else finds funny or even understands. Thus, he laughs when he recognizes the irony of searching abroad for a sin that’s in his own heart, and when he sees the dog’s attempt to catch his own tail as a metaphor for this search. Brand’s final laugh—at the moment of his lonely death in the kiln—haunts Bartram and Joe, giving them nightmares instead of merry dreams.
Laughter Quotes in Ethan Brand
The Ethan Brand quotes below all refer to the symbol of Laughter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Ethan Brand
Quotes
Bartram, the lime-burner, a rough, heavy-looking man, begrimed with charcoal, sat watching his kiln at nightfall, while his little son played at building houses with the scattered fragments of marble, when, on the hill-side below them, they heard a roar of laughter, not mirthful, but slow, and even solemn, like a wind shaking the boughs of the forest.
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Laughter, when out of place, mistimed, or bursting forth from a disordered state of feeling, may be the most terrible modulation of the human voice. The laughter of one asleep, even if it be a little child,—the madman’s laugh,—the wild, screaming laugh of a born idiot,—are sounds that we sometimes tremble to hear, and would always willingly forget.
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Laughter Symbol Timeline in Ethan Brand
The timeline below shows where the symbol Laughter appears in Ethan Brand. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Ethan Brand
...his son Joe tend their isolated lime kiln on Mount Graylock, they hear sad, eerie laugher rising up the hill. The sound frightens Joe, so Bartram assures him that it’s coming...
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...for something that was so close to him, Brand breaks into the “same slow, heavy laugh” that Bartram and Joe heard earlier. This extremely unpleasant sound makes the whole mountainside seem...
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When laughter comes from the wrong feelings, at the wrong time, or in the wrong place, it...
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...faster, barking and snarling louder and louder until—exhausted—he stops as suddenly as he started. Everyone laughs and applauds the dog’s performance, crying out for him to encore, although he doesn’t repeat...
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Ethan Brand sits on a log laughing at the dog. However, perhaps because he perceives a similarity between the chase and his...
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At the moment of Ethan Brand’s death, a terrible laughter disturbs the sleeping Bartram and Joe, giving them both nightmares. Even when they wake up...
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