When I was reading:
A ferryman of the underworld tests the soul of a dead king to see if he can count to ten.
For a moment, I thought: "who are 'he'? The king or his soul?"
then I keep on reading a little further:
The dead soul's answer takes the form of a poem in which the ten fingers are listed in their order.
and I got clarification.
But what if it'd have been a dead queen? Must one say:
"... to see if she can count to ten?"
Answer
Well, when talking about royalty, a queen is a female ruler, so yes, using a female pronoun would be appropriate.
Regarding your initial confusion about what 'he' referenced, keep in mind that if you take a soul to be the essence of a person, then in a metaphysical sense the king is his soul. In the context of the passage you've highlighted, it doesn't matter that there is no longer a body housing him; the king still exists as an entity and can therefore be referred to by his pre-established gender.
No comments:
Post a Comment