Tuesday, September 27, 2016

negation - "No more than" — comparing two clauses


I came across this sentence today:



Even she, who believed herself to be a revolutionary, could no more have broken her marital bangles than she could have driven a stake through her husband's heart.



I understand the meaning of this sentence. Here in this sentence two things are being compared. Both are negative sentences. The first sentence is no more than the second sentence. Ultimately resulting in that both the sentences are not true.


But I wonder:




  1. The second part, the one the first one is being compared to — "she could have driven a stake through her husband's heart." —, has no negative, yet how does it mean something negative?

  2. How do both the first and the second part tell that both are impossible to her?




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