1. He made them himself at odd moments.
2. He raised himself.
3. He had let himself be fooled by a bait and had been caught.
4. … a day may come when you yourself may want to get a big piece of pork.
Notice the way in which these reflexive pronouns have been used (pronoun + self)
In 1 and 4 the reflexive pronouns “himself” and “yourself” are used to convey emphasis.
In 2 and 3 the reflexive pronoun is used in place of personal pronoun to signal that it refers to the same subject in the sentence.
Pick out other examples of the use of reflexive pronouns from the story and notice how they are used.
Examples |
Usage |
“…would be like throwing himself voluntarily into the lion’s den” |
used in place of personal pronoun to signal that it refers to the same subject in the sentence |
“...except my oldest daughter and myself” |
used in place of personal pronoun to signal that it refers to the same subject in the sentence |
“...he laughed to himself.” |
used in place of personal pronoun to signal that it refers to the same subject in the sentence |
“...better powers of persuasion than he himself” |
used to convey emphasis |
“stretched himself out on the floor” |
used in place of personal pronoun to signal that it refers to the same subject in the sentence |
“He could not bring himself to oppose her.” |
used to convey emphasis |