Vole Is Found Not Guilty, Explained：dispose of

What's really going on

The verdict is a victory, and nobody enjoys it less than Wilfrid. He lets the applause wash over while he goes on thinking like a defence barrister: something is still unaccounted for. His line about the banana peel — "We've disposed of the gallows, but there's still that banana peel somewhere, under somebody's foot" — is the film's own warning that the case is not closed. Vole, meanwhile, is a picture of relief, right down to a small grievance about manners: '"Mr Vole." They didn't call me Mr when they charged me.' Even his jokes are about being seen as respectable. The crowd outside blames Christine instead, and Wilfrid only asks to have them cleared away — a hint that he is already thinking past the verdict rather than celebrating it.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• The joke lands because the danger was real minutes ago.
• Being discharged is a formal word for walking free.
• The verdict ends one risk but not every risk.
• Signing a receipt is what finally lets him go.

発音のポイント

• one foot on — Link one, foot and on so they run together.
• ought to — Soften ought to toward oughta in fast speech.
• last of the — Run last of the together; the almost disappears.