[Vocabulary] bent over/yoke her neck

[sherishine]

THE FIRST TIME she dreamed of him she woke up beside her husband screaming.
In their bedroom she stared down onto the sheet, mouth open. Her husband put his hand on her back.
“Nightmare. Don’t worry.”
“Yes.”
“Shall I get you some water?”
“Yes.”
She wouldn’t move. Wouldn’t lie back into that zone they had been in.
The dream had taken place in this room—his hand on her neck (she touched it now), his anger towards her that she had sensed the first few times she had met him. No, not anger, a lack of interest, irritation at a married woman being among them. They had been bent over like animals, and he had yoked her neck back so she had been unable to breathe within her arousal.


:?:
Does "his hand on her neck" mean that, he was strangling her neck, or just pressed his hand on her neck?

What does "yoked her neck back " mean?

 

[sherishine]

T_T

Oh...why no one replies this thread?

 

[Tdol]

He had constricted her throat so that her breathing was restricted. Yoked means he pulled her neck and head backwards.

People answer questions as and when they come into the forum. Please remember that people here are doing this in their free time.

 

[BobK]

I reckon this is probably right, but it's an odd use of 'yoked'. A yoke pushes down on the back of the neck; the verb 'yoke' usually means 'join with a yoke' as for example when two oxen are yoked. The other possibility is that it's a typo for 'yanked back' - pulled roughly back.

But I suppose it could be 'yoke' just in the sense of 'unwelcome restriction' (most of the Serbs and Croats weren't happy about the creation of 'Yugoslavia' [= (roughly) 'The forcing together of Slavs whether they like it or not'], and going back further in history, people talk about lands conquered by Rome being 'put under the Roman yoke'.

b

 

[sherishine]

Thank you BobO(∩_∩)O~

I really appreciate your detailed explaination. Especially this one "The other possibility is that it's a typo for 'yanked back' - pulled roughly back."
It's a splendid guess.

Michael Ondaatje always has his own words. Sometimes(or most of the times )hard to understand ... :turn-l: I once read a report on him, and I remember he has said that...(I'd better find the original essay...;-))

Here it is ,

How does the private act of writing contrast with the expectation and the publicity of a book tour? Do you enjoy it, is it a pain, or do you just want to get back to your hermit hole?



I’d like to get back (laughs). No, it is difficult, but unfortunately, it’s a reality now. You don’t want to think about what you’re going to have to do in the future when you’re writing a book though. I mean you want to write a public book but you don’t want to think about how Jack or someone else will read it, so you forget the audience when you first write. But when you’re editing, you do think about it, and you realise that to make sense of it you may have to turn things around a bit and bring it out of the water so people will understand it. It’s like lighting a stage properly.

(the above is from this site,
The Hindu : Literary Review / Interview : In the skin of a lion )

I am so glad that he didn't get back to the hermit holeO(∩_∩)O~