Skewered through and through with office-pens, and bound hand and foot with red tape.
Interpretation
This quote humorously illustrates the overwhelming bureaucracy of office life.
Charles Dickens paints a vivid picture of the constraints and frustrations of work life through this quote. The imagery of being 'skewered' by office pens and bound by 'red tape' symbolizes the ways in which mundane office supplies and bureaucratic regulations can trap and hinder employees, suggesting a critique of the modern working environment where creativity and freedom are stifled by routine and red tape.
In practice
During a corporate presentation on company policy, one might use this quote to illustrate the burdens of bureaucracy.
I recollected one story there was in the village, how that on a certain night in the year (it might be that very night for anything I knew), all the dead people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of their own graves till morning.
A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away-the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us-is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.
You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,” said Miss Pross, in her breathing. “Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.
Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.
Comedy is learning to be funny, and you learn to be funny in small rooms with young audiences.
The only rules comedy can tolerate are those of taste, and the only limitations those of libel.
It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.
I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.
The gentle reader will never, never know what a consummate ass he can become until he goes abroad.
Clarinets, like lawyers, have cases, mouthpieces, and they need a constant supply of hot air in order to function.
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